New York, NY — Join artist Ryan Van Der Hout and cultural infrastructure builder Nato Thompson for a public conversation about "To Reflect Everything," the monumental sculpture currently on view in Washington Square Park.
This engaging dialogue will take place on March 22, 2025, at 1:00 PM at Garibaldi Plaza in Washington Square Park. The event is presented by Future Fair, Dreaming in Public, and The Alternative Art School.
The sculpture's striking surface, made up of hundreds of polished steel panels, reflects and refracts the surrounding environment in mesmerizing ways, offering an immersive experience for park visitors. As they gaze into the sculpture, they see themselves, the park, and the city around them both fractured and reimagined—splintered into unexpected shapes and patterns that challenge the way we see the world.
This final programmatic event for the exhibition will explore the sculpture's themes of reflection, visibility, and public space. Thompson, known for organizing major public art projects including Kara Walker's "A Subtlety" and Paul Chan's "Waiting for Godot in New Orleans," will engage Van Der Hout in a discussion about the intersection of public art, community engagement, and transformative space-making.
"To place a gleaming object that usually finds shelter in dark, enclosed, and loud spaces instead in the outdoors can be disconcerting," writes curator Renata Azevedo Moreira. "Yet Van Der Hout's To Reflect Everything unapologetically does it all, its expansiveness not to be confused with invasiveness. The sculpture is a radical attempt to queer simple definitions, functions, actions, and values."
About Nato Thompson:
Nato Thompson is a self-described "cultural infrastructure builder" and founder of The Alternative Art School and Dreaming in Public. He has worked as Artistic Director at Philadelphia Contemporary and Creative Time, and as Curator at MASS MoCA. Thompson has organized major Creative Time projects including The Creative Time Summit (2009–2015), Pedro Reyes' Doomocracy (2016), Kara Walker's A Subtlety (2014), and Paul Chan's Waiting for Godot in New Orleans (2007), among others.
About the Artist:
Ryan Van Der Hout is an interdisciplinary artist based in Toronto and New York City, exploring material processes to navigate states of being such as transformation, undoing, and queer identity. Their work spans photography, public art, and sculpture, consistently using reflection and fragmentation to examine how we construct meaning. Van Der Hout has exhibited across Canada and internationally, with recent exhibitions including Mending Shards at United Contemporary (Toronto, 2024) and selection as a primary site for Nuit Blanche Toronto 2023.
To Reflect Everything is presented in partnership with NYC Parks Art & Antiquities Division and the Washington Square Park Conservancy. The project was developed with support from United Contemporary (Toronto), where Van Der Hout is represented.
Programming partners include Future Fair, Dreaming in Public, and The Alternative Art School. The project originated at the Toronto Sculpture Garden where it served as a primary site for Nuit Blanche 2023, with support from the City of Toronto. Event:
Artist Talk with Ryan Van Der Hout and Nato Thompson Date: March 22, 2025 Time: 1:00PM
Location: Garibaldi Plaza in Washington Square Park, at "To Reflect Everything" installation Free and open to the public