Festive Art and Design Afternoon at COPE NYC

Family-Friendly Art and Design Afternoon Presented in partnership with Villa Albertine, Valerie Goodman Gallery, Parsons The New School, and Brandon Haw Architecture. Come enjoy a festive afternoon of group exhibitions with local and international designers, artists, art students, and the community.

In honor of OUI Design, COPE NYC is pleased to present several events, Saturday, May 20th, from 1 to 5 PM, with a gathering of designers, artists, local schools, and the community, at 630 Flushing Avenue, Brooklyn. 

Join us for a celebration of public art, and gallery exhibitions, that bring together local and international creativity with music and food from local vendors.

At 1 pm, the Afternoon of Art will first celebrate French artist, Jacques Jarrige’s site specific sculpture, Pfizer Cascade, to take place on the roof of the building. This will be part 2 of the ongoing installation that started with the lobby sculpture a year ago as a collaboration with Valerie Goodman Gallery and COPE NYC.

Curator Vida Sabbaghi, COPE NYC’s Director, and 630 Flushing Director of Exhibitions, had the vision to propagate Pfizer Cascade through each floor in the manner of a French Trompe l’oeil, to appear as if the sculpture was one undulating piece flowing from the roof and piercing each floor down to the lobby.

The artist imagined the waterfall unfolding to capture the energy and the light tenants and visitors channel and share.
The building had been the site of the Pfizer factory, and its architecture remains, inspiring the artist to create the floor-to-ceiling hammered aluminum sculptures, now in the lobby, and to be installed for the event under the roof’s arch. The monumental work speaks to the energy of the space, and underlines the federating spirit of the building, the network, human activity in constant movement.

From 2 to 5 PM, you are invited to view the art installations of local school children collaborating with French designers. In the spirit of metallic reflective materials, you will discover the art they created while exploring gilding. COPE NYC asked French craftsman, Manuela Paul-Cavallier, to lead a workshop with the local school children and introduce them to gold leaf. She encouraged them to study its specificity and use it in their own creations, expanding their use of materials.

Francois-Xavier Richard, who founded Ateliers d’Offard’s handmade wallpaper, will dedicate his residency in NYC to papermaking, and making music with paper. Richard will also work with local students and have them create their own sounds with paper.

The afternoon will give you a chance to view the current exhibitions in the first floor lobbies, and COPE NYC’s THE IW GALLERY with the culminating stop animation exhibition of Parsons Scholars’ Program.

Learn more here, and explore the Oui Design! Celebrating French Design in NYC program here.