Anthony Fuentes is pointing out something near the water, maybe the pair of glass-sculpted legs poking out from underneath the enormous wall of green and purple foliage. “I’ve never seen anything like this in the 25 years I’ve worked here,” says the security officer, after taking another look at the installation.
There have been many other art shows at the New York Botanical Garden—including an exhibition in 2021 with works by Yayoi Kusama installed across the buildings and lawns—but nothing quite like this one. The tableau is part of a larger plant and flower-filled installation that Ebony G. Patterson created for the conservatory at the Botanical Garden. Her exhibition, “…things come to thrive…in the shedding…in the molting…,” continues in the garden library with a collection of recent pieces ranging from works on paper to a large, freestanding fabric sculpture inside the rotunda.
