CYNTHIA BROWN

 

 

 

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In Hard Beauty , fine artist Cynthia Brown turns the spotlight on a part of city life most of us rarely notice, let alone admire.  With a painter’s eye for detail and a deep curiosity for overlooked truths, Brown finds unexpected beauty in the machinery and labor behind New York City’s systems - sanitation, water works and parks.  Our water supply, the care of our green spaces, and cleaning our streets, are built on sophisticated systems and feats of engineering that are often taken for granted, ignored, or hidden in plain sight.

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The journey begins with a 19th-century reformer whose visionary work laid foundations for systems we still rely on today.  Brown's work honors the enduring legacy of this figure and illuminates his impact on the complex choreography and the ingenious strategies he employed to provide us with clean water, green spaces, and functioning streets.

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This exhibition invites us to recalibrate our focus on these systems, the workers, and our own role within the urban ecosystem.  By illuminating what we often take for granted, Hard Beauty challenges passive spectatorship and ask us to consider the part we play, or refuse to play, in maintaining and improving the intricate network that sustains our city.

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An exhibition in 2026 is in the planning phase.

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Hard Beauty is a sponsored project of the New York Foundation for the Arts.

 

• ​Tax deductible donations can be made to Hard Beauty through the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA.org).  From their home page, click on donate to NYFA, then click on Fiscally Sponsored Projects and select Hard Beauty to ensure your donation is directed specifically to this project.

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Hard Beauty is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

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