As an artist working in the public, I am informed by the physical properties of a site, as well as by its traces of human history. Creating an awareness of one’s self through highlighting one’s relationship to the physical environment, is paramount to my process.
My recent work with video reflects these concerns as well. Working with video I am able to alter spatial perception, create sculptural forms, and using color and textures, make works which offer a painterly and sensual experience. Since i have always been a painter, using video installation has integrated all of my concerns of more than twenty years of installation work as well as works in the public.” – Anita Glesta
Anita Glesta’s work has been installed in public spaces as well as galleries, museums, and non-profit spaces in New York and internationally.
Solo Exhibitions have included White Columns Gallery, White Box, Black and White Gallery, Sculpture Center, the Queens Museum, and other galleries and Museums.
As a well recognized artist in the public realm Anita Glesta has worked on several large-scale international projects. Among these projects is a permanent outdoor integrated landscape sculpture for the Federal Census Bureau Building in Washington DC commissioned by the General Services Administration Art and Architecture program and completed in 2010.
Other works include a three-acre park in the center of downtown Sydney, which was completed in 2000 created in collaboration with a team of landscape architects. This permanent park is known as the Yurong Water Gardens of Cook and Phillip Park. Sydney City Council granted the commission.
The project Gernika/Guernica (Desde El Cielo Hasta El Fondo) was shown as a two part installation in NYC at White Box Exhibition Space and through the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council at Chase Manhattan Plaza in June of 07. The Gernika installation has subsequently traveled internationally and the documentary of the inteviews she conducted with the survivors has been shown in many festivals.
She has been the recipient of grants and awards for her installations; Among them the Pollock/Krasner grant and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in the category of Architecture and Environmental Structures , NewYork State Council of the Arts New Media Technology, Puffin Foundation, the Australia Council for the Arts and others.
In Dec 2009 Glesta was commissioned to do a work through ARtport and the United Nations for the Climate Change conference in Copenhagen. Her multi-channel video installation “Cycle Interrupted”, has been shown in the Copenhagen Summit in 2009 and for the Cancun Summit in 2010.
Glesta has lectured about her work and about site specific public art throughout the world.
