Acclaimed Boston Artist Selected to Design Richmond Oval Public Artwork
1 May 2007
Internationally-acclaimed Boston artist Janet Echelman has been selected to design an artwork combining a Water Works feature and Pedestrian Bridge as one of several public art initiatives proposed at the Richmond Oval.
Chosen from an impressive group of international candidates, Echelman will develop a concept proposal integrating artwork and function with landscape to be presented to Richmond City Council in upcoming months, with construction to coincide with completion of the Richmond Oval.
The artwork will be a focal point on the east side of the Richmond Oval marking a key entry and passage through this new civic park. The Water Works will be a collection area for storm water and, together with the Pedestrian Bridge, will become a dramatic, playful and engaging water feature. Combined funding of $1.2 million for the project was included in the first phase allocation for the Oval Precinct and Surrounding Area Public Art Plan approved by Council in May, 2006.
Echelman builds sculptural works that respond to environmental forces like wind and water. “For each of my sculpture sites, I consider the visual language and materials of the place, the historical ways of making things, and the current way that people move through the space. I strive to create living, breathing pieces that respond to and act in unison with the physical environment.”
Her recent commissions include an award-winning $1.6 million (USD) waterfront wind sculpture in Porto, Portugal, and a September 11th Memorial for Hoboken, NJ. Her previous work includes solo exhibitions of painting, prints, and sculpture in museums and public spaces in Venice, Madrid, Rotterdam, Vilnius, Bombay, Jakarta, Hong Kong, Kyoto, Miami, Houston, and New York.
Echelman teaches Public Art at New School University in NYC, and previously taught at Harvard University Graduate School of Design. She is a recipient of a Fulbright Senior Lectureship, Japan Foundation Fellowship, Rotary International Fellowship, residencies at the Bogliasco Foundation, Fundacion Valparaiso and Art OMI, and artist grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. She graduated from Harvard College, Harvard University, with Highest Honours in Visual and Environmental Studies, and received a Masters of Fine Arts from Bard College. Her work in Porto was honoured by the Public Art Network as one of the highlights of the 2004 Year in Review. In 2005, she was elected to the National Council of the Public Art Network through 2008.
An in-depth, international invitational selection process led to the unanimous choice of Echelman from among 20 artists who initially showed strong interest in the project. The five-person Selection Panel included Governor General Award-winning artist Liz Magor, whose works of art for public spaces feature in the False Creek and Coal Harbour areas of Vancouver; internationally renowned artist Ken Lum, who has presented public projects in Vienna and Vancouver; Keith Wallace, Associate Director of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at UBC, curator of many acclaimed exhibitions of international artists and editor of Yishu magazine; and Kathleen Beaumont, Chair of the Richmond Oval Building Committee. Their knowledge of high profile contemporary art and the site joined with the expertise of Chris Phillips, of Phillips, Farevaag, Smallenberg Landscape Architects. Members of the Richmond Public Art Commission also participated as observers to the process.
The selection panel also made use of three international advisors: Michaela Crimmins, Head of Arts, Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), London; Yuko Hasegawa, Chief Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, and Felicity Fenner, Curator of the Ivan Dougherty Gallery, University of New South Wales.
Opening in the fall of 2008, the Richmond Oval will be home to the long track speed skating competition for the 2010 Olympic winter Games. Post-Games, the Oval will become a multipurpose international centre of excellence for sport and wellness, providing a wide variety of community, sport and recreation, health and wellness and cultural programming and events.
