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The Brooklyn Army Terminal has spent the last century doing everything from shipping military supplies to supporting manufacturing businesses and anchoring Sunset Park’s working waterfront. Starting this week, it can add “giant outdoor art gallery” to the list.
A new free exhibition, "In Plain Sight," opens tomorrow, June 4, turning the giant waterfront campus into an open-air showcase for 12 Brooklyn-based artists, as curated by Debra Simon. The yearlong installation spreads across the Brooklyn Army Terminal and neighboring Brooklyn Wholesale Meat Market, turning everything from plazas and waterfront walkways to lobby columns and even decommissioned train cars into canvases for contemporary art.
But rather than dropping artworks into the space and calling it a day, "In Plain Sight" was designed specifically for the site. The exhibition addresses the history of Sunset Park’s waterfront, examining themes like labor, migration, ecology and industry through sculptures, murals, photography and large-scale installations. (To add an even bigger local touch, many of the pieces were fabricated on-site using materials sourced from businesses operating in the terminal.)
The artist lineup reflects the diversity of the borough and the neighborhood: featured artists include Elana Herzog, whose textile-based installation Pillars of Society examines migration and labor; Nathan Kensinger, whose photographic series Post Industrial Progression documents Brooklyn’s changing shoreline; and Hyesu Lee, whose mural Shared Rhythms traces the journey of food and labor through the Brooklyn Wholesale Meat Market.
Other highlights include reflective sculptural creatures by Avani Patel, tidal-inspired installations by DB Lampman, a geometric pavilion by LOT Office for Architecture and a suspended work by Jean Shin that will debut later this summer.
Today, the 59-acre Brooklyn Army Terminal is becoming known as more than just an industrial hub. It’s home to more than 100 businesses employing roughly 3,500 New Yorkers, while recent investments have added public programming, waterfront events and large-scale public art projects throughout the site.
"In Plain Sight" is free to visit and will remain on view at the Brooklyn Army Terminal in Sunset Park through 2027.
