New 2nd Avenue Subway Stations to Feature Permanent Installations by 4 Artists

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — When the 2nd Avenue Subway opens Jan. 1 (probably? hopefully?), it won't just be a transit resource to Upper East Siders, but a venue to take in some of the city's newest public art installations.

The MTA commissioned artists such as Chuck Close, Sarah Sze, Vik Muniz and Jean Shin to create artwork at each of the new subway line's stations — 63rd Street, 72nd Street, 86th Street and 96th Street. The art is currently installed in the stations and will be ready to admire when passengers board the Q train in the news stations for the first time.

And the best part? Admission to this four-stop art museum is only $2.75 — for now.

“There’s no doubt that the launch of these new stations represents an historic expansion of the system," MTA Chairman and CEO Thomas F. Prendergast said in a statement "But it also represents a major milestone in terms of culture — the work of these four incredibly talented artists will provide a source of enjoyment, inspiration and beauty to both customers and visitors for decades to come."

The MTA provided these descriptions of each art installation:

At 96th Street, “Blueprint for a Landscape” by Sarah Sze profoundly impacts the look of the station as her imagery is applied directly to nearly 4300 unique porcelain wall tiles, spanning approximately 14,000 square feet. The designs feature familiar objects – sheets of paper, scaffolding, birds, trees, and foliage – caught up in a whirlwind velocity that picks up speed and intensity as the composition unfolds throughout the station with references to energy fields and wind patterns. Each entrance features a different shade of blue and a blueprint-style vector line design, a visual theme that is integrated with the architecture.

At 86th Street, Chuck Close in “Subway Portraits” has created twelve large-scale works that are based on the artist’s painstakingly detailed photo-based portrait paintings. His various painting techniques have been interpreted in ten works as mosaic, and in two as ceramic tile. The artworks measure close to nine feet high and are placed on the walls at the station entrances and the mezzanine concourse. The people portrayed are cultural figures that have frequently been his subjects, including Philip Glass, Zhang Huan, Kara Walker, Alex Katz, Cecily Brown, Cindy Sherman, and Lou Reed, as well as two distinct self-portrait.

At 72nd Street, Vik Muniz’s installation, “Perfect Strangers” features more than three dozen characters created in mosaic and installed throughout the mezzanine and entrance areas, populating the station with colorful images of all types of New Yorkers. The main station entrance features an etched glass canopy at street level depicting a flock of birds, bringing art and nature to the busy location. Within the expanse of the mezzanine concourse, the life size figures provide bursts of color and visual interest and an opportunity for new discovery with every trip through the station.

At 63rd Street, Jean Shin’s installation, “Elevated” uses archival photographs of the 2nd and 3rd Avenue Elevated train to create compositions in ceramic tile, glass mosaic, and laminated glass. The imagery is manipulated and re-configured and each station level provides a unique focus, palette and material. At the escalator, the view is filled with ceramic tile depicting construction beams and the cranes that dismantled the El in the 1940s. At the mezzanine, a mosaic reveals the sky where the train had previously been present, and features images of people from the era in this neighborhood transformation. The platform level features semi-transparent and reflective materials showing vintage scenes of the neighborhood, while enabling contemporary viewers to see themselves in the cityscape of the past.

The new artworks are being hailed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as the largest permanent installations in New York state history. Cuomo unveiled the artworks Monday, the same day he announced the opening date of the four-stop extension of the Q train up 2nd Avenue.

"The Second Avenue subway provides New Yorkers with a museum underground and honors our legacy of building engineering marvels that elevate the human experience," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement.

"Public works projects are not just about function – they’re an expression of who we are and what we believe. Any child who has never walked into a museum or an art gallery can walk the streets of New York and be exposed to art and education simply by being a New Yorker. That is where we came from and that is what makes New York special."

Check out this video showcasing the new artworks of the 2nd Avenue Subway:

Photos courtesy of Gov. Andrew Cuomo via Flickr