MTA Arts & Design

New digital artwork by .yen.song is now on view at Grand Central Madison! The five digital screens show “Anyplace, Anytime, Anywhere” drawing from the frenetic energy of the city featuring a multitude of digital icons bouncing like a pinball machine and eventually coalescing into one word at the center of each screen.

Yehwan Song’s digital artwork takes inspiration from the complex network of MTA subway and train lines beneath the built environment and the frenetic paths that individuals move within it. Through collaboration with computational tools including artificial intelligence and coding, icons, emojis, and browser windows bump into one another, slide through portals, and rotate in a seemingly random configuration. Over the two-minute run time, order slowly emerges as the forms align to reveal a single word. Passing in either direction, a mysterious poem can be read that is open to interpretation: ANY PLACE TIME WHERE ANY. The artist presents objects in motion through their own paths eventually find order, acknowledging the shared humanity of individuals moving through the MTA system.

"Anyplace, Anytime, Anywhere" is presented by MTA Arts & Design with technical support from ANC.



📸: MTA Arts & Design

New animated digital collage by Monika Bravo just landed at the Grand Central Madison digital screens! Inspired by our built environment, “Ouranos, Above Us Only Sky” is a vibrant cityscape that reflects the passage of time and the crystallization of civilization, encouraging contemplation of humanity's creative prowess.

For her five-screen animation, Bravo sourced images from Futurist architecture, including Antonio Sant’Elia’s never-realized buildings “Città Nuova” (“New City”) and Hugh Ferriss’s “The Four Stages,” to prompt introspection about humanity’s role in shaping the world and the potential outcomes of our endeavors. Directly referencing Grand Central’s vaulted ceiling above, constellations from Johann Bayer’s 1603 star atlas Uranometria float through the sky against pulsating, colorful abstractions. As the artist says, “The artwork highlights how individuals, through voluntary interactions, contribute to our collective journey.”

"Ouranos, Above Us Only Sky" is presented by MTA Arts & Design with technical support from ANC.



📸: Monika Bravo

“Contemporary Art Underground” was featured in the Book Review! If you missed it in print (Sun. June 23), it’s available online. Link in bio.

Now on display! "Direct Connection on Turtle Island" by Dennis RedMoon Darkeem, weaves together past and present with references to Indigenous history and cultural symbolism, emphasizing city dwellers’ connection to the natural environment. A modern cityscape including the subway is situated on the shell of a turtle, symbolic of creation stories about the origin of the Earth and the human relationship to it. Wampum and the medicine wheel are also shown, connecting to changing seasons, healing, and water. The lines of the subway map appear as ripples within the cerulean water, representing the importance of transportation to the city.

Darkeem is a Bronx artist, educator, community, and cultural practitioner. He uses installations, photography, sculpture, drawing, painting, sound, and performance as vessels to convey and balance ideas of transformation, generation, and honor.

New artwork at Lorimer St (L) station, “Personal Choice #5” by Chloë Bass invites riders to reflect on lived communal experience, connection, and proximity in New York City. The new artwork is part of an ongoing series titled "Personal Choice," a text and image-based project that pairs cropped found images sourced from the New York Public Library’s Picture Collection with poetic text written by Bass. Rendered in cut metal lettering, text in the new artwork reads: “Whenever I'm pulled under by the weight of all I miss, I take some consolation that I have known, and may yet know, another life." Spreading as a single sentence over the three mosaic panels allows the artwork to be read like an open book, with one panel serving as the front cover, another as the central spine, and the third as the back. Imagery in the three compositions depict three groups of figures in areas of Williamsburg near the subway station. Within the newly reconfigured control area, the Brooklyn-bound side portrays two Orthodox Jewish community members from a photo taken in the 1960s, the triptych progresses on the wall in the center mezzanine featuring a 1997 image of a diverse group of teenagers, and finishes on the Manhattan-bound side with a photographic depiction from 2005 of two men engaged in conversation. Together, these images encapsulate an inherent intimacy and anonymity of public life.

Completed in conjunction with the ADA accessibility upgrades for the station complex, including new elevators and stairs, “Personal Choice #5” was fabricated by .Nearby, Jackie Chang’s “Signs of Life” can be seen in the station complex at the Metropolitan Av (G) mezzanine.



📸: Nicholas Knight

New artworks by Jackie Chang and Chloë Bass offer thought provoking compositions that pair imagery and text at the Metropolitan Av/Lorimer St (G,L) station complex in Brooklyn. These poetic representations speak directly to human connection though language and touch.

