The Bronx River Art Center (BRAC) and the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT), through its Urban Art Program's Arterventions initiative, are pleased to unveil a new, temporary public art sculpture by New York City-based artist Gabriela Salazar. Salazar's sculpture For Closure (Outdoors, the Bronx) will be on view for seven months at the center of West Farms Square Plaza—located at the base of the West Farms Square/East Tremont Avenue subway station, on the corner of East Tremont Avenue and Boston Road in the Bronx, one block away from the Bronx River Art Center.

This partnership between BRAC and DOT echoes the agency's commitment to enhancing the public realm, creating world-class public spaces, and strengthening community partnerships. The sculpture's location was previously identified by the Urban Art Program as a priority site for temporary public art, due to its proximity to mass transit and the area's commercial corridor, as well as the support from the local community for beautification initiatives.

Through a Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation's Arts & Enterprise Place-Based Revitalization Grant, BRAC launched the West Farms Square Renewal Committee, a consortium of local businesses and organizations to renew the public spaces that make up West Farms Square. Thanks to continued support from Deutsche Bank, Salazar's For Closure (Outdoors, the Bronx) will be part of Virtual / Monumental, a BRAC initiative connecting several public art projects in the West Farms Neighborhood through a network of QR codes and interactive tours.

For Closure (Outdoors, the Bronx) is the second in a series of sculptures that draws attention to the crisis in the housing sector. Its predecessor was installed in Providence, Rhode Island in 2009. The structure is a four-story house of cards assembled from locally salvaged doors. The thin sheet of the door stands in as shorthand for the house, the home, and the occupant, with For Closure enacting the fallibility of our sense of safety, security, and permanence.

About the Artist:

Gabriela Salazar (b. New York City 1981) is an artist and writer living and working in Brooklyn and the Bronx, NY. Engaging architecture, text, sculpture, and drawing, her work concerns her and our relationships and associations with the constructed environment. Salazar received her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2009, a BA from Yale University in 2003, and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in 2011. Her work has been included in group shows across the country, including East | West Artist Exchange (Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle), Geography of Imagination (Adams House, New York), A Varied Terrain (Gelman Gallery, RISD Museum, Providence), and the 2010 solo installation Robert Moses, He Knows Us (flatbreadaffair, Brooklyn, NY). Her essay, "Another One Bites the Dust!", was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Contemporary Aesthetics in October 2010. Salazar won an Award of Excellence in both of her years at RISD, and has been in residence at the Vermont Studio Center, the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, the MacDowell Colony, and, late this summer, Yaddo. For more information, please visit www.gabrielasalazar.com.

NYC DOT Urban Art Program:

The New York City Department of Transportation launched the Urban Art Program in October 2008 to invigorate the City's streetscapes with engaging temporary art installations. The Program partners with community organizations and artists to present murals, sculptures, projections, and performances on public property such as plazas, fences, barriers, footbridges, and sidewalks. Visit www.nyc.gov/urbanart for more info.

This project is made possible with support from the NYC Department of Transportation, Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation's Arts and Enterprise Place-Based Revitalization Grant, Build It Green, Ben Pimentel and Sunghwa Han at Rosenwasser/Grossman Consulting Engineers, Durante Rentals, and Salazar + Rossello Architecture.