The six colorful glass mosaic and ceramic tile murals in Joyce Kozloff’s "Parkside Portals" offer a view of the Upper West Side through a micro and macro lens. The perspective shifts from aerial views of Central Park West using Google Earth satellite technology, to a zoom-in on the lavish design elements found on the neighborhood’s majestic building facades. Kozloff riffs on this majesty and embellishes with her eye for color and knowledge of the community, gleaned from the decade that she lived on the Upper West Side. Framing these details are the trees of Central Park during the four seasons of the year.  

This artwork is an homage to the architecture of Central Park West, and its Beaux-Arts and Art Deco ornamentation. It also includes a map of Seneca Village, a five-acre settlement founded in 1825 that was the first community predominantly made up of African-American landowners. It was situated where Central Park now sits. Kozloff collaborated closely with Miotto Mosaic Art Studios and Travisanutto, Giovanni SRL, who translated her intricate paintings into glazed tiles and glass mosaics.  

Joyce Kozloff is an American artist, painter and muralist whose artworks are relared cartography. She has been active in the women's and peace movements throughout her life. She was a co-founder of the Pattern and Decoration movement of the 1970s. Her early paintings and collages draw on colors and designs from Islamic, North African and Southwest American Indian cultures. Kozloff’s interest in decorative arts and “craft” or “ornament” aligned with the feminist movement and provided a stark alternative to the minimalist “high art” being produced mainly by men during this period. Her later large-scale public art commissions incorporate ceramic tile installations which reflect her continuing interest in color, pattern, and design from other parts of the world. Her latest cartographic works incorporate images of maps and continue to explore the themes of place, gender and power.

Kozloff received a BFA from Carnegie Institute of Technology, and an MFA from Columbia University. She has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in museums and galleries for decades. Kozloff lives and works in New York City.