Chang expanded upon her artwork “Signs of Life,” originally installed at Metropolitan Av station (G) in 2000, adding two new mosaic compositions that juxtapose seemingly unrelated words and graphic symbols. Located on the mezzanine, one panel features the text “TRUTH” and “TRUST” with the image of an iceberg. The other depicts “ones” and “once” with an image of an Armillaria fungi, one of the world's largest and oldest living organisms. Additionally, two panels from the original installation, featuring waves and the words “MANKIND” and “ITSELF,” were refabricated and relocated to the mezzanine where “Signs of Life” can now be experienced in its totality. Inspired by traditional Chinese writing in which the meaning of the character can be deciphered through its pictorial resemblance to a physical object or sign, Chang combines text and image as reflections on the human experience.

Fabricated by new artwork by Chang and was integrated during ADA accessibility upgrades for the station complex, including new elevators and stairs, completed in March 2024.



📸: Nicholas Knight

Hear the stories behind A&D permanent works, from artist selection through the translation of an artwork into a large-scale, site-specific installation from the authors of the new book “Contemporary Art Underground.” Authors Sandra Bloodworth, who has been the Director of MTA Arts & Design for nearly 30 years, and Deputy Director Cheryl Hageman, will discuss all that and more in New York Transit Museum’s Book Talk, taking place online, Wed April 24, 2-3pm.

This is a free virtual program, all are welcome! Use links in bio to register and to order your copy of “Contemporary Art Underground.”

We mourn the loss and celebrate the life of Faith Ringgold (1930-2024). A painter, mixed media sculptor, performance artist, activist, writer, teacher and lecturer, Ringgold’s impact on American art cannot be understated, and her legacy is especially felt in New York City. Born in Harlem, Ringgold attended City College for both her B.S. and M.A. degrees in visual art before travelling the world, which would inform the rich narratives in her work and the development of her iconic story quilts. She revolutionized notions of craft in fine art with her unique style of narrative quilt paintings while centering African American and feminist voices. The distinguished artist received more than 80 awards and 23 Honorary Doctorates throughout her prolific career. Ringgold’s work has been exhibited internationally and belongs in the collections of numerous institutions including the Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the High Museum of Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Ringgold’s mosaic artwork “Flying Home: Harlem Heroes and Heroines (Downtown and Uptown)” (1996) at 125 St (2,3) station honors Harlem notables and makes them fly. Ringgold has said of the work: “I love every one of these people. I wanted to share those memories, to give the community - and others just passing through - a glimpse of all the wonderful people who were part of Harlem. I wanted them to realize what Harlem has produced and inspired.” Faith Ringgold herself is certainly a Harlem heroine who has inspired and will inspire many for years to come.

📸1: MTA A&D/Cheryl Hageman, 2: Trent Reeves

April showers bring May flowers! Embrace the Spring season with our new exhibition on Bloomberg Connects, “Floral Muses.” Flowers, the timeless muse for artists of all media, are the subject of many artworks throughout the transit system. “Floral Muses” features a selection of artworks from our permanent collection which enliven the daily commute with flora year-round.

Images

1: Takayo Noda, “The Habitat for the Yellow Bird” (2007) at Sutter Av (L) station. 📸: Edward Lee

2: Antenna Design (Masamichi Udagawa + Sigi Moeslinger), “Bloemendaal” (2010) at 96 St (1,2,3) station. 📸: Jan Staller

3: Nancy Blum, “Floating Auriculas” (2007) at MNR Dobbs Ferry Station. 📸: MTA A&D

4: Portia Munson, “Gardens of Fort Hamilton Parkway Station” (2012) at Fort Hamilton Pkwy (D) station. 📸: Susan Alzner

5: Roberto Juarez, “A Field of Wild Flowers” (1997) at Grand Central Terminal. 📸: MTA A&D/Rob Wilson

We’re looking up at a South Brooklyn sky today for the Solar Eclipse! Sally Gil’s “Edges of a South Brooklyn Sky” (2018) at Av U (N) station reverses day and night in compositions that infuse elements of imagination with physical references to the Gravesend neighborhood. Today, Gil’s dreamlike night sky becomes a daytime reality!



📸: Etienne Frossard

Calling all artists interested in creating site-specific permanent artwork! Link in bio for details about the art opportunity at LIRR East Yaphank station in Yaphank, Long Island. Submission materials due April 29.



