A former Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Core Fellow and a resident of Houston for many years, Sharon Engelstein is known for her organic, bubbly sculptural forms. In Hermann Park, a grand Mamadillidiida figure looms protectively over her wandering brood of smaller Dillidiidae. Though not immediately recognizable, the Dillidiidae are identical quadruplets. Curiously familiar, these tumbling forms invite interactivity, creating a game of delight and discovery. 

The Dillidiidae are located on the grassy berm near the Buddy Carruth Playground for All Children and the intersection of Fannin and Cambridge Streets. 

Dillidiidae was on display until April 2022. 

New York-based Orly Genger re-worked a previous piece for the Park’s new landscaping alongside Brays Bayou near the Bill Coats Bridge. An emerging talent, Genger has garnered attention for her large-scale constructions of brightly painted, knotted nautical rope. Spanning the genres of craft and fine art, Genger mines the intimate, domestic, and traditionally feminine practice of knitting to create sprawling, monumental installations. With the help of assistants, Genger looms, crochets, weaves, and knots heavy twine over the course of many months to create a single work. 

The installation in Hermann Park, made of knotted climbing rope, sat on the banks of Brays Bayou on the Bayou Parkland side of Hermann Park between South MacGregor Way and Almeda. Measuring 225 feet long by 17 feet wide and painted in a wide range of colors including Eggnog, Springtime Bloom, Limeade, and many more, Boys Cry Too seemed to pop off of the Park's terrain. 

Genger's work has recently been exhibited at Madison Square Park and deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in New York, and has been included in numerous group and solo exhibitions. Upcoming installations include a work for The Contemporary Austin that will be sited at Laguna Gloria. 

Boys Cry Too was on view through March 24, 2015.

Patrick Dougherty, a North Carolina-based artist, is known for creating whirling quasi-architectural sculptures from locally-harvested saplings. In January 2014, Dougherty and a team of Hermann Park Conservancy volunteers constructed the site-specific installation Boogie Woogie in Hermann Park. Installation took place over a period of three weeks using 6 tons of harvested saplings -- mostly invasive Chinese tallow -- gathered from Generation Park, a master-planned enterprise development in northeast Houston. Volunteers worked under the close direction of the artist and his assistant throughout the project. The project required over 150 volunteers and more than 1,000 volunteer hours to complete. This piece was inspired by the nearby Hermann Park Japanese Garden and can be explored through the passageways of the “glyph maze” and the “walls” that make up the piece. Dougherty has completed over 230 works in his career with installations throughout the United States and around the world. 

Boogie Woogie was on display through September 2015.