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See New York’s Central Park with a difference thanks to artist’s imagination

Artist Dionisio Gonzalez has added structures inside the world-famous park and imagined the greenery spreading further into Manhattan.
Artist Dionisio Gonzalez has added structures inside the world-famous park and imagined the greenery spreading further into Manhattan. Artist Dionisio Gonzalez has added structures inside the world-famous park and imagined the greenery spreading further into Manhattan.

These are the incredible works of artist Dionisio Gonzalez who has imagined a New York like no other – with a little help from Lady Gaga and JD Salinger.

Inside the world-famous Central Park the Spain-based artist has created fantastical structures where nothing normally stands.

They include Lady Gaga’s Belvedere and a refuge for Salinger, whose best-known character Holden Caulfield memorably visits the park in The Catcher In The Rye.

Image from Dionisio Gonzalez exhibition Dialectical Landscapes - Thinking Central Park (Dionisio Gonzalez/Galerie Richard)
Image from Dionisio Gonzalez exhibition Dialectical Landscapes - Thinking Central Park (Dionisio Gonzalez/Galerie Richard)
Salinger’s Refuge (Dionisio Gonzalez/Galerie Richard)

Other inspiration has come from Walter Benjamin and Robert Smithson.

Image from Dionisio Gonzalez exhibition Dialectical Landscapes - Thinking Central Park (Dionisio Gonzalez/Galerie Richard)
Image from Dionisio Gonzalez exhibition Dialectical Landscapes - Thinking Central Park (Dionisio Gonzalez/Galerie Richard)
Olmsted’s Eye (Dionisio Gonzalez/Galerie Richard)

Gonzalez has also turned his attention to the rest of Manhattan, imagining Central Park extending beyond its current perimeter across rooftops and via green walkways.

Image from Dionisio Gonzalez exhibition Dialectical Landscapes - Thinking Central Park (Dionisio Gonzalez/Galerie Richard)
Image from Dionisio Gonzalez exhibition Dialectical Landscapes - Thinking Central Park (Dionisio Gonzalez/Galerie Richard)
(Dionisio Gonzalez/Galerie Richard)

His exhibition Dialectical Landscapes – Thinking Central Park is now being shown at Galerie Richard in New York, just over two miles away from the park which is its focus.

Image from Dionisio Gonzalez exhibition Dialectical Landscapes - Thinking Central Park (Dionisio González/Galerie Richard)
Image from Dionisio Gonzalez exhibition Dialectical Landscapes - Thinking Central Park (Dionisio González/Galerie Richard)
W Benjamin’s Cabin (Dionisio Gonzalez/Galerie Richard)

“The term refuge is perfect as they don’t have an obvious specific use,” said a gallery spokesman of the imagined additions.

“They stand with a moderate size comparatively to the landscape of Central Park. Although they might look like space ships from aliens, people in the park obviously feel used to them as part of the wonders of Central Park.”

Image from Dionisio Gonzalez exhibition Dialectical Landscapes - Thinking Central Park (Dionisio Gonzalez/Galerie Richard)
Image from Dionisio Gonzalez exhibition Dialectical Landscapes - Thinking Central Park (Dionisio Gonzalez/Galerie Richard)
Lady Gaga’s Belvedere (Dionisio Gonzalez/Galerie Richard)

In contrast to Thinking Central Park, Dialectical Landscapes shows black and white images of Gonzalez’s “extraordinary New York City landscapes”.

Image from Dionisio Gonzalez exhibition Dialectical Landscapes - Thinking Central Park (Dionisio Gonzalez/Galerie Richard)
Image from Dionisio Gonzalez exhibition Dialectical Landscapes - Thinking Central Park (Dionisio Gonzalez/Galerie Richard)
(Dionisio Gonzalez/Galerie Richard)

“Each work envisions a specific focus: The extension of Central Park downtown on top of the buildings, another Central Park on top of buildings directed West-East Manhattan, Super High line pedestrian elevated paths, elevated modern subways at high speed, and so on,” the spokesman adds.

Image from Dionisio Gonzalez exhibition Dialectical Landscapes - Thinking Central Park (Dionisio Gonzalez/Galerie Richard)
Image from Dionisio Gonzalez exhibition Dialectical Landscapes - Thinking Central Park (Dionisio Gonzalez/Galerie Richard)
(Dionisio Gonzalez/Galerie Richard)

“It is a city with different heights of frameworks and activities, a city three-dimensionally connected.”