Carl D’Alvia: Broadway Hubbub
The Broadway Mall Association
May 9 – November, 2025
HESSE FLATOW, in partnership with The Broadway Mall Association and NYC Parks’ Art in the Parks program, presents Carl D’Alvia: Broadway Hubbub, an outdoor exhibition featuring five large scale, monochromatic sculptures from the artist’s Liths series. These works, ranging from 5 ft to 12 ft tall, are fabricated in aluminum and auto paint, showcasing D’Alvia’s signature bright colors and bold forms against the urban landscape. The sculptures will be on view along Broadway in New York City, from 64th Street near Dante Park to Columbia University at 117th Street.
D’Alvia’s sculptural practice has evolved over three decades, blending humor, playfulness, and softness with traditional materials like bronze, marble, resin, and aluminum. His work navigates dichotomies such as hard/soft, minimal/ornate, and animate/inanimate, often bringing human-like qualities to his sculptures and challenging their static nature. This exploration of contrasts allows D’Alvia to create works that are both monumental and intimate, humorous and serious. Drawing from historical references like Baroque sculpture and Minimalism, his vibrant, playful approach engages contemporary sensibilities while reimagining traditional forms.
In his Liths series, which are on view along Broadway, D’Alvia pushes the boundaries of sculpture with monumental painted aluminum works that blend toughness with vulnerability, humor with gravity. Inspired by ancient monoliths and 1970s artists such as Alexander Calder and Tony Smith, the artist transforms the traditional statue into something more animated and human. Each piece, coated in vibrant automotive paint, takes on distinct personalities, such as Hot Rod and Tandem (both 2025). These sculptures combine the weight of historical monumentality with a whimsical, almost comedic character, bringing new life to the medium.
When reflecting on the exhibition, D’Alvia states, “I’ve always seen these large works being out in the world with us. Itinerant characters who slouch, bend, and wander through the world alongside us while holding a sort of sculptural mirror up to us. Being able to show these works on Broadway affords me the unique opportunity to allow these sculptures to wander into the urban fabric and whimsically challenge and interact with the public. There’s only one Broadway.”
Locations:
64th Street and Broadway (Dante Park)
72nd Street and Broadway (Verdi Square)
79th Street and Broadway
103rd Street and Broadway
117th Street and Broadway (Columbia University)
Parallel to the outdoor exhibition, one of D’Alvia’s seminal works will be on view at HESSE FLATOW, at 77 Franklin Street, New York, NY 10013.
About the Artist
Carl D’Alvia (b. 1965 in Sleepy Hollow, NY) is a sculptor that lives and works in Connecticut and New York. D’Alvia’s bronze, marble, and post-pop resin sculptures range from the abstract and geometric to the figurative and anthropomorphic. His work often explores dichotomies such as minimal/ornate, hard/soft, animate/inanimate, and comic/tragic. D’Alvia won the Rome Prize in 2012. He has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in New York as well as internationally, including the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York; HESSE FLATOW, New York; American Academy in Rome, Italy; Galerie Hussenot, Paris; Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence; and Arts Center at Duck Creek, East Hampton.
Broadway Mall Association
The Broadway Mall Association (BMA) is a nonprofit that stewards, advocates, and cares for the 5-mile environmental resource in the heart of upper Manhattan. The 83 verdant malls from 70th Street to 168th Street stretch from the Upper West Side through Harlem to Washington Heights. In addition to upgrading the 10.6 acres of malls along Broadway, BMA installs winter lighting and stages world class public art exhibitions that reflect the distinct, diverse communities of the area and engage both residents and visitors alike. For more information, visit broadwaymall.org.
Art on the Malls
Art on the Malls, the Broadway Mall Association’s program to enliven the Broadway malls with contemporary art, was launched in 2005 with the major exhibition Tom Otterness on Broadway. Since then, BMA has exhibited the work of more than 20 internationally recognized artists on the malls, including Boaz Vaadia, Chakaia Booker, Carole Eisner, Manolo Valdés, Peter Woytuk, Saint Clair Cemin, Frank Benson, Sarah Braman, Dan Colen, Paul Druecke, Lars Fisk, Drew Heitzler, Matt Johnson, Joanna Malinowska, Don Gummer, Joy Brown, Kathy Ruttenberg, Nicolas Holiber, Jon Isherwood, Sean Scully, and now Carl D’Alvia. For more information, visit broadwaymall.org/publicart.
NYC Parks Art in the Parks
For nearly 60 years, NYC Parks’ Art in the Parks program has brought contemporary public artworks to the city’s parks, making New York City one of the world’s largest open-air galleries. The agency has consistently fostered the creation and installation of temporary public art in parks throughout the five boroughs. Since 1967, NYC Parks has collaborated with arts organizations and artists to produce more than 3,000 public artworks by 1,500 notable and emerging artists in more than 200 parks. For more information, please visit nyc.gov/parks/art.
