“L.I.C., NYC” also includes more ephemeral works. A three-part video series curated by Andrea Salerno airs three times over the course of the exhibition. And you can also expect a limited run for Jason Hackenwerth’s intricate balloon sculptures. The artist has created a trio of pieces, the first of which debuted on May 6, while the other two are to be unveiled June 21, during Socrates’s annual Summer Solstice Celebration, and July 22.

In addition, the Socrates Sculpture Park sponsors several events and lectures associated with “L.I.C., NYC” at the nearby Noguchi Museum, also in Long Island City. The museum, dedicated to preserving and presenting the art of Isamu Noguchi, focuses its attention this summer on the artist’s apprenticeship with Constantin Brancusi in Paris in 1928. The exhibition “Survey of Paris Abstractions” contains roughly 30 gouache drawings and six surviving sculptures in metal and wood. It shows a young artist turning away from academic, figurative sculpture toward what Noguchi called “studies in sculptural outline.”

Looking Farther Afield

To see all the outdoor sculpture displays that New York has to offer, a trip outside of the five boroughs to the Storm King Art Center, in Mountainville, N.Y., is required.

The gorgeous venue, about a one-hour drive from the city, is well worth the travel time. A pristine 500-acre landscape of rolling hills and woodlands serves as stunning backdrop to site-specific sculptures by some the 20th century’s most influential artists, including Magdalena Abakanowicz, Louise Bourgeois, Alexander Calder, Andy Goldsworthy, and David Smith.

Bourgeois’s 1972 sculpture Number Seventy-Two (The No March), which debuted in the 1973 Whitney Biennial, has been newly restored and reinstalled in the galleries at Storm King, which had until recently exhibited the work outdoors. To mark the unveiling, the center has organized an exhibition devoted entirely to her work. It remains on view through Nov. 15.

Much of the art in the exhibition touches on aspects of femininity and sensuality and highlights Bourgeois’s focus on the psychological and emotional effects of human relations. Number Seventy-Two (The No March), for instance, comprises 1,200 Italian marble and travertine cylinders. Clustered together, the many cylinders evoke the relationship between the individual and the group.

“The Great Outdoors” was originally published in the summer 2007 issue of Museums New York magazine.