Serpentine Sibyls: A Floating Sculptural Installation at Snug Harbor by Daniel Rothbart 

Curated by Melissa West 
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 11, 2:00–5:00 PM 
On View: July 11 – September 28, 2026 
Hours: Daily, dawn to dusk 

Staten Island, NY — Serpentine Sibyls, a floating sculptural installation by Daniel Rothbart, will open on Saturday, July 11, at the central pond and glasshouse located just south of the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art’s iconic Main Hall Gallery at Snug Harbor. More information is available at snug-harbor.org/newhousecenter. 

The installation takes its title from the Sibyls—female prophetesses and oracles consulted in times of crisis. In an era marked by floods, heat waves, and wildfires, their presence resonates anew, reflecting the growing precarity of human life amid climate change and environmental loss. Rothbart’s sculptures evoke aquatic organisms and botanical forms from a distant past, conjuring life forms that feel at once primordial and speculative, alien yet strangely familiar. Rooted in deep history while gesturing toward an uncertain future, the works occupy a threshold between memory and prophecy. Situated within Snug Harbor’s historic landscape—a former refuge for sailors—the installation becomes a space for contemplation on where humanity has been and where it may be headed. 

Once set afloat, Rothbart’s sculptures are animated by wind and water. Through a visual language of structure, light, buoyancy, and motion, they transform perceptions of the surrounding environment. Writing on a recent installation in the Hudson River, Richard Milazzo describes the works as “strangely inspired solar outcasts. Sublime or sublimated space junk—and I mean that kindly.” He continues: “One resembles an umbrella beckoning to an apocalyptic monsoon; another, a three-headed mythic creature veering off its cosmic course, resting in the quiet of this watery cul-de-sac; others, like a necklace of emeralds (or perhaps glowing plutonium), search for the throat of a Béatrice…” Curator Juan Puntes observes that “Rothbart’s immersive sculptures conjure fluid, futuristic life forms—reimagining our bond with the natural world.” 

While living in Naples as a Fulbright Scholar, Daniel visited the cave of the Cumaean Sibyl. In Virgil’s Aeneid, the Sibyl instructs Aeneas to seek the Golden Bough, granting him passage into Hades, before guiding him to the entrance of the underworld at nearby Lake Averno. According to ancient accounts, the Sibyl inscribed her prophecies on oak leaves and arranged them at the mouth of her cave; if the wind disturbed their order, she refused to restore them. Inspired by this image of chance, dispersion, and prophecy, Rothbart conceived a new floating sculpture for Snug Harbor. 

Exhibition-related programming will be announced in advance of the opening at https://snug-harbor.org/events-calendar/. 

Support 

This exhibition is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation. 

About Daniel Rothbart 
Daniel Rothbart is a multidisciplinary artist and writer whose work explores environmental themes through floating sculptures in aluminum and glass. His practice also engages questions of cultural identity, displacement, and the transformation of meaning through digital collage work, in which his sculptural forms reappear as two-dimensional elements drifting through constructed environments. 

Rothbart has exhibited widely in New York City, including at Andrea Meislin Gallery, Exit Art, WhiteBox Contemporary Art Center, and the LAB Gallery, as well as upstate venues such as the Hudson Valley MoCA, The Flow Chart Foundation, and CR10 Arts. International exhibitions include the Center for Contemporary Art Ramla CACR (Israel); Saint Elisabeth Church / Kunstwechsel (Aachen, Germany); Galerie Depardieu (Nice); the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna (Rome); and the Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade MoCAB. His work has been the subject of a monograph by Enrico Pedrini, published by Ulisse e Calipso (Naples, 2010). 

Rothbart’s work is held in public and private collections, including the Artist’s Book Collection at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. He is a recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship (Naples, Italy), as well as grants from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Residencies include La Napoule Art Foundation (France) and Artists’ Residence Herzliya (Israel). 

About the Newhouse Center at Snug Harbor 

The Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art is at Snug Harbor is Staten Island’s leading incubator for bold and innovative art. Since its establishment in the late 1970s as the cornerstone of Snug Harbor’s artistic programming, the Newhouse Center has served as a venue dedicated to developing and presenting new work in visual art and performance. 

For fifty years, the Newhouse Center has fostered a unique, interdisciplinary environment where artists can take creative risks and explore new dimensions in their work. While serving individuals at different career stages, the Center focuses on emerging and underrepresented artists, including those with limited institutional histories, from Staten Island and the New York City metropolitan area. Through artist residencies in visual art, public art, and performance, the Newhouse Center provides space, time, and resources for artists to develop their process and create new work—to innovate, experiment, and explore. 

The Newhouse Center’s galleries have featured a dynamic mix of local, regional, and international artists, including recent exhibitions by Tatiana Arocha, Tattfoo Tan, Xaviera Simmons, Shervone Neckles, Will Corwin, Katie Holten, Sasha Huber & Petri Saarikko, Sarah Yuster, and Kristi Pfister, as well as past exhibitions featuring the work of Yoko Ono, Bruce Nauman, Nam June Paik, and Suzanne Lacy. 

Learn more at: https://snug-harbor.org/things-to-do/museums-and-galleries/newhouse-center/  

About Snug Harbor 

Snug Harbor is New York City’s only culture park—a rare place where art, history, and nature come together to inspire everyone who visits. Stretching across 83 acres on Staten Island’s North Shore, Snug Harbor blends lush gardens and open meadows with museums, artist studios, performance spaces, and one of the nation’s most significant collection of 19th‑century architecture. It is a place for exploration—welcoming the naturally curious, neighbors, and visitors from around the world.