A fish sculpture by Frank Gehry now hangs in the lobby of 3 World Trade Center
All photos courtesy of Spencer Lasky
A new sculpture by famed modernist architect Frank Gehry is now on display in New York City. Silverstein Properties on Thursday unveiled “Untitled (Fish on Fire, Greenwich Street) 2024,” a 20-foot by 7-foot copper fish sculpture suspended in the lobby of 3 World Trade Center. Gehry, known for his creative use of materials and innovative designs found around the world, has used the fish as a motif in his work since the 1980s. The new sculpture is the “largest suspended fish sculpture ever created” by the architect, according to Silverstein.
The fish form can be seen throughout Gehry’s six decades of work, including sculpture projects like “Fish Sculpture” at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona and “Standing Glass Fish” at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. In 1983, he created his first set of fish lamps as part of a collaboration with Formica; a 1984 exhibit at the Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles put 20 of his lamps on display.
He returned to making fish lamps in 2012, with a design that “reflected the evolution of his architectural work in the intervening decades,” architecture critic Paul Goldberger wrote in 2021.
“Like Gehry’s architecture, the fish lamps have matured, and with them he has built on what came before, not rejecting it but bringing out of it something grander, more powerful, and even, at its best, majestic,” Golberger said.
The new sculpture is illuminated from within, glowing a warm russet color. The exterior features scales shaped like feathers and leaves. According to a press release, the piece slowly rotates, casting light and shadows throughout the space.
Silverstein Properties, the developer behind the redeveloped World Trade Center, said the sculpture has been a year in the making, as part of a collaboration with Silverstein, Gehry, and art gallery Gagosian.
Gehry’s sculpture adds to the public art of the World Trade Center, and the Financial District as a whole. Artworks at the complex include Frank Stella’s “Jasper’s Split Star” and Jenny Holzer’s text installation at 7 World Trade Center, James Rosenquist’s “Joystick” at 3 World Trade Center, and Kozo Nishino’s “Sky Memory” at 4 World Trade Center.
“I am delighted to host Frank Gehry’s iconic fish sculpture – one of his largest – inside the 3 World Trade Center lobby,” Larry A. Silverstein, Chairman, Silverstein Properties.
“This collaboration is the latest in our company-wide commitment to public space art and creative thinking throughout our buildings.”
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