No Longer Empty (NLE) was founded in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis to create democratic access to art through site- and community-responsive exhibitions and radical educational programming. The goal was to spark dialogue and connect artists and audiences with the pressing issues of our time—beyond the restrictions of traditional institutional frameworks.

What began with a handful of volunteers meeting in coffee shops grew into a twelve-year initiative that presented over forty exhibitions, collaborated with hundreds of artists and cultural partners, and welcomed hundreds of thousands of visitors across four boroughs of New York City.

NLE consistently delivered ambitious, large-scale exhibitions in extraordinary temporary spaces, proving that art can thrive outside conventional models. While NLE did select existing work directly from artists’ studios, commissioning new work soon became central to our curatorial practice and the heart of our site-responsive exhibitions. In developing proposed projects, we shared our research and emerging exhibition themes with artists, who often extended their own investigations into the host community.

Cvijanovic was chosen to create a mural-scale work inside of a building at Governors Island. It is a scene of a poppy field the artist recalled from a hidden opening in a forest in New England. In this space a series of real and trompe l’oeil doors create a space of visual illusion. The Tyvek material that Cvijanovic uses also allowed him to create the appearance of nature growing into and overtaking the built space.