Public Art Fund Presents Heads or Tails, Genesis Belanger’s First Major Public Exhibition in New York

Three new site-responsive installations throughout City Hall Park examine justice, value, and artifice within the civic landscape

Genesis Belanger: Heads or Tails

June 2 – November 15, 2026

City Hall Park, Lower Manhattan

Opening June 2, 2026, Public Art Fund will present Genesis Belanger: Heads or Tails, the artist’s first major public exhibition in New York. On view in City Hall Park through November 15, the exhibition features three sculptural scenes that play with commonplace park features: A flock of birds standing in the fountain, three potted fruit trees, and two modern interpretations of the allegorical Lady Justice. As visitors discover these scenes throughout the park, Belanger’s sculptures invite reflection on humanity’s connection to nature, our ability to discern real from fake, and how civic values are represented in our public spaces.

Known for her ceramic sculptures and installations, Belanger initially sculpted many of the works by hand in clay before they were later cast in resilient materials for her first outdoor exhibition. The sculptures’ color palette ranges from luscious florals to more muted tones that mimic the park’s fountain and traditional monumental sculpture.

In Distressed Assets, a flock of concrete birds perches within the City Hall Park Fountain, cast in pigments that echo the fountain’s stone. The birds pluck pennies from the water, marking the U.S. Mint’s retirement of the one-cent coin earlier this year. Inspired by the park’s proximity to Wall Street and the decommissioning of the penny, Belanger’s work reminds visitors that the cost of making a wish has risen.

“This exhibition marks a compelling shift for Genesis Belanger, an artist known for her astute observation of the creation of desire in domestic space,” said Melanie Kress, Senior Curator at Public Art Fund. “Here, she trains her eye on the public realm, drawing on the familiar language of civic sculpture – allegory, ornament, garden architecture – while introducing subtle shifts that reveal considerations of value, justice, and authenticity.”

Elsewhere in the park, three aluminum and brass potted fruit trees stand in quiet relation to the park’s living landscape. The artificial flora underscore current tensions between authenticity and simulation, and raise the question of whether they are adequate replacements for the native plantings.

Finally, two bronze figures offer Belanger’s interpretation of Lady Justice, an allegorical figure ubiquitous in civic centers like City Hall Park. Though traditional depictions of Lady Justice depict her blindfolded to suggest unbiased fairness, Belanger’s sculptures are only partially blind – not out of impartiality, but self-regard.

“I’m interested in creating work that reflects the contradictions we navigate every day, where life can be both exhilarating and devastating at the same time,” said Belanger. “These experiences are not in opposition, but instead they coexist. My work seeks to reflect a nuanced picture of our present.”

Installed outdoors and encountered collectively, the sculptures transform City Hall Park into a stage set without a script. Visitors become participants within the scenes, moving between them and activating their relationships to architecture, landscape, and one another.

Genesis Belanger: Heads or Tails is curated by Public Art Fund Senior Curator Melanie Kress.

@PublicArtFund #GenesisBelanger

When & Where

Starting on June 2, 2026, Heads or Tails will be on view in City Hall Park in Lower Manhattan through November 15, 2026. The exhibition can be explored anytime, anywhere, on the free Bloomberg Connects app.

About the Artist

Genesis Belanger’s practice is centered on the creation of sculptural objects and tableaux that draw from, and critique, the aesthetics of capitalist production and consumption. Working in a multitude of materials and techniques, including porcelain, stoneware, metal, wood, upholstery, and painting, Belanger creates psychologically charged mise-en-scènes, creating objects that act as surrogates for human feeling or experience. Her work considers the ways in which advertising manipulates our psychology; the dynamics of consumption; issues of privacy in our increasingly online world; and coping mechanisms for the overwhelm.

Related Free Programming

Opening Celebration

June 2, 6pm-7pm

City Hall Park

Public Art Fund Talk

Fall 2026 – Date TBC

Cooper Union

Visiting the Exhibition

City Hall Park is located in Lower Manhattan, and is bordered by Broadway, Chambers Street, Centre Street, and Park Row. The exhibition is at the southernmost entrance of the Park.

Hours: 7:00am – 12:00am daily

Subways: A, C, E to Chambers Street; 4, 5, 6, J to Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall; R to City Hall; 2, 3 to Park Place

About Public Art Fund

As the leader in its field, Public Art Fund brings dynamic contemporary art to a broad audience in New York City and beyond by mounting ambitious free exhibitions of international scope and impact that offer the public powerful experiences with art and the urban environment.

Supports

Leadership support for Genesis Belanger: Heads or Tails is provided by Pace Gallery, Perrotin, the Abrams Foundation, Elizabeth Fearon Pepperman & Richard C. Pepperman II, and Jennifer Harris, with champion support from Ellen & Andrew Celli, Alexandra & Grant Frankel, Jennifer & Jason New, Jessica Ogilvie, Karen & Sam Seymour, and Allison Wiener & Jeffrey Schackner; and major support from Diana Bowes.

Genesis Belanger: Heads or Tails is made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Special thanks to NYC Parks and engineering partner TYLin.

Public Art Fund is supported by the generosity of individuals, corporations, and private foundations including lead support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, along with major support from the Abrams Foundation, the Charina Endowment Fund, The Cowles Charitable Trust, the Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts, the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, the Ford Foundation, The Fuhrman Family Foundation, Kenneth C. Griffin and Griffin Catalyst, Agnes Gund, The Marc Haas Foundation, Hartfield Foundation, KHR McNeely Family Foundation | Kevin, Rosemary, and Hannah Rose McNeely, the Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust, Red Crane Foundation, the Meyer and Deanne Sharlin Foundation, and The Silverweed Foundation.

Public Art Fund exhibitions and programs are also supported in part with public funds from government agencies, including the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.