Ivana Bašić, Urs Fischer, Robert Gober, Terence Koh, Bunny Rogers, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Kandis Williams, Marianne Vitale

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Ivana Bašić | 9th Street Community Garden & Park - 703 E 9th St, New York, NY 10009

Urs Fischer | Fireman's Memorial Garden - 360 E 8th St, New York, NY 10009

Robert Gober | Peach Tree Garden - 236 E 2nd St, New York, NY 10009

Terence Koh | Green Oasis Community Garden - 370 E 8th St, New York, NY 10009

Bunny Rogers | Orchard Alley - 350-54 E 4th St, New York, NY 10009

Rirkrit Tiravanija | La Plaza Cultural Garden - E 9th St & Avenue C, New York, NY 10009

Marianne Vitale | Kenkeleba House Garden - 214 East 2nd Street New York, NY 10009

Kandis Williams | 6BC Botanical Garden - 630 E 6th St, New York, NY 10009

Information center & gallery exhibition | 136 Baxter Street New York, NY 10013

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Operating across multiple community gardens in the East Village, 7 Gardens has been conceived as a journey connecting local public space to the practices of established and emerging artists working to represent ideas of nature and community engagement.

Unique works of art by these artists will be installed in the gardens and further explored through intimate workshops, artist talks, performances, readings, and screenings throughout the summer. A schedule of activities will be available online soon: http://anonymousgallery.com/ex... and @anonymousgallery (instagram & facebook).

In addition to presenting artworks in situ, anonymous gallery, at 136 Baxter Street, will host an exhibition opening July 20th that features the participating artists, compliments the project and serves as an information center for the 7 Gardens public initiatives.

The project features New York based artists: Ivana Bašić, Urs Fischer, Robert Gober, Terence Koh, Bunny Rogers, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Kandis Williams, Marianne Vitale. Participating gardens include: Fireman's Memorial Garden, 6BC Botanical Garden, Peach Tree Garden, La Plaza Cultural Garden, Green Oasis Community Garden, and Kenkeleba House Garden.

Throughout the East Village, intimate installations will occupy secluded plazas and seductive enclaves surrounded by indigenous plant life, brick buildings and meandering paths that are not typically devoted to contemporary art. The selected local artists were invited to create artworks in dialogue with each of the venues, shaping a multilayered experience that connects visual arts, urban spaces and the neighborhood’s rich creative history in unexpected ways.

The East Village and the Lower East Side of New York City has the largest concentration of community gardens in the United States, containing over four dozen out of the few hundred in the city. It was in the 1970s, at a moment when New York City faced a severe fiscal crisis, that grassroots groups across New York City began converting abandoned and dangerous lots into community gardens. At the same time, artists began to challenge ideas of creation within an institutional framework, instead looking toward the everyday spaces around them as new sites for their work. As these changes on both fronts took root, their trajectories overlapped on many levels and the results have influenced art and activism to this day.

Inspired by the history of community gardens in New York City, 7 Gardens explores artistic engagement in the city’s interstitial spaces—focusing on the East Village — to consider the politics of public space through a communal and ecological lens. Bringing together installation and sculpture, the outdoor exhibition, spanning across these spaces, looks to engage these sites for common life.

7 Gardens is organized by anonymous gallery together with New York-based independent curator and writer, Lola Kramer.