31 Contemporary works of art

Always Becoming is an artwork created in 2007 by Nora Naranjo-Morse, a Native American Potter and poet. She currently resides in Española, New Mexico, just north of Santa Fe and is a member of the Santa Clara Pueblo.

Ann Dancing is an artwork created in 2007 by Julian Opie an English artist and former trustee of the Tate. The electronic sculpture is located in Indianapolis, Indiana. It was removed from its base on August 20, 2008, for repairs, and was returned on October 31 of that year.

Behind the Walls is a 2018 sculpture by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa.

Bridge Tender's House is a public artwork by American artist Mikyoung Kim, located on the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C., United States. "Bridge Tender's House" was commissioned through the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

Catwalk! is a series of collages created by Christiaan Tonnis.

Confluence is a land art sculpture by artists Robert Stackhouse and Carol Mickett. The work sits on the grounds of the Indianapolis Art Center located in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Confluence was installed as part of the Art Center's ARTSPARK initiative.

Crown Fountain is an interactive work of public art and video sculpture featured in Chicago's Millennium Park, which is located in the Loop community area. Designed by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa and executed by Krueck and Sexton Architects, it opened in July 2004. The fountain is composed of a black granite reflecting pool placed between a pair of glass brick towers. The towers are 50 feet (15.2 m) tall, and they use light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to display digital videos on their inward faces. Construction and design of the Crown Fountain cost $17 million. The water operates from May to October, intermittently cascading down the two towers and spouting through a nozzle on each tower's front face.

The artwork DER BEVÖLKERUNG by Hans Haacke was as commissioned and installed in 2000. It was erected in the north courtyard of the German Reichstag building in the year 2000 by resolution of the German Bundestag. The work consists of a trough measuring 21 x 7 meters, bounded by wooden beams, from the center of which the words "DER BEVÖLKERUNG" radiate toward the sky in white neon letters. The words can be seen from all levels of the building: from the assembly hall, the floor reserved for the political parties and the press, as well as by visitors on the roof. The public funds allocated to the project were the equivalent of approx. 200,000 euros. The artwork was realized within the framework of the Reichstag's art in architecture program.

Emergency Room is an art exhibition format devised by Thierry Geoffroy for artists with a desire to engage in current debates. Artists are invited to contribute with art works that are produced daily in response to ongoing social issues, contributing to a constantly changing exhibition. The format avoids the need for an artist to wait months or years before being able to exhibit their art.

The fantasy or figurative coffins from Ghana, in Africa also called custom, fantastic, or proverbial coffins, are functional coffins made by specialized carpenters in the Greater Accra Region in Ghana. These colourful objects which have developed out of the figurative palanquins are not only coffins, but considered real works of art, were shown for the first time to a wider Western public in the exhibition Les Magiciens de la terre at the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris in 1989. The seven coffins which were exposed in Paris were done by Kane Kwei (1922–1992) and by his former assistant Paa Joe (b.1947). Since then, these art coffins of Kane Kwei, his grandson Eric Adjetey Anang, Paa Joe, Daniel Mensah (Hello), Kudjoe Affutu and other artists have been displayed in many international art museums and galleries around the world.

The Field of Light is a large-scale site-specific light-based installation created by British artist Bruce Munro.

A figurative palanquin connected with the totem of its owner is a special kind of litter used in the Greater Accra Region in Ghana. These palanquins called in the Ga language okadi akpakai belong to the royal insignias and are used only by the Ga kings or mantsemei and their sub-chiefs when they are carried in public at durbars and festivals like Homowo. With these figurative palanquins the Ga create ethnic differences between themselves and their Akan neighbours that only use simple boat- or chair-shaped litters.

"Good Morning, Mr. Orwell" was the first international satellite "installation" by Nam June Paik, a South Korean-born American artist often credited with inventing video art. It occurred on New Year's Day, 1984.

How The New Museum Committed Suicide With Banality is a 2009 drawing on paper by William Powhida that the Brooklyn Rail commissioned for the cover of its November 2009 issue. The drawing was released in an edition of 20 prints sold by two galleries that represent Powhida, Schroeder Romero in New York and Charlie James Gallery in Los Angeles.

Jesus Dress Up is a game that was created by artist Normal Bob Smith in 1991 as a black-and-white Colorform, which he photocopied and distributed to friends.

The Kane Kwei Carpentry Workshop is a studio established in Teshie, Ghana, since the 1950s. It is known for its design coffins that became symbolic of African artistic creativity. It featured the talents of several artists who would go on to gain fame as fantasy coffin sculptors, including Paa Joe, Kane Kwei, Eric Kwei, Cedi Kwei, and the lead of the shop at Kane Kwei's death, Theophilius Nii Anum Sowah.

