Online News From The Tribeca Trib

Sun Sets on Pier and Resident Artist

by Barry Owens

Xavier Rivera has the lean and deeply tanned look befitting a man who has spent the last 10 summers watching the Hudson River and making elaborate wood carvings from broken pilings and other scraps he finds bobbing in the tide.

On a recent warm afternoon on Tribeca's Pier 25, the white-bearded Rivera, wearing only a pair of fraying shorts, sandals and a beaded necklace, resembled a content castaway as he showed a visitor the totem poles and statuary in the pier's sculpture garden, a public art gallery and workshop that has bloomed under his care.

For season after season Rivera has been as reliable a figure on the pier as his weathered wood carvings. He tends the sculpture garden with the same level of devotion that he shows for the pier's plants, ping-pong tables, CD-spangled storage shed and other funky fixtures, and as the pier's "artist in residence" he oversees a free arts program for children on weekends.

"As sure as the sun shines on Pier 25, Xavier is there," said Bob Townley, director of Manhattan Youth, the organization that runs the recreational programming on the pier. "I can't conceive of the pier without him."

As sure as the sun sets, however, Rivera will be gone from the pier next month when its gates are closed and the old structure is prepared for demolition. Piers 25 and 26 will be rebuilt and landscaped, and when they reopen in three years the sculpture garden will be gone and there will probably be no trace of Rivera.

"This has given me life," he said, reflecting on his work at the pier. "A temporary one."

Rivera, who would not reveal his age, was born in Mexico, studied art in Paris, and for years was a successful lithographer in New York City before computers and new technologies nudged him out of business more than 10 years ago. He lives in Soho.

When Luis Leite, the artist who started the sculpture garden, suggested that Rivera take up sculpture and spend some of his free time at the pier, Rivera welcomed the opportunity.

"I don't say no," he said "An artist in any field is eager to have a place to show their pieces."

Rivera eventually assumed the role of artist in residence on the pier and the gallery of sculptures has grown to include about a dozen pieces, including a pair of giant dice fashioned out of scrap from an old raft; remnants of the Tribeca Film Festival drive-in; a crucifix of driftwood; and a mermaid that he hauls out on special occasions.

"People come and ask all the time if this is my studio," he said. "I tell them, 'This is not mine, this is yours.' Whatever we do over here, it is for them."

He lends his tools to anyone who cares to use them at the pier, keeps the scrap pile stocked with wood, and on weekends oversees the free arts program that is popular with neighborhood parents.

"He doesn't paint at all at home, and we have an easel, but he'll paint here," Monique El-Faizy said of her five-year-old son, Theo, who participates in the program. "We hope they let [Rivera] come back."

Townley and Rivera said it is unlikely that there will be a place for the artist on the new pier, but Rivera will continue to offer art classes through Manhattan Youth.

"It won't be on the river, so it won't be as beautiful," Townley said.

Rivera said he will sell what pieces he can, loan out the rest, and return to his lithographs. He said there will be little reason for him to return when the gates to the pier finally reopen.

"I may just pass by on my bicycle like anybody else," he said.