Catch Her Before She’s Gone: The Iconic Hippo Ballerina Sculpture in New York City

Hippo Ballerina Bjørn Okholm Skaarup. Credit: Cavalier Galleries

Installed earlier this year, the beloved 2.5-ton copper tutu-clad Hippo Ballerina bronze sculpture has become an icon of New York City after previous installations at Dante Park, the Flatiron South Public Plaza, and at the Girl Scouts of America Building. Through the end of the month, she’s publicly on view at Pershing Square Plaza West located on the west side of Park Avenue between East 41st and East 42nd Streets in Midtown Manhattan.

Created by Danish artist Bjørn Okholm Skaarup, the 15-foot-tall sculpture is inspired by Degas’ Little Dancer Aged Fourteen and the dancing hippos of Walt Disney’s Fantasia, and vividly illustrates Skaarup’s ability to reinterpret subjects and themes found in ancient myths, art history, modern animation, and contemporary popular culture. Hippo Ballerina is accompanied by Hippo Ballerina, pirouette and Rhino Harlequin, pirouette permitted as part of the New York City Department of Transportation’s Art Program.

Hippo Ballerina is located at Pershing Square Plaza West across from Grand Central Terminal through December 2022, so make sure you catch her this month before she leaves! Smaller editions of Skaarup’s works can be found at Cavalier Galleries (3 W 57^th Street, Floor 4, New York, NY 10019).