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Gov­er­nors Island Arts and Times Square Arts Announce Final­ists for Third Annu­al Ice Sculp­ture Show

Jan 16, 2024 11:37 am

Today, Gov­er­nors Island Arts and Times Square Arts announce select­ed final­ists and jury mem­bers for Gov­er­nors Island’s third annu­al Ice Sculp­ture Show, set to take place on Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 3, 2024, from 12 to 5p.m. This unique annu­al event pro­vides New York­ers and vis­i­tors from around the world with the sin­gu­lar oppor­tu­ni­ty to expe­ri­ence live ice carv­ing along­side the open space, and cul­tur­al, edu­ca­tion­al, and his­toric resources and attrac­tions that Gov­er­nors Island offers year-round. The fes­tive win­ter event will coin­cide with the Times Square Arts’ annu­al Love in Times Square cel­e­bra­tion on Feb­ru­ary 14, 2024, which cel­e­brates Valentine’s Day with wed­dings, sur­prise pro­pos­als and vow renewals. 

The Gov­er­nors Island Ice Sculp­ture Show is pre­sent­ed by Gov­er­nors Island Arts and Times Square Arts, with lead sup­port from the Friends of Gov­er­nors Island. Gen­er­ous sup­port for the event is pro­vid­ed by New York Water Taxi.

This year’s esteemed jury pan­el that will select the win­ners includes cre­ative agent at large and cast mem­ber of Bravo’s The Real House­wives of New York City Jen­na Lyons, writer and edi­tor Miya Lee, Chair of the New York City Coun­cil Com­mit­tee on Cul­tur­al Affairs, Libraries, and Inter­na­tion­al Inter­group Rela­tions Coun­cil Mem­ber Chi Ossé, and Hol­lis Kam, Senior Vice Pres­i­dent of Peo­ple and Cul­ture at Times Square Alliance and decade-long ordained wed­ding offi­ciant for Love in Times Square.

2024 Ice Sculp­ture Show Finalists:

• Art Doman­tay and Rober­to Flo­res (@domantayart)  — Doman­tay is known for his fab­ri­ca­tion work on ambi­tious pub­lic art projects. . In his col­lab­o­ra­tion with Flo­res, they pro­pose a mul­ti-dimen­sion­al, kinet­ic heart sculp­ture acti­vat­ed by human touch. 

• Aziki­we Mohammed (@misterace12) — As a native New York­er, Mohammed plans to depict the noto­ri­ous King Kong, pay­ing homage to the ape’s tale as an immi­grant and his com­pli­cat­ed yet leg­endary love sto­ry with New York City.

• Kate­ri­na Sokolovskaya (@katerina.sokolovskaya.art)— For her ethe­re­al con­cept, hands and legs emerge from a cloud as two hid­den peo­ple embrace with­in it. Sokolovskaya aims to take an abstract and escapist approach to the theme of love. 

• Lloyd Fos­ter (@_lloydfoster) — Fos­ter fre­quent­ly fea­tures angels in his work, and plans to use this motif as a sym­bol of love for his art piece. Hearts will replace the angel’s wings for his ​“Love Angels” sculpture.

• Zeel­ie Brown (@zeel­iebrownlovesy­ou) — Brown pos­es a sculp­ture that reflects her focus on Black love, soul, and New York City’s nat­ur­al and archi­tec­tur­al land­scapes. The piece aims to instill passers­by with a sense of free­dom, love, and con­nec­tion to nature and place. 

• Lovie Pig­na­ta (@iLovieNY) — For her piece titled ​“Smit­ten,” Pig­na­ta depicts two cozy mit­tens with knit details touch­ing to form a heart, ref­er­enc­ing the begin­ning stages of love in the win­try months. 

• Josef Pin­lac (@Istillheartnewyork)— Two hands con­join to form a heart for Pinlac’s work — a now viral world­wide sym­bol stem­ming from Japan — in which vis­i­tors have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to step inside the frame for a spe­cial moment of love. Pin­lac is a mem­ber of Con Artist Col­lec­tive in the Low­er East Side. 

• Paras­too Aho­van (@parastooahovan) — Ahovan’s design rep­re­sents a tree in an abstract form to sug­gest the inter­con­nect­ed­ness of life and love. Each branch and leaf is sym­bol­ic of growth and life’s mean­der­ing jour­ney, while the roots delve into the rich soil of tra­di­tion and resilience.

• Aki­ra Yoshimu­ra (@akirayoshimura_) — Yoshimu­ra demon­strates his love for New York City where he met his wife and friends with an ode in the shape of the King and Queen of hearts — the Queen’s card depict­ing the Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty and the King’s card don­ning a quin­tes­sen­tial NYC street vend­ing cart.

• Sal­ly Twin (@thesallybeauty)  — Twin’s ​“Game of Love” is a dynam­ic take on love and the game of shuf­fle­board, allow­ing vis­i­tors to phys­i­cal­ly inter­act with the sculpture’s playable pieces for an immer­sive experience. 

