Bruno Catalano's Travelers Open Up Park Avenue
At a Glance
- What
Bruno Catalano, Les Voyageurs
- When
- Scheduled May 2024-May 2025
- Where
Park Avenue, East 34th-East 38th Streets, Murray Hill
- Experience
Nine outdoor bronze sculptures.
- Coverage
- Explore coverage
- Details
- What to Know
TheNakedNYC coverage
TheNakedNYC documented the nine bronze travelers in their Park Avenue setting.
Fragmented figures carrying luggage stand among trees, traffic, and Midtown buildings.
What to Know
The City Seen Through a Figure
Large voids interrupt torsos without breaking the alignment of heads, shoulders, and limbs. The surrounding streetscape remains visible through the sculptures, changing the composition as a viewer moves.
Luggage as Structure and Symbol
Suitcases and bags connect separated parts of many figures. They also carry the series' themes of travel, displacement, memory, and identity: the traveler moves forward while part of the body appears to have been left behind.
A New Work for New York
The organizing gallery identifies Voyage à New York as a new, three-meter-high sculpture made for the exhibition.
The Artist's Departures
Born in Morocco in 1960 to a Sicilian family, Catalano later moved to France and worked as a sailor. Travel and separation inform the figures' incomplete bodies and retained possessions. His official site documents the wider practice.
The Park Avenue Presentation
Galeries Bartoux organized the installation with support from Patrons of Park Avenue, the Murray Hill Neighborhood Association, and the city. The announced display ran through May 2025. The median and surrounding sidewalks offered views that included Midtown towers and the Empire State Building.
