ROOSEVELT ISLAND — An artist is making a splash on Roosevelt Island with an 8,000-square-foot mural stretching the entire length of the pool deck at Manhattan Park.
Dubbed the "Pop Up Pool Club," the mural covers the space surrounding the pool in cerulean blue with touches of "zen-like" swirls in purple, blue and pink.
Artist Gregg Emery took inspiration for the work from the colorful opening pool scene in "Goldfinger," Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai's "Great Wave Off Kanagawa" and Sarah Sze's installation inside the Second Avenue Subway's 96th Street Station, he said.
Courtesy Citi Habitats
The brightly colored mural, commissioned by Citi Habitats, K&Co and Pliskin Architecture, is the third mural of its kind at the pool.
Last year, artist Andrew Faris painted yellow, red and blue stripes around the pool, and in 2015 Eric "HOTTEA" Rieger created an airbrushed rainbow mural there.
"On the one hand, we have the frozen moment in time of the wave that encircles, captivates... with a barely perceptible boat of people tracing a course through it’s zen-like motion," Emery said of his work.
"On the other, we have Sze’s use of patterns of paper, buildings to move us through a space. Surrounding and enveloping, assisting and becoming part of the structure, the landscape as we move through the island of Manhattan, riding a subway train through the encircling motion much like the boat of people in Hokusai’s famous print."
Located behind the Manhattan Park apartment complex, the exhibit can be seen with a day pass for $35 during the week or $50 on the weekends ($25 and $35, respectively, for Roosevelt Island residents) through Labor Day weekend.
It's open Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., and on weekends from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
