Enter Your Spin on a Grotesque in an Architecture Contest

The Center of Architecture is hosting a new exhibit and looking for creatives to submit their imaginative take on traditional building ornamentation.

Grotesques in Bed Stuy. Photo by Susan De Vries

by Susan De Vries

If you have spent any time staring up at the architecture of Brooklyn you will have spotted the animals, human faces, gargoyles, and other figures peeking out from the borough’s edifices. A new exhibit at The Center for Architecture will explore the history, purpose, and meaning of the figurative architectural details and is offering the chance to have your modern take included in the exhibition.

A competition launched on August 5 inviting artists, architects, designers, and general enthusiasts to submit their imaginative interpretations of what a contemporary grotesque might depict. Winners will have their design featured in the exhibition at the Center for Architecture in Manhattan.

Participants must be 18 or over and will need to send in an image of their modern grotesque design along with a brief description between now and October 23 when the contest closes. Full details on the entry requirements are available online. The winners will be notified in November and the exhibit will open in January of 2027.

faces as ornament on a building in brooklyn Grotesques on the facade of 70 Remsen Street in Brooklyn Heights. Photo by Susan De Vries

The exhibit, Figures of Architecture: A Living Archive of Grotesques and Mascaron Ornamentation, is inspired by an online archive project of the same name. The project, founded by Helen Sywalski Prisco and Michael Prisco, is based in New York, but accepts submissions from around the world. The online map currently includes over 150 examples in Brooklyn.

In addition to having their winning design featured in the exhibit, competition winners will receive a cast porcelain grotesque crafted by Helen Sywalski Prisco. The design is based on those found on 70 Remsen Street in Brooklyn Heights, pictured above. Completed in 1929, the H. I. Feldman-designed apartment building includes a row of grotesques above the arched entrance.

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