Camille Henrot: Dogs at Central Park's Doris C. Freedman Plaza, NYC, Through Aug. 2027

At the entrance to Central Park, in Doris C. Freedman Plaza at 60th Street and Fifth Avenue, Paris-born, New York-based artist Camille Henrot has installed "Dogs," a group of sculptures presented by Public Art Fund. It is her first public exhibition in New York City, it is free, and it runs through August 29, 2027.

The works are made in materials suited to the outdoors: bronze, stone, steel and concrete. The show builds on an existing series of dog sculptures and adds new pieces. Press reports put the count at 12. According to Public Art Fund, each sculpture grows out of an accumulation of visual references, including Saul Steinberg drawings, Tex Avery cartoons, ancient Egyptian sculpture and dog show competitions. The installation images show a white dog with a book on its back, a negative dog shape cut out of a steel sheet, and bronze and stone figures.

Henrot, born in France in 1978, works across painting, drawing, film, installation and sculpture. Her 2013 film "Grosse Fatigue" won the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale. Her interest in attachment, dependency and domestication has drawn her to dogs, which are highly social animals and loyal human companions. The exhibition also celebrates sculptural craft and style, and reflects her love for New York as a place of insistent individual expression. Senior Curator Melanie Kress, who organized the show, said each sculpture has its own presence, mirroring the shapes, sizes and temperaments of the dogs Henrot meets in her Upper West Side neighborhood.

For Japanese readers, Henrot has had a solo exhibition at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery. Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim and the Centre Pompidou. In 2026 she also premieres a new film, "In The Veins," at the New Museum in New York.