Joseph Reginella
Joseph Reginella (born 1971)[1] is a sculptor from Silver Lake, Staten Island. Described by the The New York Times as the "Banksy of monuments", he has created a number of sculptures memorializing fictional events, including when a giant octopus pulled the Staten Island Ferry into the Hudson River in 1962 and when a stampede of elephants crossing the Brooklyn Bridge in 1929.[2][3][4]
Career
[edit]Reginella began sculpting at the age of 14 in 1985; he is self-taught.[5] He moved from Staten Island to New Jersey in the mid-1980s, but returned to Staten Island in 1993.[1] He has worked as a commercial artist since 1994.[5] He designed the memorial to the September 11 attacks at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center.[5]
Since 2015, he has installed 6 sculptures in Battery Park that commemorate made-up historical incidents.[6] The sculptures are made of Styrofoam and plywood but painted and finished to look like granite.[4] The dates that the fictional events occurred at times to overlap with well known, real historical events; the Brooklyn Bridge elephant stampede occurred on the same day as the Wall Street crash of 1929.[4]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "An Interview with Staten Island's Most Imaginative Sculptor-Prankster". Fabrikzeitung. 2020-04-23. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
- ^ "Meet Joe Reginella, the New York artist known as 'the Banksy of monuments'". CBC. 13 December 2018. Retrieved 17 December 2024.
- ^ Priola, Victoria (2019-10-26). "Ferry octopus attack artist is back with monument dedicated to NYC tourists attacked by wolves". silive. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
- ^ a b c "U.F.O. Over the Statue of Liberty? 'The Banksy of Monuments' Strikes Again (Published 2018)". The New York Times. 2018-11-20. Archived from the original on 2023-10-07. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
- ^ a b c "Inside the Staten Island Sculpture Studio of NYC Artist Joseph Reginella". Untapped New York. 2023-05-12. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
- ^ Frishberg, Hannah (2024-12-15). "Meet the sculptor tricking New Yorkers with art dedicated to the city's fake history". Gothamist. Retrieved 2024-12-17.