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Ready, Set, Carve! Gov­er­nors Island Arts Debuts Final­ists for 5^th Annu­al Ice Sculp­ture Show

Jan 8, 2026 11:13 am

Gov­er­nors Island Arts announced the final­ists that will com­pete in the fifth annu­al Gov­er­nors Island Ice Sculp­ture Show, set to take place on Feb­ru­ary 7, 2026, from 12:00 – 3:00 p.m. This pop­u­lar annu­al event pro­vides New York­ers with a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty to expe­ri­ence live ice carv­ing set amongst the open space, cul­tur­al, edu­ca­tion­al, and his­toric resources and attrac­tions that Gov­er­nors Island offers year-round. The ten final­ists were cho­sen fol­low­ing an open call seek­ing designs inspired by the theme of ​“move­ment.” The select­ed final­ists will be paired with pro­fes­sion­al ice carvers from Okamo­to Stu­dio to bring their visions to life.

“What began as a win­ter exper­i­ment five years ago has grown into one of our sig­na­ture sea­son­al events, and we’re thrilled to present such a dynam­ic group of artists for this year’s show,” said Lau­ren Haynes, Head Cura­tor of Gov­er­nors Island Arts and Vice Pres­i­dent at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“From bold pub­lic art to immer­sive pro­gram­ming year-round, Gov­er­nors Island offers eclec­tic and engag­ing expe­ri­ences for every type of vis­i­tor, and the Ice Sculp­ture Show is no excep­tion. Whether you’re a long­time Island fan or vis­it­ing for the first time, there’s no bet­ter way to expe­ri­ence win­ter on the Island than watch­ing mas­sive blocks of ice trans­form into stun­ning works of art live in Colonels Row.”

2026 Ice Sculp­ture Show Final­ists & Designs:

• Takashi Hara­da and Kae Sato (@studiotakashiharada): ​“Trans­bound­ary” – This design emu­lates the wild beta fish that live in the great Mekong Riv­er, evok­ing the move­ment and ener­gy of the nat­ur­al world. 

• Rhea Mar­men­ti­ni (@rheamarmentini): ​“The Free­thinker” – This design address­es real­i­ty through cre­ative think­ing with a col­lec­tion of stacked spheres that ebb and flow togeth­er, rep­re­sent­ing the idea as an ephemer­al and chang­ing concept.

• Cath­leen Luo (@catluo27.art): ​“Con­ver­gence Deity” – This design explores move­ment as both phys­i­cal motion and col­lec­tive change, with the form of human hands sym­bol­iz­ing the human abil­i­ty to take action that can make and remake the world. 

• Kris Thomas (@kristhomas.art): ​“Flight of the Yel­low-crowned Night Heron” –Depict­ing a bird in flight, this work aims to high­light the diverse ecosys­tem of Gov­er­nors Island and New York Har­bor, and the impor­tance of the work done on the Island to pro­tect and restore ecosystems. 

• Lizzy Chemel (@lil_s0uth): ​“Sacral Col­umn” – This ice design depicts the ver­te­bra from the spine of a hump­back whale, which serves as both the locus of move­ment and a rem­nant from a mam­malian ancestor.

• Zyia Zhang, Kir­il Bejoulev, Elias Grif­fin, Michael Luck Schnei­der (@volvoxlabs): ​“Hybrid Bio­ta” – This design explores move­ment through the chore­og­ra­phy of a robot­ic arm carv­ing ice, which will shape the block in ges­tures unique to the machine. The result­ing work is both process and per­for­mance, becom­ing a kinet­ic sculp­ture in its own right. 

• Sal­vador Gomes da Sil­va Fil­ho (@salvadorgomesart): ​“Not Mov­ing Back­ward” – This design explores the unset­tling beau­ty of the human body through a sculp­tur­al tor­so with its head turned back­ward, ques­tion­ing the notion that mov­ing back­ward is inher­ent­ly com­fort­able or unproductive. 

• Kari­na Man­ta (@karinamanta): ​“Busk­ing Stage” – This design cre­ates a phys­i­cal venue where a fig­ure skater will debut a per­for­mance. Busk­ing plays an inte­gral role in the cul­ture of New York City; after the skater per­forms, the sculp­ture will become a phys­i­cal rep­re­sen­ta­tion of their move­ments before melt­ing away.

• Wei Xiong, Shan­shan Zhang (@xiongweiii_studio): ​“The Birth of Us” – This design, based on the clas­sic image of Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, replaces the god­dess with a human baby and replaces the scal­lop shells with oys­ter shells to indi­cate the char­ac­ter­is­tics of Gov­er­nors Island and New York Harbor. 

• David Green (@dgreenco): ​“Unti­tled” – The same way a sculp­ture of a gal­lop­ing horse reflects move­ment frozen in time, this design of a break­ing wave reflects water frozen into ice. As it melts, it will give the impres­sion of the wave com­plet­ing its cycle — there­by unfreez­ing time. 

In addi­tion to real-time ice carv­ing, the Ice Sculp­ture Show will also fea­ture ice carv­ing work­shops from Okamo­to Stu­dio, a DJ set from Miss Ali­cia with sound by Kar­lala Soundsys­tem, and more activ­i­ties for vis­i­tors. Mak­i­na Café will be open in Colonels Row along­side addi­tion­al food trucks with win­ter-themed treats. The Ice Sculp­ture Show is free with RSVP at www​.gov​is​land​.org/​i​c​e​-show.

Gov­er­nors Island is open to the pub­lic dai­ly from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. dur­ing the win­ter months. Cold-sea­son activ­i­ties include Win­ter Dog Days, out­door explo­ration in the Island’s award-win­ning park, recre­ation activ­i­ties and ameni­ties includ­ing bike rentals and QC NY Spa, and more. Gov­er­nors Island Arts pub­lic art­works — includ­ing pieces by Lenka Clay­ton & Phillip Andrew Lewis, Chaka­ia Book­er, Duke Riley, Sam Van Aken, Rachel Whiteread, Mark Dion, Sheila Berg­er, Shantell Mar­tin, and Mark Hand­forth — are on view dai­ly through­out the Island. 

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. Round-trip fer­ry tick­ets cost $5 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 11a.m. on Sat­ur­days and Sun­days are free for all. There is no sur­charge for bicy­cles or strollers at any time. For sched­ules and tick­ets, vis­it www​.gov​is​land​.org/​ferry. NYC Fer­ry, the city’s pub­lic fer­ry ser­vice, also serves Gov­er­nors Island dai­ly on the South Brook­lyn Route dur­ing the win­ter months, with stops in Low­er Man­hat­tan and along the Brook­lyn water­front. Sched­ules and more infor­ma­tion avail­able on their web­site at www.ferry.nyc.