#mayerofmunich

We’re excited to announce that three MTA Arts & Design projects were recognized by this year's CODAawards! Merit Winners in the Transportation category include: "Outlook" by Diane Carr, at the Broadway (N) station, fabricated by Glasmaleri Peters; "The Arches of Old Penn Station" and "The Arc of Gadiva" by Diana Al-Hadid, at 34 St-Penn Station (1,2,3), fabricated by Mayer of Munich; and "Roaming Underfoot" by Nancy Blum, at 28 St (6) station, fabricated by Miotto Mosaics". CODAworx celebrates the commissioned projects that most successfully integrate art into interior, architectural, or public spaces. Congratulations to the award winning #MTAArts artists and fabricators, as well as the Transportation Winner + People's Choice Winner: "Barbara Walker Crossing," in Portland, Oregon, by Ed Carpenter.

For #WomensHistoryMonth we’re highlighting Firelei Báez’s “Ciguapa Antellana, me llamo sueño de la madrugada. (who more sci-fi than us)” (2018) at the 163 St-Amsterdam Ave (C) station, where the larger than life ciguapas (powerful convention-breaking feminine figures from Dominican folklore) immersed in tropical greenery intertwined with multicultural healing imagery, join passengers on the daily commute. Báez reworks diasporic history in her explorations of feminine mythology and artifacts overlaid onto large-scale maps and documents in her new exhibition at James Cohan Gallery, open through April 25th.

It may be National Button Day but once a year, but to this Weimaraner, every day is button day! Find this buttoned up beauty at the 23rd Street (F/M) station in William Wegman’s “Stationary Figures”.

On this day in 1910, New York’s Pennsylvania Station first opened to the public! The Beaux-Arts grand interior of the original building is recalled in Diana Al Hadid’s mosaic “The Arches of Old Penn Station” (2018) at the NYC Transit 34th Street-Penn Station location for the 1/2/3 train. The fluid lines and turquoise color fields form ghosted images, coming in and out of focus through the station walls, suggestive of an image slipping off the surface, but also tied and held to the grid of the surrounding tilework.

Stephen Westfall for “Perasma I & II; Dappleganger” (2018), laminated glass fabricated by Depp Glass, at 30th Avenue

Today we reveal a beautiful new artwork by Diana Al-Hadid installed at 34th Street-Penn Station (1,2,3). The two expansive panels are a meditation on the unique history of Penn Station. "The Arches of Old Penn Station" on the west wall seen when you exit the subway into Penn Station, holds a painterly image of the original 1910 Beaux-Arts Penn Station grand interior, dripping and obscured, suggestive of an image slipping off the surface, but also tied and held to the grid of the surrounding tilework. In "The Arc of Gradiva" on the sixty-foot long south wall, an image of Gradiva, a mythological female character from a novella who “walks through walls” and roams the ancient ruins of Pompeii, appears as a ghostly apparition, with the flowing fabric of her garment stretching the length of the wall. Her footsteps mirror those of the crowds in the station. Both images originate from life-size line drawings on mylar and were translated into shimmering glass mosaic of pearls, aquas, and gold by Mayer of Munich. The gestural lines create ghosted images of the past, coming in and out of focus through the station’s walls.  When considered together, one might imagine that Gradiva has come to claim both the original Penn Station in its former glory, as well as stake her presence in the newly improved subway station.

Andrea Belag’s “Brooklyn Transitions” (2017) at the Avenue U (F train) station in Brooklyn celebrates the literal and figurative movement of New Yorkers. The six unique, hand-painted laminated glass compositions, fabricated by Mayer of Munich, emphasize motion and reference the blend of colors found throughout the surrounding neighborhood. The boldness of the abstract brushstrokes works in counterpoint to the industrial station design, and provides a burst of creative expression in the elevated station. See more of Belag’s colorful paintings of light and space in “Inheritance”, opening tomorrow night 4/4 at Morgan Lehman Gallery.

William Wegman, “Stationary Figures” (2018), glass mosaic fabricated by Mayer of Munich, at 23 Street (F/M) station.