While New York City’s subway primarily functions as the main source of transportation — and often frustration — for millions of riders every day, the public transit system also hosts an extensive public art collection. From mosaics to sculptures to an old-school animation, there is no shortage of artwork that can make even the most boring commute more eye-catching. For this story, we went on a crawl across the city, hunting down some of the most interesting art installations that the subway has to offer.
Here are works by some of our favorite artists to keep an eye out for the next time you’re headed to the turnstiles.
The Bronx
Vito Acconci at 161 Street-Yankee Stadium — The MTA commissioned both artist Vito Acconci and an architecture firm to create this 2002 project, which places the station’s structural elements on display through exposed stone and steel while reimagining standard subway platform construction. A row of tiled seats juts out from the wall and a fragmented “161st Street” sign hangs at an odd angle.
Glenn Goldberg at East 149th Street — In his stunning new mural unveiled just last month, artist Glenn Goldberg pays homage to the neighborhood he grew up in by depicting the plants and animals that live near the Bronx River. Checkered and striped birds and flowers foreground abstractly patterned backgrounds in the exquisitely detailed work.
Romare Bearden at Westchester Square-East Tremont Avenue — Romare Bearden was working with two fabricators on this three-panel installation before he died in 1988. Luckily, the artist’s collaborators were able to finish the triptych based on the instructions Bearden left behind, resulting in a colored glass cityscape that glows in the sunlight.
Brooklyn
Robert Wilson at Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue — Nostalgic images of hot dogs, amusement park rides, and beachgoers by experimental theater artist and sculptor Robert Wilson are strewn across a massive glass brick wall at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue Station in this ode to the city’s historic coastal neighborhood. Illuminated by either outside sunlight or the station’s interior fluorescent lights depending on the time of day, Wilson’s installation captures both the dreamy and mysterious spirit of Coney Island in this brightly colored display.
Bill Brand between DeKalb Avenue and Canal Street — Manhattan-bound passengers departing the DeKalb Avenue station can enjoy this optical illusion by Bill Brand. Originally installed in 1980 and then restored nearly three decades later, “Masstransiscope” (1980/2008) is composed of 228 hand-painted illustrations lining an abandoned subway station that can be seen out the train car windows, transforming a mundane tunnel commute into a whimsical 20-second movie in the style of the zoetrope pre-film animation toy.
Marcel Dzama at Bedford Avenue — Located at the mezzanines of this Williamsburg station’s Driggs Avenue and Bedford Avenue entrances, “No Less Than Everything Comes Together” (2021) transports travelers from the subway to Marcel Dzama’s whimsical circus of sorts, complete with dancing ballerinas, anthropomorphic moons and suns, and fantastical beasts that seem straight out of a children’s storybook.
Saya Woolfalk at Pennsylvania Avenue-Van Siclen Avenue — Two layers of cutout painted steel panels depicting scenes from urban garden utopias pay homage to the city’s plethora of community gardens at this East New York subway station. Designed by New York-based artist Saya Woolfalk, this permanent installation lines the windscreen walls of the terminal’s platforms.
Manhattan
Katherine Bradford at First Avenue — Katherine Bradford’s sprawling glass murals are dispersed throughout this underground East Village terminal, providing L train passengers with richly colored images of soaring superheroes, lively dancers, and flourishing gardenscapes against rich blue backgrounds.
Yoko Ono at 72nd Street — Yoko Ono’s 973 square-foot mosaic comprises images of blue skies and the words “Remember,” “Dream,” and “Imagine Peace” scrawled throughout. The station lies below the Dakota apartment building that Ono called home for 50 years.
Nick Cave at Bryant Park — One of the city’s largest subway mosaics, Nick Cave’s expansive “Each One, Every One, Equal All” (2021) lines the tunnel that connects the Times Square and Bryant Park subway stations. The work, which also includes a video element, features dozens of the artist’s soundsuits, the costumes Cave has created for over 30 years in a multifaceted and ever-changing exploration of identity, power, and vulnerability.
Xenobia Bailey at Hudson Yards — While New Yorkers are known for keeping their heads down and eyes locked ahead when traversing the city, even the most focused commuters will say that it’s hard to miss these overhead mosaics by fiber artist and sculptor Xenobia Bailey. Stretching across the ceilings of this Midtown station, “Funktional Vibrations” (2015) features massive overlapping spirals surrounded by cobalt blue. The design for the mosaic began as a crochet work before it was digitized and reinterpreted as a mosaic for the station by Miotto Mosaic Art Studio.
