West Harlem Art Fund

The West Harlem Art Fund is a pio­neer­ing force in bring­ing trans­for­ma­tive pub­lic art and design pro­grams to urban neigh­bor­hoods in New York City. Since 1998, their dynam­ic exhi­bi­tions — rang­ing from strik­ing sculp­tures and immer­sive instal­la­tions to inno­v­a­tive dig­i­tal pro­jec­tions and vibrant per­for­mances — have enlivened neigh­bor­hoods and inspired com­mu­ni­ties across the city. Their com­mit­ment to cre­ative excel­lence and cul­tur­al enrich­ment has earned them recog­ni­tion in promi­nent out­lets includ­ing the NYTimes, Art Dai­ly, Art­net, Hyper­al­ler­gic, White Hot Mag­a­zine, Wall Street Jour­nal, CBS Local News, NY1, and ABC-TV. Their her­itage sym­bol Afun­tum­mireku-denkyemmtreku: is the dou­ble croc­o­dile from West Africa, Ghana, which means uni­ty in diversity.

Cur­rent­ly On View

Deep Altars | June 20-August 15

Deep Altars, an evoca­tive med­i­ta­tion on rit­u­al, is a solo show by OTERO FUENTES, curat­ed by Savona Bai­ley-McClain and Alitza Car­dona. This body of sculp­ture pon­ders how cul­tur­al beliefs serve as a counter for hope in the face of today’s trans­ac­tion­al behaviors.

The exhi­bi­tion oper­ates as a con­stel­la­tion of spa­tial prayers. In each work, the inten­tion behind struc­ture, cur­va­ture, and ten­sion is tan­gi­ble. The vis­i­ble struc­ture becomes a point of ori­en­ta­tion to invis­i­ble forces: hope, grav­i­ty, align­ment, inten­tion, and presence.

With Deep Altars, the view­er’s posi­tion is invert­ed, draw­ing them into the offer­ing itself. In this con­text, the depths of mean­ing held in the ges­ture of encounter with the oth­er become the very site where the divine is encountered.

Work­ing pri­mar­i­ly with steel and con­crete, OTERO FUENTES exam­ines how arcs, angles, and spa­tial rhythms shape the human expe­ri­ence and the forms that orches­trate cir­cum­stances. Trained as an archi­tect, he approach­es sculp­ture as a rela­tion­al field where each work func­tions as both object and thresh­old, invit­ing view­ers to move, recal­i­brate, and recon­sid­er their posi­tion and mean­ing in space.

Getting to Nolan Park

3 Minutes from Soissons Landing 7 Minutes from Yankee Pier

1 Minutes from Soissons Landing 5 Minutes from Yankee Pier