Memoria Urbana Berlin is a public sculpture by Spanish artist Juan Garaizabal that stands in the middle of the Bethlehemkirchplatz, Mitte district, Berlin, Germany. It was constructed in June 2012 on the mosaic marking the exact site and size of the original Bohemian or Bethlehem Church, which was destroyed in the war. The sculpture is made up of 800 meters of square section steel tube and 300 meters of LED illumination system. Its structure draws in the air the lines of the silhouette of the lost construction, recreating its volume in the form of a sketch. It measures 25 x 15 x 31 metres in height and weighs 44 short tons.

Moon Museum is a small ceramic wafer three-quarters by one-half inch in size, containing artworks by six prominent artists from the late 1960s. The artists with works in the "museum" are Robert Rauschenberg, David Novros, John Chamberlain, Claes Oldenburg, Forrest Myers and Andy Warhol.

A Needle Woman is a performance video artwork created by artist Kimsooja. The videos projected simultaneously that comprise Kimsooja's A Needle Woman (1999) presents the artist wearing precisely the same clothes, standing precisely the same way, and, it would seem, at the same time of day in various urban environments.

Numbers 1-0 is a public artwork by the American artist Robert Indiana, located at the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA), which is near downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. This series of sculptures is composed of 10 brightly painted numerical digits, each made of aluminum and set on its own base. Their construction took place at the former Lippincott Foundry in North Haven, Connecticut from 1980 to 1983.

An Oak Tree is a conceptual work of art created by Michael Craig-Martin in 1973. The piece, described as an oak tree, is installed in two units – a pristine installation of a glass of water on a glass shelf on metal brackets 253 centimetres above the ground, and a text mounted on the wall. When first exhibited, the text was given as a handout.

Orion is a public art work by artist Mark di Suvero located at the University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The sculpture is an abstract form; it is installed on the lawn in front of the museum, at 525 South State Street.

Painstation is an art object and arcade game based on Pong developed by the artists' group, "/////////fur//// art entertainment interfaces", with pain feedback.

The "Pantone Merkel", also known as the "many shades of Merkel" or "Merkel Rainbow", is a compilation of photos of Angela Merkel, former Chancellor of Germany, collected by Dutch graphic designer Noortje van Eekelen. It consists of an overview of Merkel's jackets arranged into a chart by colour in a manner similar to the Pantone color chart. The "Pantone Merkel" also includes captions describing the locations and dates the photos were taken.

Play-Doh is a painted aluminum sculpture by Jeff Koons, made between 1994 and 2014. Five copies were made, each measuring approximately 120 × 108 × 108 in.. It is formed of 27 separate pieces of polychromed aluminum and was first publicly shown at the retrospective of Koons' work in 2014 at the Whitney Museum of American Art in NYC. The title refers to the modeling compound named Play-Doh which is used for arts and crafts projects by young children.

The Reincarnation of a Surfboard is a body of sculpture work created by Ithaka Darin Pappas. The project, which began in 1989 consist of approximately three-hundred wall-mounted sculptures that have been made using recycled surfboards as raw building material. The series to date has been exhibited on four continents. The most recent solo exhibitions of these works were mesa hosted by WOA - Way Of Arts in Cascais, Portugal in December 2012, by Hurley International in Costa Mesa, California in October 2013 and F+ Gallery in Santa Ana in February 2015.

Sandworm (2012) is a site-specific art installation and a fusion of environmental art and architecture by Finnish architect Marco Casagrande situated on the dunes of Wenduine beach in Belgium. The curvaceous structure is made entirely from willow. The fifty-metre long organic structure stretches out between the dunes like an enormous wooden worm. It is part of the Beaufort Triennial of Contemporary art.

The Sculpture Park Erich Engelbrecht is located at the Château des Fougis, 03220 Thionne, department of Allier, France, and displays monumental massive steel sculptures of the German artist Erich Engelbrecht.

The Shapes Project is a combinatorial system designed by the American artist Allan McCollum, in 2005-2006, to produce unique two-dimensional "shapes." The system allows for the making of enough unique shapes for every person on the planet to have one of their own. It also allows the shapes to be kept track of in such a way as to ensure that no two will ever be alike.

The Tree of Life is a large three-dimensional mural by artist Manav Gupta, located across the interior staircase of the Bharti Airtel office building in Gurgaon, India. Covering approximately 5,000 sq ft of facade space and 10,000 sq ft of total painted surface, it is the tallest and largest indoor staircase mural. While deploying site specific collaborative art practice of allowing more than 1000 employees of the office building, to participate in the experience of painting in the initial phase, the artist conceptualised the creation as a public art project.

Buddy Bears are painted, life-size fiberglass bear sculptures developed by German businesspeople Klaus and Eva Herlitz, in cooperation with sculptor Roman Strobl. They have become a landmark of Berlin and are considered unofficial ambassadors of Germany. The outstretched arms of the standing Buddy Bear symbolise friendliness and optimism. The first bears were displayed at an artistic event in Berlin in 2001.