At Central Park's Doris C. Freedman Plaza, NYC: Camille Henrot's "Dogs"

A pack of sculpted dogs has taken up residence at Doris C. Freedman Plaza, the corner of Central Park at Fifth Avenue and 60th Street. Camille Henrot, a Paris-born artist who lives and works in New York, made the work for Public Art Fund. The exhibition, titled "Dogs," is free, outdoors and on view through August 29, 2027.

It is Henrot's first public exhibition in New York City. The installation builds on a series she has been developing and adds new sculptures in materials chosen to withstand the outdoors: bronze, stone, steel and concrete. Among the pieces are a white dog of concrete, epoxy and mica, a white dog carrying a book on its back, and a negative image of a dog cut out of a sheet of steel.

Each sculpture grows out of a pile-up of visual references, from Saul Steinberg drawings and Tex Avery cartoons to ancient Egyptian sculpture and dog show competitions.

Henrot works across painting, drawing, film, installation and sculpture, and often examines the unseen codes and ties that bind people as individuals and as members of society. Her interest in attachment, dependency and domestication led her to dogs, highly social animals and loyal companions to humans. The show also celebrates sculptural craft and style, and reflects her affection for New York as a place of insistent individual expression.

Public Art Fund Senior Curator Melanie Kress organized the exhibition. Henrot won the Silver Lion at the 2013 Venice Biennale for her film "Grosse Fatigue," and her work is in the collections of MoMA and the Guggenheim. She has also had a solo show at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery.

Because the plaza sits at the park's entrance, it is an easy stop on a walk or a shopping trip. With a run of nearly a year, the sculptures can be seen in changing seasons and light.