Become a paid member to listen to this articleShahzia Sikander, Witness (2023) in Madison Square Park for Havah…to breathe, air, life, 2023. Photo by Yasunori Matsui. Courtesy of theMadison Square Park Conservancy.
As one of New York City’s warmest winters in recent years, now is the perfect time to head outside and enjoy the city’s newest public art installations. From Shahzia Sikander’s two-part sculpture collaboration Havah… to breathe, air, life at Madison Square Park and the Courthouse of the Appellate Division to Brookfield Place’s vibrant and colorful Pulse Portal installation, there is something for everyone to enjoy. This February be sure to check out the brand new edition of the Button & Needle sculpture in the Garment District and Rockefeller Center’s first entry for this year’s Art in Focus program. Here are the best public art installations to see in February 2023.
1. Anish Kapoor’s Reflective Sculpture at 56 Leonard
New York City now has its very own reflective “bean” sculpture, like the one in Chicago. Created by the artist Anish Kapoor, New York’s sculpture appears somewhat squished beneath the corner of 56 Leonard Street. The stainless steel sculpture is fully integrated into the structure of the Erzog and DeMeuron-designed residential building.
Sitting at the bottom of the building’s 60 stories, the sculpture, which is yet unnamed, weighs 40 tons and is 48 feet long by 19 feet high. Barricades around the artwork finally came down in January after five years of work. In a statement, the artist Anish Kapoor said of the piece, “The city can feel frenetic, fast and hard, imposing architecture, concrete, noise. My work, at 56 Leonard Street, proposes a form that though made of stainless steel is also soft and ephemeral. Mirrors cause us to pause, to be absorbed and pulled in a way that disrupts time, slows it down perhaps; it’s a material that creates a new kind of immaterial space.”
2. The Time Telling at 34th Street Penn Station
The Time Telling at Penn Station. Photo by Marc A. Hermann. Courtesy of the MTA.
An iconic clock once hung at the former entrance to New York City’s lost McKim, Mead, and White-designed Penn Station. In her most recent 15 feet high and 14 feet wide glass mosaic, entitled The Time Telling, artist Diana Al-Hadid recreates this famous clock, giving life to a piece of forgotten New York history.
Inspiration for the mosaic was drawn from a 1943 photograph by Alfred Eisenstadt, which captures the clock hanging above a crowd of servicemen saying goodbye to their loved ones before shipping out. Abstractly reimagining this image, The Time Telling depicts the clock face alongside a blurry crowd of commuters, the image slightly hazy mimicking a fading memory. The mosaic can be found at the 34th Street Penn Station subway stop’s new fully accessible street entrance and fare control area at 7th Avenue and 33rd Street.
3. Love’s h|Edge at Duffy Square
Love’s h|Edge at Duffy Square. Photo by Jonathan Hokklo, Courtesy of Times Square Alliance
Through February 28th, Times Square Arts will present Love’s h|Edge, the 15th winner of their annual Love & Design Competition. This competition celebrates the work of architecture and design firms addressing themes of love in their work. Love’s h|Edge was created by Brooklyn-based design practice Almost Studio and features four heart-shaped hedges configured to encourage discovery and reflection as visitors walk through its hidden pathways, rose-filled trellises, and heart-shaped interior spaces dubbed “Pitter-Patios.” The installation also features a recorded soundscape which creates an immersive sensory experience.
At 1 pm every day, Times Square Arts and Almost Studio will stage a free dedication of freshly cut roses and invite visitors to fill the installation’s trellises with their flowers. By the end of the month, the hedges will be fully covered in bloom. Love’s h|Edge can be found in Duffy Square at Broadway and 46th Street until February 28th.
4. A Message of Love, Directly from My Heart unto the Universe by Yayoi Kusama
Now that Grand Central Madison has finally opened, the public can get an up-close view of all the art inside! One of the most exciting pieces of art in the new LIRR train terminal is A Message of Love, Directly from My Heart unto the Universe (2022) by Yayoi Kusama. The giant mosaic can be found at the Madison Concourse level between 46th and 47th Streets.
