MTA Arts & Design has commissioned new works by Ivan Forde, Trevor Paglen and Howardena Pindell for New York's transit network. The projects will bring contemporary art into subway and Metro-North spaces, connecting daily journeys with storytelling, nature and technology.
Art shaped by place
At Broadway Junction, Forde will create Bedtime Story for Brownsville: The Fish Who Carried the Moon, a large-scale mosaic that imagines flying fish carrying the Moon from the ocean floor into the sky. The installation will extend through the L train entrance and onto a pedestrian bridge above Van Sinderen Avenue. Forde hopes the mythic story will offer a sense of joy and pride to local families and travelers.
Paglen's Perennial will occupy a pedestrian overpass and a new parking garage at Metro-North's Southeast station. An algorithm will interpret the colors of flora growing near the station, turning them into an abstract spectrum. The work explores how human and machine perception increasingly overlap.
For Metro-North's Botanical Garden station, Pindell is creating a glass installation inspired by the New York Botanical Garden. Its forms draw on the garden's flowers, squirrels and greenhouse, with details that move between recognizable subjects and abstraction.
Together, the commissions bring distinct artistic approaches into public spaces used every day. By integrating art into transit journeys, they may help make infrastructure a more welcoming setting for shared cultural experiences.
