Art in the Garden

In the space where the circus shows off its freaks, directly below the main arena where hockey players hack at one another with stick and skate, Madison Square Garden last week became a colossal art gallery. The most massive exhibition of U.S. painting and sculpture in decades—more than 1,500 works from 40 states and Hawaii—lined 4,200 running feet of plywood panels and sprawled over 40,000 sq. ft. of space in the Garden's basement Exposition Hall. The all-encompassing title of the show: "Art: U.S.A.: 58."

Behind the art extravaganza is crew-cut Lee Nordness, 33, a...