Artist Who Had Planned Soho Opening Moves it To Riverside Park Because of the Pandemic (Update: Postponed)

Part of the exhibit “Reckoning: An Installation on Political Power, Greed and the Climate Emergency.”

Artist Michael Stewart will be showing an art project in Riverside Park on Friday after he was forced to relocate it from downtown.

Update: The exhibition is being postponed because Stewart needs a permit. He expects it to show next month. We’ll let people know when to expect it.

Stewart created a multimedia installation project called Reckoning: An Installation on Political Power, Greed and the Climate Emergency.” He had expected to be showing it in Soho this weekend. But the Covid-19 pandemic means that large gallery showings aren’t an option anymore.

So the work is going up in a different spot — 88th Street and Riverside Drive, just south of the Soldier’s and Sailors Monument. It will be shown on Friday, July 24, 2020, from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Here’s how Stewart describes Reckoning:

“Reckoning is a multi-media installation that dramatically depicts the fact that heedless greed and political malfeasance have brought us to the brink of an environmental catastrophe. A video of nature scenes is projected on a bas-relief wall of masks portraying the 45th President of the United States. Though initially peaceful, the scenes are interrupted and eventually overwhelmed by videographic evidence of the effects of global warming.

The goal of the artwork is to raise awareness, engender discussion and inspire action. Using only visual imagery with no words or statistics, it seeks to directly provoke the viewer’s emotions, calling into question choices both personal and political.”

He created it with the help of collaborators Michael Piazza, Nick Disney and Matt Bucy.

Be sure to keep practicing social distancing if you attend. The work will also be shown elsewhere in the future, Stewart says. For future exhibition dates and locations go to https://www.michaelstewartstudio.com/reckoningshowtimes.