Art Along the Way

New York Subway and Rail Art via the official tumblr of MTA Arts & Design. Our website: mta.info/art

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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 the 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.”

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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

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

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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

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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

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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

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Commissioned for Grand Central Terminal's 100th birthday celebration in 2013, Olive Athens ’ 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.

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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 Greene, and Steve Wood.

📸: MTA A&D/Rob Wilson

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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 the 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

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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

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“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 #MTAarts 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

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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.

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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.