A 30-foot-tall neon Buckyball in the sky, a familiar statue from a whole new vantage, mischievous bronze figures on the 14th Street A, C, E subway platform—public art works are a reason to visit New York for some, and welcomed flourishes to an everyday route for others. To either audience, public art encourages new ideas, conversation and change the way a city is perceived.
Below are installations—both temporary and permanent—that will take your walk in a different direction.
Art Underground
Discover and enjoy this diverse and beautiful collection of commissioned public artwork installed throughout the subway and commuter rail stations of the MTA.
2nd Annual Model to Monument
Riverside Park
Manhattan
Fri, Jun 22, 2012 - Fri, May 31, 2013
In its second consecutive year, The Art Students League of New York’s “Model to Monument” program will return to Riverside South with seven new sculptures designed by its students.
African Burial Ground Memorial
African Burial Ground National Monument
Manhattan
Ongoing
The memorial honors the estimated 15,000 enslaved and free Africans who were interred here during the 17th and 18th centuries. Visitors to the monument learn about the harsh living conditions ...
Akihiro Ito: Tomorrow
Fort Greene Park
Brooklyn
Thu, Sep 27, 2012 - Sat, Aug 31, 2013
The piece is installed at the northeast corner of Fort Greene Park (Myrtle and Washington Park) and illustrates the harmony between humans and their natural surroundings, reminding us of the ...
BioMask (Model to Monument)
Van Cortlandt Park
Bronx
Fri, Jun 22, 2012 - Fri, May 31, 2013
The Art Students League of New York, one of America’s premier art schools, presents the Model to Monument Program (M2M), a collaboration with the New York City Department of Parks ...
Configurations: Valerie Blass, Katinka Bock, Esther Kläs, Allyson Vieira
MetroTech Commons
Brooklyn
Sun, Nov 11, 2012 - Mon, Sep 16, 2013
"Configurations" brings together nine works by four artists who share a concern with one of the essential questions of sculpture: what happens when we walk around an object?
Joie de Vivre
Zuccotti Park
Ongoing
Sculptor Mark di Suvero's 70-foot-high Joie de Vivre (Joy of Life) resides in Lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park.
Katherine Daniels: Ornamental Paths
Joyce Kilmer Park
Bronx
Thu, Jun 07, 2012 - Sun, Jun 30, 2013
Katherine Daniels transforms everyday objects and materials into elaborately woven ornamental forms in her site specific installation "Ornamental Paths." The large-scale pieces are currently on view on the Grand Concourse ...
Orly Genger: Red, Yellow and Blue
Madison Square Park
Manhattan
Thu, May 02, 2013 - Sun, Sep 08, 2013
The monumental commission entitled "Red, Yellow and Blue" will feature the artist’s renowned usage of intricately hand-knotted nautical rope covered in paint, creating a work that will transform the park’s ...
Peace Wall
Jacob Schiff Playground
Ongoing
The Pieces for Peace Mosaic stretches 213 feet (65 meters) and incorporates works of art submitted by youth from all over the globe.
Red Cube
New York
Isamu Noguchi's sculpture was installed in Lower Manhattan in 1968. The diagonal lines of red painted steel stand in contrast to the stark horizontal and vertical lines of the adjacent ...
Spencer Finch, The River That Flows Both Ways
High Line
Manhattan
Ongoing
The artist transforms a semi-enclosed loading dock's existing casement windows with 700 individually crafted panes of glass representing the water conditions on the Hudson River over a single day.
State of Veracruz: Olmec Head
Dag Hammarskjold Plaza
Manhattan
Wed, Oct 10, 2012 - Sun, May 05, 2013
Donated by the Government of the State of Veracruz, this stone and dust temporary sculpture is a replica of the first majestic Olmec head to be uncovered in San Lorenzo ...
Thomas Schütte: United Enemies
Doris C. Freedman Plaza in Central Park
Manhattan
Tue, Mar 05, 2013 - Sun, Aug 25, 2013
Public Art Fund brings Thomas Schütte’s monumental bronze "United Enemies" to Doris C. Freedman Plaza in Central Park. Standing on tripods instead of legs, the two separate pairs of male ...
Ugo Rondinone: Human Nature
Rockefeller Center
Manhattan
Tue, Apr 23, 2013 - Fri, Jun 07, 2013
For seven weeks this spring, nine 16-to 20-foot-tall, human-shaped stone figures by Swiss-born, New York-based artist Ugo Rondinone, will transform Rockefeller Center, inhabiting the plaza between 49th and 50th Streets ...
Virginia Overton: Untitled
High Line
Manhattan
Wed, Sep 12, 2012 - Mon, Sep 30, 2013
For High Line Art, Overton will transform an old pickup truck into a sculpture installed on the stacked parking next to the High Line at West 20th Street.