BRONX, NY.- The Art Students League of New York, one of America’s premier art schools, and the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation unveiled today the monumental sculpture BioMask in Van Cortlandt Park.

BioMask, a 16-foot tall aluminum and steel mask, is a collaborative work by an international team of seven students in the Model to Monument (M2M) Program, a partnership between the League and the Parks Department. Earlier this month seven monumental works were installed in Riverside Park South as part of the M2M program.

“Sculptors in the second year of the Model to Monument Program have responded to the work of their predecessors, and advanced the collaborative creative process with wonderful results,” says Ira Goldberg Executive Director of the Art Students League. “With BioMask in Van Cortlandt, the sculptors have literally transformed last year’s Mask sculpture into a new work that harmonizes with the park’s beautiful wooded areas.”

The M2M sculptures have been created by the seven select students during a nine-month program led by master sculptor Greg Wyatt. The installations mark the inauguration of a five-year partnership between the League and the Parks Department to create public art for city parks. While sculptures by more than 20 League-affiliated artists already grace New York City public spaces, this is the first time the 135-year-old League has ventured into a partnership project of this scale.

The sculptors are Sequoyah Aono, Roberto Franzone, Michael Cloud Hirschfeld, HakSul Lee, Renata Pugh, Damien Vera, and Olga Rudenko.

During the second week of July, 5 of the 7 sculptures from last summers installation at Riverside Park South, will be on display at SUNY Rockland Community College.

M2M is supported in part by a generous grant from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund’s Pivotal Place: New York City program, whose goals include cultivating civic life and the natural environment, encouraging immigrant civic participation, and supporting individual achievement and artistic expression. Extell Development Company is sponsoring the Model to Monument exhibition. http://www.extelldev.com/

The League has a 135-year old legacy of training some of the world’s most renowned artists, with alumni including Georgia O’Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg, Thomas Eakins, and Alexander Calder.