Tom Sach's Bronze Collection

The landmarked Lever House office building, located at 390 Park Avenue in New York City, has an open plaza at street level which, along with the lobby, have become popular galleries for a rotation of many different artwork displays.

Presently, the highly acclaimed and sometimes controversial, contemporary New York artist Tom Sachs has his "Bronze Collection" exhibit on display in the Lever House plaza.

Editions will also be on display at Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, Colorado, and Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris.

His sculptures are large-scale bronzes of foam core renditions of "Hello Kitty," " My Melody," and Miffy. Information about the Bronze Collection from Mr. Sach's website: "For the Lever House installation, Sachs has created his first monumental works in bronze, presenting the familiar icons “Hello Kitty,” “My Melody” (both fictional characters produced by the Japanese company Sanrio in 1974), and the small rabbit, “Miffy” (created by Dutch artist Dick Bruna in 1955).

Working from the original toys, Sachs and his assistants construct enlarged versions using sheets of lightweight foam core and glue guns, which are then cast in bronze and ironically painted white to resemble the white foam core surface.

“Hello, Kitty” and “Miffy” also function as outdoor fountains."

The installation featured a 21-foot high, 8-ton windup sculpture of Hello Kitty, a 10-foot high sculpture of My Melody, a 9-foot high Crying Miffy Fountain, and a 7-foot high Crying Hello Kitty Fountain. When asked in an interview why he choose these images to sculpt Mr. Sach's replied: "They’re like the children of New York. It’s difficult to find a more universal icon whose roots are purely in merchandise."

More details about the exhibit and some background about Mr. Sach can be read in this New York Times article. I found it was another unexpected surprise in Midtown Manhattan.! One never knows what they will find walking around the corner -- maybe even an 8-ton Hello Kitty!