The new St. Pete Pier™ and its St. Pete Pier District exemplifies the transformative power of public art, thanks to four recently unveiled, large-scale public art installations from world-renowned artists Xenobia Bailey, Janet Echelman, Nathan Mabry and Nick Ervinck.
St. Petersburg has become one of the most recognized cultural hubs in the country and the introduction of these four works continue the city’s cultural renaissance. Opened to the public on July 6, the long-awaited waterfront pier extending over 26 acres serves as a paean to a city that has fully embraced its role as an arts epicenter. Home to renowned museums devoted to artistic legends like Salvador Dali and Dale Chihuly as well as the hub of one of the most prolific street art festivals, SHINE, which has transformed the city’s downtown with colorful murals both large and small, it is easy to see why “Art Shines Here.”
The result of close collaboration between several internationally renowned and local designers, the public pier is a gift to residents and visitors and is a significant civic investment by the City of St. Petersburg in the city’s bright future – as well as the edgy renowned artists who chose to exhibit their talents for everyone and anyone to exPIERence. Art images available here.
Janet Echelman, “Bending Arc” With the opening of the new St. Pete Pier, Janet Echelman unveiled her newest permanent work, ‘Bending Arc.’’Composed of 1,662,528 knots and 180 miles of twine, the aerial sculpture spans 424 feet and measures 72 feet at its tallest point. Named an Architectural Digest Innovator for “changing the very essence of urban spaces,” Echelman and her work defy categorization. Echelman was commissioned to design a monumental aerial sculpture for the Pier District.
The internationally-renowned artist, born and raised along the shores of Tampa Bay, was inspired by historical postcards depicting blue and white striped beach parasols together with the geometric forms made by colonies of barnacles growing on the underside of the pier itself. The sculpture’s design in aerial view can be read as three barnacle-like parasols nestled together.
As she continued her design process, she learned of the site’s important Civil Rights Movement significance, as the place where local citizens began peacefully challenging racial barriers, leading to the 1957 US Supreme Court case ruling which upheld the rights of all citizens to enjoy use of the municipal beach and swimming pool without discrimination. The sculpture’s geometry in section is composed of multiple arcs, which gently billow in the wind. The artist titled the sculpture Bending Arc in reference to MLK’s words: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Echelman’s work has been celebrated for enlivening cities and have become focal points for urban life on five continents, from Singapore, Sydney, Shanghai, and Santiago, to Beijing, Boston, New York and London. Her experiential sculptures such as her permanent works in Porto, Vancouver, San Francisco, West Hollywood, Phoenix, Eugene, Greensboro, Philadelphia, and Seattle transform daily with colored light and the natural movement of wind.
Xenobia Bailey, “Morning Stars” This fantastical Black artist, designer, Supernaturalist, cultural activist and fiber artist best known for her eclectic crochet African-inspired hats and her large scale crochet pieces and mandalas, is as eclectic and colourful as the spiral crochet patterns that form a key part of her aesthetic. Having studied ethnomusicology at the University of Washington and Industrial Design at the Pratt Institute, she went on to work as a costume designer for Black Arts West and learnt to crochet at the Greenpoint Cultural society in Brooklyn. Her crochet hats infiltrated pop culture in the 1980s – appearing everywhere from United Colors of Benetton advertisements, and Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, to Elle magazine – today Bailey’s mosaics grace the wall and dome at NYC’s Hudson Yards station, her first public art installation.
‘Morning Stars’ is installed on the main Pier approach, almost directly at the center of the new St. Pete Pier District. Bailey primarily works in fiber arts, creating crocheted mandalas that consist of colorful concentric circles and repeating patterns. They are then created digitally so they can be applied as a mosaic design to the surface. Her work on the St. Pete Pier consists of colorful tiles, a portion of which has an iridescent finish allowing them to sparkle like stars as the sun rises from the east. The large mosaic is vibrant, transformative and almost hypnotic – beckoning the viewer in for a closer look at it’s rich colors and fantastical patterns.
Nick Ervinck, ‘Olnetopia’ The work of this Belgian-born artist has been acquired by art collectors around the world and shown in solo and group exhibitions throughout Europe as well as Asia and the US. In 2021, a large solo museum exhibition is planned for him in Häme Castle organized by the National Museum of Finland. ‘Olnetopia’ is inspired by macro photographic images of splashing water – thus sculpturally interpreting the encounter between nature and technology. ‘Olnetopia’ is created in bronze with a patina finish. The sculpture represents the dynamic power of life and provides space for reflection and innovation. The artist creates, in his own words, a dialogue between craft and technology, and between the virtual and the physical. He’s developed his own visual language combined with traditional sculpture.
Nathan Mabry, “Myth (Red Pelican)” Nathan Mabry’s work combines references to art history, South American artefacts, and popular culture, to create provocative monuments entwining high culture, primitive ritual, and contemporary experience. The design of the coated steel, origami-inspired pelican that will greet visitors at the Entry Plaza of the new Pier is inspired by the geometry of the new pier design and the pelican – a symbol for kindness, generosity, friendship and love – as the emblem for St. Pete. Mabry found inspiration in the accessible and universal visual language of Origami, the art of folding paper. His work is a mixture of primitive sculpture and minimalist-style art.
In addition to the installations above, the Pier Marketplace features closeups of seven murals by artists: Derek Donnelly, Leo Gomez Studio, Zulu Painter, Vitale Bros, Cecilia Lueza, Pale Horse and Jennifer Kosharek. These details are from murals that can be found throughout downtown St. Petersburg.
