See the exhibition before it closes on Sunday! American artist Roxy Paine (born in 1966) has created a 130-foot-long by 45-foot-wide stainless-steel sculpture, especially for the Museum’s Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden. Giving viewers the sense of being immersed in the midst of a cataclysmic force, Maelstrom (2009) is Paine’s largest and most ambitious work to date. The latest in a diverse body of work, this sculpture is one of the artist’s Dendroids based on systems such as vascular networks, tree roots, industrial piping, and fungal mycelia. Set against Central Park and its architectural backdrop, the installation explores the interplay between the natural world and the built environment amid nature’s inherently chaotic processes.

Image: Roxy Paine, Maelstrom (detail), 2009, stainless steel. Courtesy of the artist and James Cohan Gallery, New York. Photograph: Sheila Griffin