Image: Sandy Litchfield, “Forestation Syncopation” (2021) at LIRR New Hyde Park. 📸: Etienne Frossard

In Jason Middlebrook’s “Brooklyn Seeds” (2011) at Av U (B,Q) station, a larger-than-life garden of wildflowers ascends the stairway wall leading from street to platform. The glass mosaic depicts local wildflowers that grow in unlikely places, through cracks in the sidewalk, alleys, and walls, exploring the intersection of the human-made and natural. These flowers, often weeds, include such local specimens as spotted knapweed, burdock, golden rod, aster, milkweed, and daises. Above the plants are airborne seed pods floating away to germinate, on a journey of their own.



📸: Etienne Frossard

Commissioned for Grand Central Terminal’s 100th birthday celebration in 2013, Olive Ayhens’ 2012 poster “Reflection” artfully depicts both the interior and exterior of the iconic building. The dreamlike composition captures the hustle and bustle of the space, as well as its light-filled atmosphere.

Ayhens’ work has long been interested in the urban environment and relationships between the natural and man-made world. Her solo exhibition “Metabolic Metropolis” is currently on view at Bookstein Projects through April 12.

The subway is filled with timeless works of art, some newly commissioned and others dating back to the early days of our program. Take our self-guided tour “Selections from the Beginning 1986-1996 (1 line)” on the Bloomberg Connects app to explore artworks that built the foundation of our ever-growing collection. Beginning at Houston St (1) station with Deborah Brown’s mosaic artwork “Platform Diving” (1994), continue on the 1 line to see artworks by Lee Brozgol, Norman B Colp (accessible off the 1 at Times Sq-42 St, located in the passage near the A,C,E at 42 St-Port Authority), Liliana Porter, Nitza Tufiño, Michelle Green, and Steve Wood.



📸: MTA A&D/Rob Wilson

Spring has officially sprung! Jack Beal illustrates the mythological story of Persephone across two mosaic murals in “The Return of Spring” (2001) and “The Onset of Winter” (2005) at Times Sq-42 St (1,2,3,7,N,Q,R,W,S) station. Instead of fasting, Persephone ate a pomegranate and as punishment was banished underground for six months of the year. The periods above and below ground were marked by the beginning of seasons, which Beal references in his titles, playfully connecting the myth to the subway, a bustling underground world.



📸: Jeffrey Sturges

Emilio Perez’s “Fluxus/Rhythmus” (2018) at 18 Av ( N ) station is composed of colorful, abstracted and stylized forms inspired by movement. Perez captures the energy of the South Brooklyn neighborhood and its community through his expressive, painterly visual language. The swirling motion across the 22 panels reflects the constant flow of the transit system, likening the subway to a living organism. Before translation into glass mosaic, Perez’s paintings were made through a process of intuitive mark-making and methodical stenciling, allowing the artist to reveal and build upon layers of color.

Perez’s work is currently on view in “SAVAGE GARDEN” at Kates-Ferri Projects through March 31. The exhibition “serves as a powerful commentary on the delicate balance between humanity and the natural world.”



📸: Greg Vore

Now on display at Fulton Center, Jocelyn R.C.’s mesmerizing, 52-channel digital artwork “Seen in the Sound,” depicts the natural world colliding with the urban landscape. Jocelyn R.C.’s work draws from hundreds of hours of footage shot by the artist in places such as New York City, their former home, and the Pacific Northwest, where they now live. Serene and ethereal worlds of towering trees, placid waters, and dense forests that exist in the shadow of human interference remind even those living in one of the densest urban jungles on earth of the power of nature to seduce and transform. The video composite includes scenes of plant life emerging from the forest floor, ducks swimming across a glittering pond, and human figures crisscrossing settings both natural and man-made. The artist appears repeatedly, sometimes in duplicate within the same frame.

“Seen in the Sound” plays for two minutes at the top of every hour. The work is presented by MTA Arts & Design with technical support from Westfield Properties and ANC Sports.



📸: Jocelyn R.C.

With spring approaching, Mary Judge’s “American Season” (2018) at LIRR Wyandanch and Pinelawnstations offers a meditation on seasonal changes, living in harmony with nature and each other, and societal changes that come with the passing of time.

