Tag Archive | MTA Arts for Transit

Welcoming 2019!

Dec31

Dec 31 Subway Tile
Photo By Gail

The New Year’s Eve tile above is part of Times Square Times: 35 Times, a public artwork commissioned from Ceramic sculptor Toby Buonagurio by the MTA Arts for Transit. It is permanently installed in illuminated presentation windows embedded in the glass block passageway walls throughout the Times Square – 42nd Street Subway Station. The artworks are owned by the MTA New York City Transit. However you choose to celebrate this evening, have fun , be safe and stay cozy warm!

Happy New Year and All The Best for 2019!

Pink Thing of The Day: Giant Pink Mosaic Tile Cherry Blossom in the Subway

May25

Pink Mosaic Tile Cherry Blossom
Photo By Gail

This giant Pink Cherry Blossom glass tile mosaic is located at the 77th Street 6 Train subway station, on the mezzanine walls above the stairs leading to the train platfrom. It is part of a larger wall mural, by artist Robert Kushner, entitled 4 Seasons Seasoned, commissioned for the station in 2004. For the mosaics in this mural, Kushner created bouquets of flowers – from every season – that reflect such influences as Dutch flower paintings and Japanese screens. Most neighborhoods have flower shops, but they are especially abundant on the Upper East Side, and have associations with many of the city’s finest hospitals, parks, and museums located there. A painter, sculptor and printmaker, Kushner has always been fascinated by organic motifs. A key figure of the Pattern and Decoration Movement, he continues to feature vegetal motifs in his works, often along with geometric patterns and architectural shapes. At 77th Street, he gives the community a blazing bouquet to brighten the day (and night)!

Happy New Year 2018 From NYC!

Jan1

New Years Eve Tile
Photos By Gail

Ceramic sculptor Toby Buonagurio, the studio coordinator and sculpture director of Stony Brook’s Department of Art, is known for her colorful ceramic sculptures and innovative designs. The New York New Year’s Eve tile above is part of  Times Square Times: 35 Times,  a permanent public artwork commissioned from Buonagurio by the MTA Arts for Transit. It is permanently installed in illuminated presentation windows embedded in the shiny new glass block station walls throughout the Times Square – 42nd Street Subway Station in the heart of New York City. The artworks are owned by the MTA New York City Transit.

Times Square Times: 35 Times is comprised of 35 unique, one of a kind sculptural ceramic reliefs created by the artist over five years. The work may be viewed in the Times Square – 42nd Street Subway Station along the 7th Avenue Passage, the 41st Street Corridor, the Broadway Mezzanine and the Subway Entrance at 42nd Street. The station is open to the public twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Times Square Times: 35 Times is routinely viewed by more than half a million subway riders daily.

Buonagurio’s project was conceived around three characteristic, conceptual themes emblematic of the energetic vibrancy of Times Square: Performing Arts, Fashion and Street Life – the people, the places, the things – readily recognizable to the average, everyday visitor, not matter where they are from.

Happy New Year, Everyone! Let’s Make 2018 the Best Year Ever!

New Years Eve Tile Installation Viiew
Installation Detail

Undersea Life Mural at 81st Street Subway Stop

Nov28

Undersea Mural
All Photos By Gail

For Want of a Nail is an installation by the MTA Arts for Transit Design Team and the Museum of Natural History consisting of bronze, granite, ceramic and glass mosaic murals. The project represents a study of the evolution of life starting from the big bang to the present day. The southern stairway to the lower level, downtown C Train features a multi-wall ceramic tiel mosaic mural of vibrant ocean life forms.

Undersea Mural Nautilus Detail

See more of the For Want of a Nail project at this post.

Undersea Mural Shark Detail
Shark Attack in the Subway!

Mosaic Tile Hats of The Famous, 23rd Street N and R Subway Station

Jul15

Subway Hats View
All Photos By Gail

As part of the MTA Arts & Design program (formerly known as MTA Arts for Transit), the platform walls at the Broadway and 23rd Street Subway stops for the N and R Trains are decorated with a seemingly endless row of colorful tile mosaics depicting a series of eclectic Hats previously worn on the heads many and varied famous people from times past. Here are few we photo-captured while out on an Urban Safari this last weekend!

