LONDON.- Sculpture in the City, the City of London’s annual public art programme set amongst iconic architectural landmarks, launched on 27 June. The exhibition includes works from internationally renowned artists including Nathan Coley, Elisa Artesero, Nina Saunders and Lawrence Weiner. The artworks are being displayed next to some of the City’s most famous buildings, including 30 St Mary Axe (the Gherkin), The Leadenhall Building (the Cheesegrater), as well as new public spaces opening this year, including 70 St Mary Axe and Aldgate Square.

For Sculpture in the City’s ninth edition, the artworks are spread across the Square Mile, and range greatly in form, scale and medium. This year’s edition also seed works from the 8th edition that remain on show including Do Ho Suh’s Bridging Home, London (2018) a co-commission by Art Night and Sculpture in the City, Nancy Rubins’ Crocodylius Philodendrus (2016-17), Clare Jarret’s Sari Garden (2018), and Juliana Cerqueira Leite’s Climb (2011).

Kevin Francis Gray is presenting Reclining Nude I (2016), which marks a turning point in his practice away from figuration and classicism. Situated in St Botolph’s-without-Bishopsgate Churchyard, the work explores the materiality of marble and offers a fresh take on ancient stone-carving techniques. Further along the road, Bridging Home, London (2018) Do Ho Suh’s site-specific installation, is a replica of a traditional Korean house, his childhood home, which appears to have ‘fallen’ onto the Wormwood Street footbridge.

Stagnight by Michael Lyons is being displayed on the corner of Bishopsgate and Wormwood Street. A fascinating sculpture developed from a drawing residency in Grizedale Forest (Cumbria, UK), Stagnight transforms the light and shade of the original drawings into the solid and void of the sculpture; its configuration makes reference to animals, masks and cavorting forms. Leo Fitzmaurice is presenting Arcadia (2007) in three locations in the City of London: 99 Bishopsgate, Lime Street, and the Plaza outside of Fenchurch Street Station. Arcadia is a multi-part sculpture based on the conventions of UK public signage, exploring how these objects are designed to communicate within a given environment.

Adjacent to St Helen’s churchyard, Nancy Rubins’ Crocodylius Philodendrus, (2016-17), a large-scale bouquet-like arrangement comprised of a wide range of animal forms in cast iron, bronze, brass and aluminium, remains on view. Across the street, Salvatore Arancio’s It Was Only a Matter of Time Before We Found the Pyramid and Forced it Open (2017) is being presented at 1 Great St Helen’s. Created under the influence of hypnosis, Arancio’s work forms a sculptural garden of totemic clay sculptures that recall the petrified trees of the ‘Lava Trees State Park’ in Hawaii. Through the work Arancio seeks to create a ‘healing area’ for visitors that aims to enhance their creativity.

WITHIN A REALM OF RELATIVE FORM by Lawrence Weiner has been situated at the Cheesegrater. Inspired by the language and words written across public spaces in the South Bronx, Weiner’s work is reformed and informed by the location in which it is exhibited. Around the corner, Nina Saunders’ Abstract Mass (2008) has been situated on Undershaft. By casting these discarded and second-hand armchairs in concrete, Saunders captures the original while playing light-heartedly on visitors' expectations of comfort. Recreated in life-size, the work emphasises the vast scale of the surrounding buildings.

Patrick Tuttofuoco’s The Source (2017) a neon-light installation depicting the artist’s hands hangs in the historic Leadenhall Market. Shaun C Badham’s I’M STAYING (2014), a neon artwork remains from the 8th edition of Sculpture in the City just off the main atrium in Leadenhall Market, as a unique fit mirroring the historic market’s resilience over the centuries as the landscape around it has changed.

Marisa Ferreira’s Series Industrial Windows I is located in Cullum Street. A series of windows created from stainless steel and coloured acrylic glass, Series Industrial Windows I takes inspiration from an industrial site in Northern Portugal and reflects on how we remember our cities through their buildings.

Alongside these works, Nathan Coley presents The Same for Everyone (2017) near the Gherkin in Cunnard Place, a work from his important ongoing series of illuminated texts. In this series, Coley pairs provocative and ambiguous found phrases and the surroundings in which they are displayed to influence how viewers might understand the work.

Visitors are able to see Juliana Cerqueira Leite’s three-metre-tall obelisk Climb (2011) in Mitre Square, a ‘pocket-park’ in the City which remains on display from last year. Around the corner, Jyll Bradley returns to Sculpture in the City for a second year running to display Dutch / Light (for Agneta Block) (2017) in Aldgate Square. Made from coloured sheets of Edge-Lit Plexiglas turned on their side and leant against a south-facing wall, Dutch / Light (for Agneta Block) creates an open-glasshouse pavilion that is activated by the sun. The work references the so-called ‘Dutch Light’ a horticultural revolution that hit British shores over three centuries ago as Dutch growers pioneered early glasshouse technology.

Sari Garden (2018) by Clare Jarrett, a work consisting of lengths of vibrant Indian sari material hanging between Victorian lampposts, remains from the 8th edition of Sculpture in the City in Heneage Lane. Situated in Bury Court, Reza Aramesh’s Site of the Fall – study of the renaissance garden: Action 180: At 9:15am Sunday 28 May 1967 (2019) is a larger than life hand-carved polished male body. From research on reportage images of the Vietnam War, a single composition was selected, the image of which has been reconstructed through a process of rendering based on live subjects.

Finally, in a newly-pedestrianised space outside 70 St Mary Axe, Elisa Artesero presents The Garden of Floating Words (2017) a neon poem that appears to float in the darkness from within the foliage of a garden space. During the daytime, the words are revealed to be on tall rectangular acrylic stands while at night, the words alone become the main feature.