A weekend activity guide to art and nature around NYC

The Met­ro­pol­i­tan Museum of Art’s exhi­bi­tion, Ellsworth Kelly Plant Draw­ings, exposes a dif­fer­ent side of an artist typ­i­cally known for paint­ing brightly col­ored shapes on large can­vases. Kelly, a native New Yorker who at one point grew corn in his stu­dio in lower Man­hat­tan, has an obvi­ous appre­ci­a­tion for the nat­ural world. All eighty draw­ings in the exhibit were drawn from nature obser­va­tion, yet the sparse con­tour draw­ings of grape leaves, sea­weed, and bean stalks (just to name a few) hover between real­ism and abstraction.

The Met exhi­bi­tion is one of many in the city that show­cases the inti­mate rela­tion­ship between art and nature. There are numer­ous projects, parks, and shows cur­rently on dis­play that pro­vide view­ers with an inter­ac­tive way to explore nature.

Our favorites include:

• On Sat­ur­day, July 28 ONLY, per­for­mance artist Chin Chih Yang will appear in front of the Queens Museum of Art for his inter­ac­tive piece, “Kill Me or Change.” The piece fea­tures the dra­matic drop of 30,000 alu­minum cans onto the artist in a play­ful and provoca­tive com­men­tary on our cul­ture of consumption.
• Ongo­ing Queens Museum exhibits include Ada Bobo­nis’ “Stages, Moun­tains, Water,” an instal­la­tion inspired by the his­tory and land­scape of the Caribbean.
• “Cloud City,” a futur­is­tic exhibit on the rooftop gar­den of the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Museum of Art, pro­vides a unique oppor­tu­nity to climb and explore in a mod­ernistic play­ground while perched high above the city.
• “Monet’s Gar­den” at the New York Botan­i­cal Gar­den in the Bronx recre­ates scenes from some of Monet’s most famous paintings.
• Socrates Sculp­ture Park in Asto­ria, Queens offers out­door sculp­ture instal­la­tions, kid-friendly work­shops, film screen­ings, and performances.
• Isa Genzken’s 28-foot sculp­ture of a rose (Rose II) is cur­rently on dis­play out­side of the New Museum. Inside the museum, check out the selec­tion of artis­tic holo­grams in the exhibit “Pic­tures from the Moon.” If you make it to the New Museum, see if you can spot the Bow­ery Mis­sion Rooftop Farm from the museum windows.
• “Reimag­in­ing the Water­front: Manhattan’s East River Esplanade,” an exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York, high­lights design pro­pos­als for the East River water­front. Ideas include an inno­v­a­tive sys­tem of canals.
• See Wendy, a  “pol­lu­tion neu­tral­iz­ing sculp­tural instal­la­tion” at MoMA PS 1, as well as their pop­u­lar annual Warm Up series every Friday.
• If you’re antsy to get out of the city, there are many day trip options in the lower Hud­son Val­ley. Only an hour north of NYC (acces­si­ble by Metro North), the Storm King Art Cen­ter includes rolling hills, scenic woods, and over 100 dra­matic sculptures.

Image: Met­ro­pol­i­tan Museum of Art