Artist Shellyne Rodríguez Unveils “Phoenix Ladder: Monument to the People of the Bronx” at Grand Concourse & Morris Avenue
Photo by Andrés Rodríguez von Rabenau
Bronx, NY —A new permanent public sculpture, Phoenix Ladder: Monument to the People of the Bronx, commissioned by the city of New York’s Department of Cultural Affairs Percent for Art program will be unveiled to the community by artist Shellyne
Rodríguez this Saturday, November 8th from 12:00 – 3:00 PM on the corner of Grand Concourse & Morris Avenue. The work stands as a powerful tribute to the generations of Bronx residents who have endured, rebuilt, and thrived in the face of adversity. Constructed from brick, steel, and terracotta, Phoenix Ladder takes the form of a towering structure with a ladder ascending skyward—a potent metaphor for collective struggle, resilience, and renewal. Rising from the ground like a beacon, the monument evokes both the physical and spiritual rebuilding of the Bronx following the landlord fires of the 1970s and the continued fight against displacement and gentrification. “This sculpture is dedicated to all of us — the people of the Bronx, ” Rodríguez shares. “Those whose grandmothers fled Jim Crow, those who came from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, Yemen, Mexico, and beyond — all of us who now call this place home. I hope this sculpture serves as a space to gather, to plan, to study, to pray, and to fight back.
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Photo by Andrés Rodríguez von Rabenau
Deeply rooted in the histories of migration, resistance, and solidarity, Rodríguez’s monument serves as both a testament and a call to action. The artist began conceptualizing Phoenix Ladder seven years ago, envisioning it as a communal landmark that reflects the Bronx’s interwoven pasts and futures — from its Black and Caribbean diasporic legacies to the diverse immigrant communities that define the borough today. Through its layered symbolism, the sculpture embodies Rodríguez’s commitment to public art as activism, merging aesthetics with a radical ethic of care. It reclaims the language of the monument — often reserved for colonial or patriarchal figures — and instead centers the people who make and sustain the Bronx. The unveiling will include a day of programming on Saturday, November 8, from 12:00–3:00 PM, with remarks by the artist, and local community members as well as participatory performances and activities that reflect the collective energy of the project. Phoenix Ladder will remain a permanent fixture in the Bronx, inviting future generations to see themselves within its bricks and steel — not as subjects of a monument, but as the community it represents.
About the Artist
Shellyne Rodriguez (b. 1977) is a Bronx-based artist, educator, historian, writer, and community organizer who works in a variety of media, including drawing, painting, collage, and sculpture. Rodriguez stewards the histories and stories of people that have shaped her lived experience, describing her practice as “the depiction and archiving of spaces and subjects engaged in strategies of survival against erasure and subjugation. ” Through her multidisciplinary practice, Rodriguez documents the ways in which the diverse social fabric of the South Bronx is rewoven as the people and cultures coexist. Rodriguez utilizes language as well as cultural and sociopolitical references to create unified portraits of individuals from various communities formed in what she describes as the “periphery of empire. ” Engaging with the legacy of the Ashcan School, who bore witness to the rise of the modern metropolis and depicted how the poor and working class in New York enclaves were transformed by this, Rodriguez views figures such as Alice Neel, Jane Dickson, and Martin Wong as an extension of this tradition and situates her practice alongside them. Rodriguez earned her MFA from Hunter College in studio art and her BFA in visual and critical studies from the School of Visual Arts. Her work has been shown at The Nathan Cummings Foundation, New York, NY; Cue Art Foundation, New York, NY; Casa Warmu, Quito, Ecuador; Queens Museum, New York, NY; and El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY, among others. Rodriguez has held residencies at Hunter College, New York, NY and the Shandaken Project, Catskills, NY. She is an Adjunct Professor at the Cooper Union and has been a teaching artist at the Bronx Museum and Museum of Modern Art. Works by Rodriguez have recently been featured in group exhibitions at the Museum of the City of New York, New York, NY; Virginia MoCA, Virginia Beach, VA; National Academy of Design, New York, NY; and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico, among others. Third World Mixtapes: The Infrastructure of Feeling, Rodriguez’s first solo exhibition with the gallery, was on view in spring 2023. In Summer 2024, Rodriguez’s work was included in P·P·O·W’s group exhibition Airhead.
About The Department of Cultural Affairs Percent for Art
Since 1982, New York City's Percent for Art law has required that one percent of the budget for eligible City-funded construction projects be spent on public artwork. Managed by the City’s Department of Cultural Affairs, the Percent for Art program has commissioned hundreds of site-specific projects in variety of media—painting, new technologies, lighting, mosaic, glass, textiles, sculpture, and works that are integrated into infrastructure and architecture—by artists whose sensibilities reflect the diversity of New York City. Percent for Art seeks to commission works from the broadest range of artists from all backgrounds. The Percent for Art Program offers City agencies the opportunity to acquire, commission, or restore works of art specifically for City-owned buildings throughout the five boroughs. By bringing artists into the design process, the City's civic and community buildings are enriched.
This new permanent public sculpture honors resilience, solidarity, and the spirit of the Bronx community. For more information about this project, please visit the Department of Cultural Affairs Percent for Art’s website here.