Measuring 120 feet wide by 7 feet tall, for a total coverage area of approximately 875 square feet, the colorful piece features abstract and figurative images that look like faces, the sun, or even microscopic cells. They are meant to evoke the themes of love, the universe, and peace for all mankind, a message central to Kusama’s work.
5. Kiki Smith Mosaics at Grand Central Madison
Four new large mosaic installations by artist Kiki Smith have been unveiled at the new Grand Central Madison. The pieces are titled River Light, The Water’s Way, The Presence, The Spring, and The Sound (2022). Like much of her work since the 1980s, these mosaics draw inspiration from a number of sources “spanning scientific anatomical renderings from the eighteenth century to the abject imagery of relics, memento mori, folklore, mythology, Byzantine iconography, and medieval altarpieces.”
The pieces are spread throughout two levels of the station. River Light is the first piece that greets you as you enter Madison Concourse from the historic Grand Central Terminal. The mosaic pays homage to the nearby celestial painting on Grand Central’s ceiling, by incorporating celestial bodies. At the mezzanine level, you’ll find the other three mosaics which pull their subjects from the natural habits of Long Island. Featured in these works are wild turkeys, deer, and the waves of the Long Island sound.
6. Havah… to breathe, air, life at Madison Square Park and the Courthouse of the Appellate Division
Shahzia Sikander, Witness (2023) in Madison Square Park for Havah…to breathe, air, life, 2023. Photo by Yasunori Matsui. Courtesy of theMadison Square Park Conservancy.
On view at Madison Square Park and the nearby Courthouse of the Appellate Division is Havah… to breathe, air, life, a multimedia exhibition. Created by artist Shahzia Sikander, Havah… to breathe, air, life marks the first collaboration between the Madison Square Park Conservancy and the courthouse, as well as Sikander’s first major outdoor work. Its namesake “havah” translates to “air” or “atmosphere” in Urdu and “Eve” in Arabic, Hebrew, and other languages. The exhibition features two sculptures of female figures created to confront symbols of power and justice to reassess progress in the political and social advancement of women. While historically, justice has been portrayed in the form of a blindfolded woman holding scales to symbolize her impartiality and the balance of power, the eyes of Sikander’s figures are wide open.
At Madison Square Park visitors can view the golden sculpture Witness, which bears a distinct steel hoop skirt adorned with a calligraphic mosaic whose surface maps the word “havah” in Arabic and was inspired by the Appellate Division courthouse’s stained-glass ceiling dome. For Sikander, the appendages of the sculpture are meant to suggest tree roots and the self-rootedness of the female form. Also on view at Madison Square Park is Sikander’s 2020 video animation Reckoning and an augmented reality experience entitled Apparition. Visitors to the park can use Snapchat to scan a code for the AR experience featuring colorful particles and ghostlike images of the courthouse figure. On the rooftop of the courthouse the second sculpture, NOW, can be found resting atop a base of a lotus plant, a symbol of wisdom. The sculpture is surrounded by nine male lawgivers including Confucius, Justinian, and Moses, making it the first female figure to be installed in the space. Havah… to breathe, air, life can be viewed until June 4, 2023.
7. Button & Needle Sculpture in the Garment District
Former Button & Needle sculpture. A new version of the sculpture will be unveiled later this month.
On February 16th, the Garment District Alliance will unveil the newest version of the Button & Needle sculpture. In 1996, the Garment District Alliance erected James Biber’s Button & Needle, leaning it against an existing kiosk structure built during the 1970s, which functioned as a fashion industry resource and information center. Years later, having determined that the kiosk is no longer necessary, the new iteration of the Button & Needle will now be supported by a stainless steel thread.
The new version, designed by Local Projects and UAP Company, will be 28 feet tall with a 15-foot diameter aluminum button painted bright yellow. Piercing the button will be a 32-foot-long brushed stainless steel needle. The Button & Needle sculpture can be found at the intersection of 7th Avenue and 39th Street.