The rich colors of hand-painted and printed glass radiate and envelop viewers passing through the Wyandanch station overpass bridge and the Pinelawn station platform shelters. Bold lines recall the flare of approaching train headlights or the speeding up and slowing down of a train. The symbolic expansion and contraction is punctuated with stylized flower beacons that are rendered in the style of a homemade sewing sampler. The recurring motif expresses the marriage of place, nature, and the technology of train travel. Judge’s patterns and palette draw influence from various cultures and sources, including Long Island’s Native American communities, textiles from around the world, and the American Craftsman design style of the station house. The latter is especially apparent in the terrazzo floor Judge designed for the Wyandanch station house.



📸: Seong Kwon

Drawing upon childhood memories, Manny Vega’s “Sábado en la Ciento Diez (Saturday on 110th Street)” (1996) at 110 St (6) station captures the joyous, colorful atmosphere of la ciento diez. The four mosaic panels—“Earth,” “Air,” “Fire,” and “Water”—depict scenes one would expect to find in the East Harlem neighborhood. In “Earth,” a street vendor sells bananas, plantains, papayas, avocados, and coconuts. “Air” illustrates a typical summer-in-the-city activity: children playing under the spray of a fire hydrant while a piraguero shaves a block of ice to make tropical fruit-flavored snow cones of guava, papaya, mango, and tamarindo. Shangó - a deity from the Yoruba pantheon - embodies Harlem’s West African roots in “Fire,” dancing to the beat of three bata drummers. In “Water,” an elderly woman represents motherhood as she carries a bouquet of flowers and leads a child by the hand from a neighborhood botánica.

Vega’s work is celebrated in “Byzantine Bembé: New York by Manny Vega” at Museum of the City of New York. On view through December, the exhibition highlights the artist’s unique style, dubbed “Byzantine Hip-Hop,” as well as his dedication to sharing stories of community and the diasporic experience.



📸: David Lubarsky

In honor of Women’s History Month, we are shining the spotlight on Nancy Spero (1926-2009), an artist and activist who pioneered the feminist art movement. In “Artemis, Acrobats, Divas and Dancers” (2001) at 66 St-Lincoln Center (1) station, Spero brought in iconic images of women both real and mythical, from such varied sources as archaeology, architecture, mythology, and the contemporary world. The work honors Lincoln Center's opera, ballet, and classical music halls as well as the character of the Upper West Side neighborhood.



📸: James and Karla Murray

“Making Their Mark,” presented by the Shah Garg Foundation and curated by Cecilia Alemani, is a monumental exhibition featuring 80 significant women artists from the last 80 years. Among these notable women are artists Firelei Báez, Faith Ringgold, Sarah Sze, and Elizabeth Murray.

On view in Chelsea through Mar 23, the exhibition “champions the lives and work of women artists, bringing into vibrant relief their intergenerational relationships, formal and material breakthroughs, and historical impact. Through drawings, mixed media works, paintings, sculptures, and textile works, the artists of ‘Making Their Mark’ rechart art history through their singular, iconic practices.” - Shah Garg Foundation



Images

1: Firelei Baez, “Ciguapa Antellana, me llamo sueño de la madrugada (who more sci-fi than us)” (2018) at 163 St-Amsterdam Av (C) station. 📸: Osheen Haruthoonyan

2: Faith Ringgold, “Flying Home: Harlem Heroes and Heroines (Downtown and Uptown)” (1996) at 125 St (2,3) station. 📸: Trent Reeves

3: Sarah Sze, “Blueprint for a Landscape” (2017) at 96 St (Q) station. 📸: Tom Powel

4: Elizabeth Murray, “Blooming” (1996) by Elizabeth Murray at 59 St/Lexington Av-59 St (N,R,W) station. 📸: MTA A&D/Rob Wilson

5: Elizabeth Murray, “Stream” (2001) at Court Sq (E,M,G,7) station. 📸: MTA A&D Rob Wilson

Happy Lunar New Year! Taili Wu’s art card “Year of the Dragon” references the subway and other New York City highlights, in a scene that celebrates the Year of the Dragon. The zodiac animal symbolizes growth, expansion, and energy. The subway dragon is depicted moving across the city, set against a sunshine-yellow background. The dragon’s body is made up of with sculptural references to New York City, including the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, cultural institutions, foods, and entertainment. Wu created the artwork using hand-sculpted ceramic pieces, which she arranged, photographed, and manipulated digitally.

Now greeting riders along the commute is Yevgenia Nayberg's art card “NYC Superhero,” which features an imagined transit superhero in flight, illustrating how New York’s vast transportation system enables riders to metaphorically fly across the city. The superhero dons a cape patterned with subway symbols and travels with a cup of steaming coffee, allowing commuters to envision themselves as heroes as they set off on their journeys to work, school, and other destinations. The background shows the New York City skyline with various Manhattan buildings and the subway traveling under a crescent moon near Coney Island’s Ferris wheel. The artist created a mixed media work using colored pencils and acrylic paint, then completed it digitally.

