Brooklyn Bridge Park unveils new public art exhibition

Woody De Othello’s installation in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Photo: Nicholas Knight/Public Art Fund

DUMBO — ARTIST WOODY DE OTHELLO on Tuesday unveiled his first major public art exhibition in New York with “Guardian Spirit,” a collection of redwood and bronze sculptures installed along the Brooklyn waterfront.

Six sculptures were installed at Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 1 and one is located by the Manhattan Bridge between Washington and Plymouth streets. The exhibition is on view through March 2027. It’s is a continuation of Othello’s exploration of nkisi, ritual objects from Western and Central Africa that embody spiritual presences and channel protective or healing forces. Standing between 20 and 22 feet tall, the sculptures echo messages of compassion, reverence and freedom.

“For me, anything in the material world has the potential to become a ritual object,” Othello said. “Before something exists physically, it begins as thought. Sculpture is a way of pointing back to that unseen space, to the breath, the wind, the shared consciousness we’re all part of.”

The exhibition is presented by the Public Art Fund, which aims to make art accessible and free to the public.

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