Even though New York has started reopening after more than 100 days of quarantine, many of the city’s art spaces remain closed. In the spring, the Public Art Fund invited 50 local artists to create works in direct response to Covid-19 for a massive outdoor group exhibition, called “Art on the Grid,” that will appear on more than 500 bus shelters and screens of LinkNYC kiosks across the city this summer.

As the show developed, however, the parallel epidemic of systemic racism and police brutality came into sharp and painful focus as protests swept the nation following the death of George Floyd. Many of the 50 participating artists, which include Nina Chanel Abney, Elliott Jerome Brown Jr, and Salman Toor, have created works that respond to these crises. They center around themes such as healing and loss, community and isolation, intimacy and solitude, and striving for a more equitable future.

“The broad framework is about reconnection and renewal as something that we were, in a sense, all yearning for,” says Nicholas Baume, Public Art Fund’s director and chief curator. “The outdoors has been a relatively safe respite within the limits of social distancing. We realized that we had a unique responsibility and opportunity to help restore the cultural landscape of the city.” The exhibition is expected to be one of the biggest shows ever mounted by the Public Art Fund and will open in two phases: 10 artworks were unveiled at 100 locations yesterday, with the other 40 pieces debuting at 400 locations on July 27. Baume aims for the show to offer an inkling of hope during turbulent times: “I think it’s going to be an amazing gift for the city.”

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Marc Miller, an assistant professor at Penn State, spoke to the students at Stuart Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania as part of the Surface Summer School lecture series. The students are in the midst of a competition to design a mobile Covid-19 testing unit.

Miller compelled the students to think about the cultural value that communities assign objects. “Potential for them to be very valuable artifacts of a short time or be very valuable pieces of social fabric for a much longer time to the point they become permanent,” he said. “Imaginative components are important in developing a relationship with the people around them and constructing memories not just around the piece of architecture but around the place in general.”

The narrative, he emphasized, is essential to how the testing units will interact with people over time, especially if they become neglected and ultimately serve as memorials. He reminded students that the demographic makeup of people today doesn’t reflect the demographic speculations of 30 years from now. “Your architecture doesn’t have to be static,” he said. “Tell stories to people in the future.”

No technical challenge is too great for James Dieter, a Brooklyn lighting designer who launched his namesake studio with tetrahedron-inspired systems that reveal the striking beauty of complex geometries. His collection has since expanded into sculptural hand-cast porcelain fixtures that sit at the nexus between art and engineering, meditating on his innate desire for material and mechanical exploration.

Gandia Blasco is an outdoor and indoor furniture and spaces company that focuses on culture, innovation, and creativity by fostering a dialogue between designers from different cultures.

Surface Says: We have deep respect for Gandia Blasco for staying true to tradition while forging into new territory. From its early work to recent collaborations with notable designers, like Patricia Urquiola, the brand has not only built a furniture empire, but cultivated a lifestyle.

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