"A Walk in the Park"

These bronze panels depict animals that can be found in nearby Minnehaha Falls Park. The animals are rendered in a style that is reminiscent of traditional animal etchings, while the compositions, with their simplified or non-existent backgrounds, are more contemporary in nature. Animals depicted are: East platform – Great Blue Herons, Skunks, Large Mouth Bass, Owls, Catbirds, Catfish, Rabbits, Canada Geese; West platform – Garter Snake, Crows, Pumpkinseed Fish, American Toads, Raccoons, Chubs, Hairy Woodpecker, Turtles.

Gregg LeFevre is both a sculptor and a photographer from New York City.

Heralded by The New York Times in 2003, “...of all the sculptors who have left their public stamp on this city, none rival the bronze ubiquity of Gregg LeFevre, a little-known artist and former schoolteacher who lives in Harlem and keeps a studio on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village. Since graduating with a degree in philosophy, sculptor/photographer he has created more than 120 site-specific public art works in cast metal that provide insight about the nature and character of particular places. He often uses cast relief images and text to illustrate the traits that contribute to the unique personality of a place.”

LeFevre began a parallel career in the 1990s as a street photographer. His most important series of photographs deals with the role of figurative advertising in the urban landscape. He is especially drawn to documenting the dialogue between advertisers and those who choose to alter these idealized images; from fine artists and political artists, to ad installers, contractors and street workers. 

LeFevre’s art is in the private collections of Josh Lucas, Gene Shallot and Meryl Streep, as well as Boston University, Hamilton College, NASA, Price Waterhouse, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Smithsonian, the Everson Museum, the DeCordova Museum, the Freies Museum (Berlin), the National Air and Space Museum and the Museum of the City of New York. He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Browne Fund, and in collaboration with the Grand Central Partnership, an award for excellence in design from the Arts Commission of the City of New York.

Gregg LeFevre's website

The artwork at 50th Street/Minnehaha Park Station is based on the natural world of Minnehaha Park that is located along the light rail line. The park was officially named Minnehaha State Park when it was purchased by Minneapolis for the state of Minnesota in 1889. The name Minnehaha comes from words in the Dakota language that mean waterfall. The popular translation of "laughing waters" comes from a too literal translation of "ha ha".

Minnehaha Falls and the land surrounding it was one of the first state parks in the United States when it was purchased. Only New York had created a state park at that time. But the state of Minnesota only paid for the park indirectly and never had a hand in maintaining it. The city of Minneapolis put up the money to buy it and managed it from the beginning.