Evelyn Nesbitt Actress

Evelyn Nesbitt, Artist’s Model, Actress, Chorus Girl

Samuel Clemens Mark Twain

Samuel Clemens (AKA Mark Twain), Author

Phineas T Barnum

Phineas T. Barnum, Museum Owner and Circus Entrepreneur

Charles Sherwood Stratton Tom Thumb

Charles Sherwood Stratton (AKA Tom Thumb), PT Barnum Performer

Ehrich Weiss Harry Houdini

Ehrich Weiss (AKA Harry Houdini), Magician

Isadora Duncan

Isadora Duncan, Dancer

Winslow Homer

Winslow Homer, Painter

Marie Curie

Marie Curie, Physicist

Robert Ross McBurney and Julia Ward Howe

Robert Ross McBurney, Founder of the YMCA, and Julia Ward Howe, Poet

23rd Street Signage View

23rd Street Signage

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney
Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney

Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum Subway Stop

Jul10

Eastern Parkway Subway
All Photos By Gail

When you enter into, or exit from, the subway at the Eastern Parkway-Brooklyn Museum stop, you can’t help but notice that you appear to have entered a showcase for the spoils from some kind of urban archaeological dig. Dozens of artifacts are embedded into the walls to create as stunning a display as anything you’ll see inside the museum.

The permanent installation is part of MTA Arts & Design (formerly Arts for Transit). The 2/3 train subway stop at this station features 78 pieces from the Brooklyn Museum’s own collection of ornaments taken from New York City buildings that are long gone. In fact, the Museum has long served as a repository for ornamental architectural forms salvaged from significant buildings that were being demolished. For installation, mosaic tiles were added along the walls to frame the objects.

Here are some of our favorite pieces photographed this unique subway station. Enjoy!

Brooklyn Museum Subway Stop

Brooklyn Museum Subway Stop

Brooklyn Museum Subway Stop

Brooklyn Museum Subway Stop

Brooklyn Museum Subway Stop

Brooklyn Museum Subway Stop

Aluminum Sculptures on The B/Q Platform, Brighton Beach Subway Stop

Jan15

Brighton Beach Subway Sculptures
All Photos By Gail

These free-form, abstract Aluminum sculptures are part of a series called Mermade/Dionysus and the Pirates, created in 1999 by artist Dan George for the MTA’s Arts for Transit program. I think they are pretty cool!

Brighton Beach Subway Sculptures

I took these photos on the Q Train platform when catching the train back to Manhattan from the Brighton Beach stop in Brooklyn. See more photos at This Link.

Roy Lichtenstein Times Square Subway Station Mural

Oct29

Roy Lichtenstein Subway Mural
Photo By Gail

I pass by this cool mural nearly every time I take a train into or out of Times Square, but I just stopped to take a photo of it this past weekend, when I had a few minutes to spare on my way way to see Hedwig and The Angry Inch starring Michael C. Hall (which, by the way, is fantastic). Installed in 2002, Times Square Mural captures the spirit of the subway, its linear movement and dynamic energy. With a nod to both the past and the future- its central image is a futuristic, bullet-shaped car zipping through an underground station. And not just any station, this is Times Square, in the heart of New York City.

Roy Lichtenstein was born in New York in 1923 and spent his last years here. Times Square Mural reflects his career, with references to, and variations on, his earlier works. Lichtenstein also freely appropriated and incorporated images from the works of other artists and designers in his work. For instance, the hooded figure at the right of the mural is from the old Buck Rogers comic strips and the iconic 42 image is from a series of drawings of the architectural detail of the subway. It is a signature work that honors its creator and the place in which it is located.

Times Square – 42nd Street Mural is located on the wall of the mezzanine adjacent to the entrances of the N, Q, R, S, 1, 2 and 3 trains.

Alice In Wonderland Tile Mosaic Mural, 50th Street Subway Station

Mar25

Liliana Porter They Way Out
Photo By Gail

The above mosaic, featuring The White Rabbit, The Mad Hatter and what looks like Humpty Dumpty (?) is part of The Way Out (1994), an Alice In Wonderland-themed four panel terracotta mosaic mural by artist Liliana Porter that decorates the walls of the 50th Street and Seventh Avenue Station on the One Train.

White Rabbit Mosaic

Alice in Wonderland Mosaic

Alice and White Rabbit