Kiki Smith and Kusama at Grand Central Madison — This famous subway station hosts a number of public artworks, including permanent installations by Yayoi Kusama and Kiki Smith, both located in the new Long Island Railroad terminal. An extension of her My Eternal Soul series, Kusama’s 120-foot-long glass mosaic featuring colorful mandalas can be found on the Madison Concourse level, whereas Smith’s five massive naturalist works, based on photographs she took on Long Island, can be found in the mezzanine of the station’s newly renovated Long Island Rail Road terminal.
Diana Al Hadid at Pennsylvania Station — In 1963, the city demolished the 1910 Beaux-Arts style Pennsylvania Station and constructed a grim maze of tunnels in its place. The teardown constituted one of the city’s greatest architectural losses, and Diana Al Hadid honors the old building in three mosaics that reference the physical elements of the lost site (like arches and a clock) alongside an image of the mythical “Gradiva,” a woman trapped in time.
Milton Glaser at Astor Place — Who better to create art for the subway than Milton Glazer, who designed the city’s iconic I ❤️ NYC logo between 1975 and 1976. The late artist’s work at Astor Place comprises a geometric abstraction that reimagines the station’s historic ceramic tiles.
Maren Hassinger at Central Park North (110th Street) — Maren Hassinger’s intricately arranged mosaics at 110th Street convey two quotes on equality and belonging from Malcolm X, who once lived nearby. Hassinger crafted her script in cursive, making the words feel as personal as diary entries.
Roy Lichtenstein at Times Square — Measuring 53 feet in length, Roy Lichtenstein’s mural displayed in the city epicenter celebrates the hustle and bustle of Times Square with brightly colored, futuristic illustrations of the city. The artwork includes references to the Pop Art painter’s early works and includes iconic Big Apple symbols.
Faith Ringgold at 125th Street — Josephine Baker, Malcolm X, and Zora Neale Hurston are just a few of the Harlemites whom artist Faith Ringgold depicted in the 125th Street station. The artist, who grew up in Harlem herself, renders each of her subjects in mid-flight as they return to the Upper Manhattan neighborhood they once called home. Artists Vincent Smith and Willie Birch also honor former residents in their artworks at the 116th and 125th Street stations on the same 2/3 line.
Jean Shin at Lexington Avenue-63rd Street — In her three-part work, Jean Shin depicts the elevated subway that once stood at the former Second and Third Avenue stop. Expansive ceramic and glass mosaics show old-timey neighborhood scenes and the cranes that dismantled the line in 1940. Another segment features manipulated archival photographs.
Queens
Jeffrey Gibson at Astoria Boulevard — Glass panels displaying 102 kaleidoscopic designs by Jeffrey Gibson welcome commuters passing through the Astoria Boulevard station in “I AM A RAINBOW TOO” (2020). The former Brooklyn resident includes references to the sun, moon, and outer space in his vibrant installations lining the mezzanine and platform stairways, honoring the ever-changing community of the Astoria neighborhood and broader New York City.
Sarah Morris at 39th Avenue-Dutch Kills — Installed on the elevated platforms of 39 Avenue-Dutch Kills, Sarah Morris’s “Hellion Equilibrium” (2018) abstractly references the station’s satellite mapping location through a colorful glass collage of parallelograms, trapezoids, and rhombuses divided by heavy black borders.
Sam Gilliam at Jamaica Center — Composed of two large-scale aluminum components, this blue, yellow, and orange wall sculpture by Color Field artist Sam Gilliam references the quick movement and constant speed of modern-day transit systems.
Elizabeth Murray at Court Square — Elizabeth Murray’s lively Surrealist mosaic, bursting with red, blue, and yellow gradients, is displayed in the corridor leading to the F subway platforms at this busy Long Island City junction. Composed of hundreds of tiles, images of radiant suns, fluffy clouds, plummeting raindrops, and fantastical forms stretch across the station walls, reflecting the kinetic flow of commuters transferring trains.
Staten Island
Keri Sheheen at New Dorp — Staten Island may not be on the same subway network as the rest of the city, but that doesn’t mean this borough is devoid of public transit art. At the New Dorp station on the Staten Island Railway, Keri Sheheen’s “Creeping On Where Time Has Been” consists of screen-printed and hand-painted artworks made of glass and metal evoking images of the area’s lush nature and historic architectural landscape.
Editor’s note 1/8/24 4:55pm EST: A previous version of this article classified the artworks by Saya Woolfalk and Katherine Bradford in the wrong boroughs. Woolfalk‘s piece is in Brooklyn and Bradford’s is in Manhattan; the story has been corrected.
