Project Overview
Walking the Trail | Denver Park
“The sculptures depict colorful friezes as walking figures in a semi-abstract manner, announcing the presence of the park’s walking trails and inviting visitors to enjoy them.”
Walking the Trail is a two-sculpture series in Frayser's Denver Park designed, fabricated, and installed by Brooklyn-based artist Howard Kalish. The sculptures depict colorful friezes as walking figures in a semi-abstract manner, announcing the presence of the park's walking trails and inviting visitors to enjoy them. Each sculpture is constructed of painted flat steel and installed on a concrete base.
This project was commissioned by the City of Memphis alongside the UrbanArt Commission as part of a larger effort to renovate and reinvigorate Denver Park. In 2012, Memphis police formed a community outreach program called COP, transforming the 14 acres of land into a zero-tolerance zone while working closely with the Denver Park Neighborhood Association. In late 2015, Howard Kalish was selected to contribute a site-specific art element to the newly renovated park. The sculptures were installed on Saturday, October 15th, 2016.
About the Artist
Howard Kalish
Kalish is based in Brooklyn, NY and has been making public art for the last twenty years in addition exhibiting in art galleries. His approach to public art projects is to place his work in a context, visually with its surroundings and in spirit with the community. He has worked with architects, public officials, and members of the community to create exciting public art works which were enthusiastically received, such as those recently completed for the state capitol in Baton Rouge, LA, Florida International University in Miami, FL, the city of Palm Desert, CA, the city of Rockville, MD, and the Jupiter campus of Florida Atlantic University. His experience enables him to deal with the constraints of the site, budget, and schedule to create a design which is integrated with its surroundings and which will interact with the public to enhance their experience of the place.
Most of his sculptures are open: they can be seen through, and the juxtaposition of forms and colors against each other, and the background, is dynamic and ever-changing as one walks around them. In his work, he explores and express in visual terms connections, many parts making a whole—though the whole, the finished work, while complete, always conveys a sense of further possibilities.
