"Niki in the Garden" Art Exhibit Extraordinaire in Chicago

Sculptures by Niki De Saint Phalle Bring Rare Beauty, Making Garfield Park a Summer Wonderland

A guarantee: "Niki In the Garden" is one of the most spectacular art exhibits you'll ever experience. As if they've sprouted from the earth to entertain Garfield Park's tall trees and lush flora, the whimsical sculptures starring in "Niki In the Garden" come in familiar but dramatically exaggerated shapes. There are gargantuan totems, sports figures, and skulls. There are voluptuous Nanas, a French term meaning "babes" or "chicks." There are the Black Heroes, a dazzling series of sculptures honoring music legends Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis and others.

All told, "Niki In the Garden" tickles the spirits of the young and young-at-heart. Brought to the city by the Chicago Park District, the exhibit is part of the "Art of Play" event series. Making a summer wonderland of the Gem of the Westside, the de Saint Phalle exhibit is as breathtaking -- if not more so -- than the Conservatory's 2002 glass art showcase, Chihuly. Both exhibits make for phenomenal eye-candy; however, "Niki In the Garden" also is highly interactive.

Much of de Saint Phalle's art invites you to walk through it, sit on it, or just reach out and touch it -- which is why kids particularly love playing with Niki's art. Each fiberglass structure is decorated with a dazzling melange of materials. Making the works so colorful are the gazillion beads, baubles, semiprecious stones and cut mirror, all applied mosaic-style.

And imagine this: the tallest sculpture reaches 18 feet toward the sky; the longest piece is 25 feet wide. All told, it's as if a magical, Technicolor version of Stonehenge has been erected on Chicago's near Westside!

About the Artist
A French-American painter and sculptor, Niki de Saint Phalle was inspired by the famous Spanish architect Antonio Gaudi, whose work she fell in love with while living briefly in Spain. After moving back to France, she joined the New Realist Movement, a 1960s and '70s art collective whose approach in Paris is likened to that of Pop Art in America.