8. Pulse Portal at Brookfield Place
New to the Waterfront Plaza at Brookfield Place is artist Davis McCarty’s iridescent installation Pulse Portal. Visitors are invited to walk through Pulse Portal‘s 20-foot dichromatic archway as streams of colored light filter in, shifting as the day moves from morning to night. To create this effect, the installation was created utilizing NASA-developed materials whose color transforms as the angle of the viewer transitions through space.
The vibrant colors of the installation are meant to represent the diversity of humankind while also celebrating the individual spark everyone has within themselves. Before making its way to New York City, the sculpture was seen at the Wright Museum of Art and Burning Man festival. Pulse Portal can be visited through March 10, 2023.
9. Living Lantern in the Garment District
Living Lantern in the Garment District, Photo by Alexander Ayer. Courtesy of @DiversityPics for the Garment District Alliance.
In the heart of Midtown Manhattan is Living Lantern, a new entrancing work of art created to serve as a symbol of hope, brightness, and guiding light for passersby. Standing at nearly 14 feet tall and 20 feet wide, Living Lantern illuminates the street in a dazzling array of colors providing viewers with a mesmerizing and meditative experience. As the wind blows, the installation opens and closes to reveal the light inside. Living Lantern is displayed as part of the Garment District Alliance’s year-round public art program, Art on the Plaza, which seeks to reimagine public spaces in New York City.
The installation was created by Neon, a UK-based artistic practice that explores the connections between art, architecture, and design, and Frankie Boyle, a UK-based visual artist specializing in the light as a form of expression. Living Lantern is powered by the international art agency Wireframe. Previously displayed at the World Science Festival and Curiocity in 2021 in Brisbane Australia and the 2021 Taiwan Light Festival, Living Lantern can now be found on the Broadway plazas in the Garment District between 39th and 40th Streets through February 24th, 2023.
10. Art in Focus public art program at Rockefeller Center
Joel Gaitan’s Nicaraguan-inspired mural series. Photo by Daniel Greer. Courtesy of the Art Production Fund.
Kickstarting this year’s Art in Focus public art program at Rockefeller Center is Nicaraguan-American artist Joel Gaitan’s mural series. In his craft, Gaitan explores his family ancestry and identity as a first-generation Nicaraguan living in Miami, Florida allowing him to touch upon historical hierarchies. His art in Rockefeller Center displays creative interpretations of terracotta vessels liberated from their position as sacred items within Nicaraguan and Central American tradition.
Throughout 30 Rockefeller Plaza, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, and the street and concourse level of 45 Rockefeller Plaza, visitors can pass by Gaitan’s bold and vibrant murals. The vitrine spaces of the lobby in 45 Rockefeller Plaza feature layered installations of photography, Central American aesthetics, and Gaitan’s terracotta vessels with the windows highlighting imagery of Nicaraguan faces including some of the artist’s family members. Gaitan’s murals will be up to view through April 23, 2023.
11. Midnight Moment in Times Square
Video still of Casey Kauffman’s Midnight Moment entry Squanderlust. Courtesy of Cultural Counsel.
Times Square Arts presents the latest edition of its monthly art installation, Midnight Moment. This new iteration features an ethereal collection of animations entitled Squanderlust. Created by artist Casey Kauffman, Squanderlust depicts candy-colored pixelated rainbows and floating unicorns set atop hyperreal natural scenes and fragmented ocean views.
While creating Squanderlust, Kauffman drew inspiration from her previous experience as a collector of cyber content and Internet histories. Kauffman specifically focuses on the manipulation of “poor images”—a special term coined by the artist to signify the state of digital content that has passed through infinite exchanges of online economies. In its design Squanderlust plays with the dynamic of popular exchange and the politics of anonymous global networks to reflect our society’s visual culture and the histories, interests, desires, and anxieties we all share.
Irene Madrigal is a sophomore at Barnard College intending on majoring in English and History with a minor in Spanish. As a native New Yorker, she can be found guiding her friends across the city and
