Flanagan, an internationally renowned British sculptor, is best known for his expressive bronze hares modeled in varying poses of dynamic energy. The series of hares, which he began in 1980, are often engaged in human activities such as playing musical instruments or sports, dancing and interacting with technology. They are often rendered in a monumental scale, as is the Large Left Handed Drummer, with its long wiry limbs and ears that capture a playful and jubilant spirit.

The outdoor sculpture coincides with Flanagan’s exhibition at Chelsea’s Paul Kasmin Gallery. Flanagan isn’t the first person to use rabbits and hares in the arts, though. The Spanish Painting we previously reviewed hung  an old, realist portrayal of our bushy-tailed subject on the wall right next to a more contemporary, abstract version. And of course, we all remember the March Hare from Alice in Wonderland.

Dexterously the Drummer was right handed,

there are examples in bronze from that mould

in other locations.

The left handedness of this Drummer

speaks to the other side of the brain,

from the past to the future,

another tune in composure.

Broadway!!

A seed of hope after the conviction.

I would subtitle this piece

“I don’t want to set the world on fire.”

City Hall Park

Every museum across the country seems to have one of Alexander Calder’s insipid mobiles to display (or at least a mass-marketed version you can buy in their gift store), and, well, many cities can also lay claim to having his giant “stabiles” (oh, that Calder is so punny) on view–but the current display at City Hall Park is the first time New York’s streets have seen a multi-work staging of his art.

A Calder mobile whimsically swirling in the rotunda at City Hall seems like a Banksy stunt. It’s as if Forest City Ratner Companies and the Public Art Fund, who respectively sponsored and organized Alexander Calder in New York, are commenting that politicians can be mesmerized by a children’s toy.

Five of Calder’s stabiles are also on display at City Hall Park. The Philadelphia native made these bolted sheet steel sculptures between 1957 and 1976.

If you feel like taking a short stroll, there is also a permanent work by Calder three blocks away. Object in Five Planes can be found at 26 Federal Plaza.

Roxy Paine’s long interest in the juxtaposition of nature and industrialization has brought form to an extensive body of work. From his mushroom and plant fields to his art-making machines and large-scale metal trees, Paine continues to see nature through an industrial prism. Through work that combines the organic with the manufactured, he questions our position between the man-made world that we control and nature’s world that we do not.

The work that will go up next week will be stainless sculptures called “Conjoined,” “Defunct,” and “Erratic.” If that doesn’t sum up an attempt at lunching in the park, I don’t know what does.