Displayed in stations across the NYCT system, Erin K. Robinson’s new poster “Catch a Line” celebrates travel by subway and the iconic graphic design of the New York City subway map. The colorful collage shows a network of bold subway lines and street grids set within a green background reflective of the city’s lively parks and green spaces. The central figure, representative of a child at play, is shown juggling giant subway symbols, playfully exploring potential travel routes, transfers, and connections. “Catch a Line” highlights not just the importance of transit to daily life but the opportunities for play and adventure sparked along the way.

🚇 Heads up New York subway riders! Look out for artwork by Marcel Dzama on your next train ride, brought to you by MTA Arts & Design.

"The underground helps the garden" by Dzama offers a fantastical depiction of flora and fauna filling a subway car. The scene depicts subway riders including Mother Earth holding the Earth in her hand, an Alice figure next to a white rabbit, a musician, and other typical commuters who don’t seem to notice anything unusual about the exotic animals accompanying their commute.

Artwork Commissioned by MTA Arts & Design. Images:

1/3: The underground helps the garden 1 (2023) © Marcel Dzama.
2/4: Installation view of The underground helps the garden 1 & 2 (2023) © Marcel Dzama. Photo: MTA A&D/Rob Wilson.

“GODZILLA: Echoes from the 1990s Asian American Arts Network” at Eric Firestone Gallery highlights the work of artists who were active in the network, which served as a community support system and forum for dialogue and action toward visibility in the art world. On view through March 16, the exhibition features several artists, including Godzilla’s co-founder Bing Lee, as well as Barbara Takenaga, Mel Chin, Ik-Joong Kang, Skowmon Hastanan, and Carol Sun.

Eric Firestone Gallery notes, “Godzilla sought to resist the homogenous category of ‘Asian American’ while also creating connections between Asian Americans of different backgrounds.” The exhibition centers on both the collective and the respective viewpoints of and strides made by individual artists.



Images

1: Bing Lee, “Empress Voyage 2.22.1794” (1998) at Canal St (6,J,N,Q,R,W,Z) station 📸: MTA A&D/Rob Wilson

2: Barbara Takenaga, “Forte (Quarropas)” (2020) at MNR White Plains station 📸: Steve Bates

3: Mel Chin, “Signal” (1997) at Broadway-Lafayette St/Bleecker St (B,D,F,M) station. 📸: MTA A&D/Rob Wilson

4: Ik-Joong Kang, “Happy World” (1999) at Flushing-Main St (7) station 📸: MTA A&D/Rob Wilson

5: Skowmon Hastanan, “A Secret Garden: There’s No Place Like Home” (2006) at 233 St (2,5) station 📸: MTA A&D/Rob Wilson

6: Carol Sun, “A Bronx Reflection” (2007) at 167 St (4) station 📸: MTA A&D/Rob Wilson

What perfect weather for a snowy stroll or cozy day at home. Stay warm, New York!



Image: Ingo Fast, “On and Off the Boardwalk” (2011) at Beach 67 St (A) station. 📸: MTA A&D/Rob Wilson

Michele Oka Doner’s “Radiant Site” (1991) at 34 St-Herald Sq (B,D,F,M,N,R,Q,W) station fills a rectilinear passage with golden light. The floor-to-ceiling mural is comprised of 11,000 ceramic tiles made by the artist using a century-old foot-press at Pewabic, one of the oldest continually operating potteries in the country. Their slightly irregular shapes and uneven surfaces were hand-glazed, varying the recipe in tiny increments to achieve the desired luminosity. The midsection of the mural is the brightest, as the copper-toned glazed tiles grow darker and reflect less light along the top and bottom of the passageway, resulting in a gently glowing surface. Doner says that she considers not only the physical and chemical properties of the materials she will use but also “their psychic and cosmic qualities.”



📸: MTA A&D/Rob Wilson

Calling all new media artists interested in creating digital art installations for Fulton Transit Center and LIRR Grand Central Madison terminal! Artists with prior experience in multi-channel installation are encouraged to apply. Visit the link in our bio for details, and submit all materials by May 6.

Image: Gabriel Barcia-Colombo, “Platform” (2023), LIRR Grand Central Madison