New Zigi Ben-Haim Sculpture Debuts In SoHo

SOHO, NY — A new public sculpture from the artist Zigi Ben-Haim was installed on Wednesday in SoHo as part of a city initiative to increase more public art on property owned by the city's transportation department.

The installation, which sits at the "bus bulb" on Broadway between Howard and Grand streets, is called "Treasure the Green." The statue, which was officially unveiled on Wednesday, features a figure holding a single green leaf.

The sculpture has multiple ties to its SoHo street corner. The artist, Ben-Haim, has called the rapidly-changing neighborhood home for decades. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

"Fabricated in a studio just around the corner from the exhibition site, Treasure the Green was inspired by the artist’s experiences living in SoHo for over 40 years," the city's transportation department said in a statement.

While Ben-Haim was raising his young son in SoHo, he began to realize how little green space existed nearby, the according to the statement. The single leaf in the sculpture notes how difficult it is to find green life in SoHo.

Ben-Haim, who has had exhibits of his work displayed throughout the world, has lived in SoHo for 40 years. In a 2016 interview, he recalled the neighborhood as a "heaven for artists" when he first moved to the area in 1975.

"Generally speaking people didn't come to SoHo because they have nothing to do here. There were factories, empty spaces and some artists that moved in," he explained. "So it was a heaven for artists here because no body bothered us. We did whatever we want."

The industrial trash thrown out by factories provided an abundance of free, high-quality materials that Ben-Haim and other artists would collect and use for their work.

Since then, the neighborhood has seen an influx of upscale condominiums and trendy boutiques.

"The most important galleries were on West Broadway," he said in the interview. "People used to come from all over to come to those building...It was such an iconic place. Today you have fashion, you have shoes, you have all kind of stuff that they sell. The whole thing changed."

The sculpture will guard the bus bulb in SoHo for 11 months. The temporary statue was commissioned by the city's Department of Transportation as part of its initiative to install more public art on DOT properties.

Lead image via Ciara McCarthy / Patch.