Jonathan Borofsky's most famous works, at least among the general public, are his
Hammering Man public art sculptures.
Hammering Man has been installed in various cities around the world. The largest
Hammering Man is in
Seoul,
Korea and the second largest is in
Frankfurt, Germany. Other
Hammering Man sculptures are in
Basel, Switzerland,
Yorkshire Sculpture Park,
Dallas,
Denver,
Los Angeles,
Minneapolis,
New York City,
Seattle,
Gainesville, FL,
Washington, D.C., and
Lillestrøm, Norway. In 1989 developer Harlan Lee commissioned Borofsky's 30-foot-tall
Ballerina Clown, a building-mounted kinetic aluminum, steel and fiberglass public art sculpture for a mixed use residential and commercial building in
Venice, California in 1989. The clown sculpture's right leg was motorized with a kicking motion. Tenant complaints followed about the sculpture's mechanical noise and after years of in-operation the kinetic leg component was restored in 2014 to move only intermittently. Another Ballerina Clown was installed in the
Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst in
Aachen, Germany. This version dates from 1991 and was part of the Metropolis exhibition at Gropiusbau Berlin that year. In 1990, the
Newport Harbor Art Museum commissioned
Ruby, a 5-foot-tall plastic sculpture containing an internal lighting system and swaying, diamond-shaped light deflectors. Between 1989 and 1999, Borofsky completed a series of
Molecule Man public art sculptures consisting of three connected perforated aluminum sheets, ranging in height from 11 feet to 100 feet. Three of his 100-foot
Molecule Man sculptures were set directly into the
Spree River in Berlin as a commission for German insurance company
Allianz. In 2004, the Municipal Art Society of Baltimore commissioned Jonathan Borofsky to create his 51-foot (15.5 m)
Male/Female aluminum sculpture as the centerpiece of a re-designed plaza in front of Penn Station to celebrate its 100th anniversary. The sculpture was a gift to the city from the Society. A smaller version of
Male/Female is located at the
Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park and stands approximately 23 feet (7 m) tall. In May 2006, Borofsky's
Walking to the Sky was permanently installed on the campus of
Carnegie Mellon University near the intersection of Forbes Avenue and Morewood Avenue in
Pittsburgh. The piece was temporarily installed at
Rockefeller Center during the fall of 2004 and in 2005 at the
Nasher Sculpture Center in
Dallas, Texas. ==Major permanent commissions==