NYC HEALTH + HOSPITALS/HARLEM
DERRICK ADAMS
CITY/STATE
New York, NY
LOCATION IN HOSPITAL
Pediatric Emergency Department
INSTALL DATE
2020
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ABOUT THE INSTALLATION
In 2020, RxART announced the completion of a site-specific installation by artist Derrick Adams at NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem. Adams created brightly colored imagery depicting children swimming among pool floats shaped as giraffes, unicorns, ducks, flamingos, and popsicles. The wallcoverings flow throughout the six patient treatment rooms in the hospital’s Pediatric Emergency Department.
“As an artist, I find connecting with an audience through visual interpretation very fulfilling,” Adams said. “This project with RxART to create work that will potentially lift the spirits or ease the minds of young visitors needing urgent care in Harlem feels purposeful in ways beyond what I could have ever imagined. I am overjoyed to be tasked with this mission.”
The installation was RxART’s second at NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem; in 2018, a Keith Haring wall mural, produced in partnership with the Keith Haring Foundation, was unveiled in the hospital’s lobby.
This project was made possible thanks to a generous lead grant from the William E. Weiss Foundation and major support from RxART’s Board of Directors as well as from donors to the Harlem Campaign.
ABOUT THE HOSPITAL
NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem is part of an integrated healthcare system that includes hospitals, neighborhood health centers, long-term care facilities, nursing homes, and home care services. NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem is the largest hospital in Central Harlem and the only Safety Net Hospital in Northern Manhattan. This 272-bed acute care facility is a designated Level II Trauma Center, offering a full spectrum of specialty services, including a burn unit, adult intensive care unit, neonatal intensive care unit, pediatric intensive care unit, and cardiac care unit.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Derrick Adams (b. 1970, Baltimore, MD) is a multidisciplinary artist working in painting, paper-based collage, performance, video, sound, and multimedia sculpture. Adams examines the connection between popular culture and the construction of self-image. He lives and works in New York City.
Solo exhibitions of the artist’s work include Gagosian Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, CA; the FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY; and more.