“For the third win­ter sea­son in a row we have been able to offer New York­ers and vis­i­tors a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty to wit­ness live ice carv­ing and to expe­ri­ence inter­ac­tive pub­lic art right here on the Island,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“The Ice Sculp­ture Show is a unique exam­ple of all the fun win­ter activ­i­ties that vis­i­tors can enjoy dur­ing the cold­er sea­son. We wel­come vis­i­tors of all ages to enjoy music and warm drinks, while expe­ri­enc­ing the thrill of carv­ing ice live with a chainsaw.”

“Gov­er­nors Island has become home to a pletho­ra of unique and engag­ing pub­lic arts pro­gram­ming, allow­ing vis­i­tors to expe­ri­ence and dis­cov­er the cre­ative vision­ar­ies from all over the world that inno­vate and design on the Island,” said Juan Pablo Siles, Asso­ciate Cura­tor of Arts & Cul­ture for the Trust. ​“We can­not wait to see what this incred­i­ble group of select­ed artists cre­ates and look for­ward to wel­com­ing vis­i­tors to vote on their favorite ice carved works while get­ting to expe­ri­ence a one-of-a-kind arts expe­ri­ence on the Island.” 

“We can’t wait to see the win­ning design melt hearts in Times Square and become the spark­ly and ephemer­al anchor for our super­sized cel­e­bra­tion of love on Valentine’s Day,” said Jean Cooney, VP of Arts & Cul­ture for the Times Square Alliance.

Ten final­ist artists were cho­sen and each final­ist was award­ed $2,000 and paired with a pro­fes­sion­al ice carv­er from Okamo­to Stu­dio, where sculp­tures will be carved in a free pub­lic event on Gov­er­nors Island on Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 3, 2024, from 12 to 5 p.m. Vis­i­tors are invit­ed to wit­ness this real-time ice carv­ing from 12 to 2 p.m., vote on their favorite sculp­ture for the ​“People’s Choice Award: from 2 to 2:30 p.m., and enjoy an awards cer­e­mo­ny and recep­tion from 2:30 to 5 p.m. This year’s Ice Sculp­ture show will take place in his­toric Colonels Row and will also fea­ture the district’s lawn games, fire pits, and art exhi­bi­tions, along with food and drink year-round Gov­er­nors Island ven­dor Mak­i­na Café and select addi­tion­al food trucks. 

A larg­er-scale ver­sion of the win­ning sculp­ture will then be carved and installed by Okamo­to Stu­dio in Times Square as a visu­al anchor for the district’s annu­al Valentine’s Day events, where New York­ers and vis­i­tors alike will cel­e­brate love through sur­prise pro­pos­als, wed­dings, and a vow renew­al cer­e­mo­ny on the Square’s icon­ic Red Steps. Sub­mis­sion links to be a part of the fes­tiv­i­ties are below:

• Sur­prise Proposals

• Wed­dings

• Renew Your Vows

Dur­ing the win­ter months, Gov­er­nors Island is open to the pub­lic dai­ly from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Trust for Gov­er­nors Island-oper­at­ed fer­ries run dai­ly between the Bat­tery Mar­itime Build­ing at 10 South Street in Low­er Man­hat­tan and Sois­sons Land­ing on the Island. For sched­ules and tick­et­ing infor­ma­tion, vis­it www​.gov​is​land​.org. For the event on Feb­ru­ary 3, spe­cial one-day ser­vice will be pro­vid­ed from Red Hook/​Atlantic Basin and Pier 6/​Brooklyn Bridge Park to Gov­er­nors Island, with tick­ets and sched­ules to be avail­able on Gov­er­nors Island’s web­site in the days lead­ing up to the event.

Round-trip fer­ry tick­ets cost $4 for adults. Gov­er­nors Island fer­ries are always free for chil­dren 12 and under, old­er adults ages 65 and up, res­i­dents of NYCHA, IDNYC hold­ers, cur­rent and for­mer mil­i­tary ser­vice mem­bers, and Gov­er­nors Island mem­bers. Fer­ries before noon on Sat­ur­days and Sun­days are free for all. There is no sur­charge for bicy­cles or strollers at any time. 

NYC Fer­ry is tem­porar­i­ly bypass­ing Gov­er­nors Island for sev­er­al weeks due to planned main­te­nance. NYC Fer­ry rid­ers trav­el­ing to Gov­er­nors Island from Brook­lyn can take the fer­ry to Wall Street/​Pier 11 and trans­fer to Trust-oper­at­ed fer­ries at 10 South Street. 

Gov­er­nors Island’s award-win­ning park is open to the pub­lic every day, along with recre­ation activ­i­ties like bike rentals, a Com­mu­ni­ty Climb­ing Boul­der, Ham­mock Grove, The Hills, Pic­nic Point, and more. Gov­er­nors Island Arts pub­lic art com­mis­sions, includ­ing work from Duke Riley, Sam Van Aken, Rachel Whiteread, Mark Dion, Sheila Berg­er, and Mark Hand­forth are also cur­rent­ly on view through­out the Island. 

This win­ter also marks the return of Win­ter Dog Days, where dogs are allowed on Gov­er­nors Island dai­ly from Decem­ber 1 through the end of April. Dogs must be leashed while on Gov­er­nors Island except for in the Win­ter Dog Park, locat­ed in Colonels Row.