Public Art – Page 4 – longlistshort

Throwback- NYC Public Art- Lily van der Stokker for the High Line

Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, New York Art Shows, Painting / Painters, Public Art

Nov 272025

Lily van der Stokker created Thank You Darling in 2023 for the High Line in NYC.

From the High Line website about the work-

Lily van der Stokker is one of the Netherlands’ most celebrated contemporary artists. In 1983 she moved to New York, opening a small artist-run gallery space in the East Village and has since lived alternately in both New York City and Amsterdam.

For over 30 years, van der Stokker’s drawings and monumental wall paintings have subverted artistic convention and aesthetic expectations, employing an Easter candy color palette to depict clouds, flowers, swirls, and other traditionally feminine or decorative motifs. Van der Stokker annotates these compositions with handwritten text—spelling out intimate thoughts, personal musings, notes-to-self and social niceties. Her visual language is nostalgic and comforting; her playful squiggly patterns are more likely at home in the margins of a student’s notebook as they mindlessly doodle or test out their first name with the surname of a crush than they are within the white walls of a gallery. In fact, van der Stokker’s practice is in some ways defined by this incongruity. She notes, “if I make an artwork about family problems, administrative tasks, or the common flu…I’m bringing in a whole spectrum of new subject matter that is normally absent in art.” By placing on a pedestal what has traditionally been viewed as feminine or domestic, and thus superfluous and inconsequential within the realm of “serious” visual art, van der Stokker reclaims what has long been disregarded and overlooked.

In a 1990 New York Times review of van der Stokker’s debut exhibition, critic Roberta Smith remarked, “the messages conveyed in this terminally cheerful manner usually have a double edge.” Van der Stokker’s work, which she has referred to as “feminist conceptual pop art,” is undeniably joyful and positive, however, it often simultaneously speaks to weighty themes—aging, health, and, more generally, the lived experience of being a woman within patriarchal structures. Hidden in plain sight, disguised by the veneer of her compositions’ cute and charming appearances, is reality. Occasionally mundane, sometimes cheery, and at other moments, cynical or intimate—“a baby, another baby…all my no baby friends live in N.Y.,” a past mural reads. One divulges, “whoopy doo…I am…really ugly…sorry,” in cartoonish thought bubbles. “My mother will loan me €80,000 to help me buy the house,” another reveals. Van der Stokker considers the texts to be the primary component of her work, and with each work she lays bare a vulnerable inner-world for all to see—if they’re willing to look beyond the candy-coated facade.

On the High Line, van der Stokker presents Thank You Darling, a monumental, site-specific mural. Thank You Darling is painted on the side of a building, turning the architecture and shape of the edifice into the frame for the artist’s pastel and fluorescent-hued work. The light blue background is dotted with multi-colored, simple flowers in a decorative all-over pattern that appear to float across the facade—some just coming into view from the edges of the frame. Superimposed over this, read the words “THANK YOU DARLiNG,” spelled out in a juvenile, arbitrary blend of lower and upper-case lettering. Van der Stokker’s puffy bubble-letters are a classic example of playful adolescent penmanship, seemingly lifted right out of a teenager’s diary. In this location on 22nd street, Thank You Darling actively engages with its audience, expressing gratitude to all those who pass, while reclaiming, at massive scale, intimate language that is often mocked or disparaged as being feminine and unserious.

Substack Newsletter- Autumn Begins and Spooky Season Takes Over in The Recap

Art, Artists, Day of the Dead, Films, Glasswork, Halloween, Mixed Media, Music, Musicians / Bands, Painting / Painters, Photographers / Photography, Public Art, Sculptors / Sculpture, Spotify Playlist, Street Art, The Newsletter

Nov 212025

In The Recap this month- music, art, art shows, murals, spooky season posts and more. Check it out here and subscribe!

NYC Public Art- The High Line- Iván Argote

Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, Installation Art, New York Art Shows, Public Art, Sculptors / Sculpture

Nov 052025

Iván Argote created Dinosaur (2024) for the fourth High Line Plinth commission. The giant sculpture was cast in aluminum and celebrates one of NYC’s most common sights- the pigeon.

From the High Line’s website about the work-

Dinosaur was first submitted as a proposal for the High Line Plinth in 2020, among 80 proposals that included the third High Line Plinth commission, Pamela Rosenkranz’s Old Tree (2023). The meticulously hand-painted, humorous sculpture challenges the grandeur of traditional monuments celebrating significant historical figures, instead choosing to canonize the familiar New York City street bird. Posed on a concrete plinth that resembles the sidewalks and buildings that New York’s pigeons call home, Dinosaur reverses the typical power dynamic between bird and human, towering 21 feet above the Spur, over the countless pedestrians and car drivers that travel down 10th Avenue.

Reflecting on the work’s title, Argote notes, “The name Dinosaur makes reference to the sculpture’s scale and to the pigeon’s ancestors who millions of years ago dominated the globe, as we humans do today… the name also serves as a reference to the dinosaur’s extinction. Like them, one day we won’t be around anymore, but perhaps a remnant of humanity will live on—as pigeons do—in the dark corners and gaps of future worlds. I feel this sculpture could generate an uncanny feeling of attraction, seduction, and fear among the inhabitants of New York.”

Dinosaur, like the pigeons that inspired it, bears witness to the city’s evolution and confronts us with our ever-changing relationship with the natural world and its inhabitants. The oft-overlooked and derided creatures that seem to over-populate the city first arrived in the US via Europe, likely in the 1800s. They were kept as domesticated animals and were most notably used as reliable message carriers. Pigeons have an internal GPS, known as “homing,” that allows them to always find their way back home. This skill once made the bird indispensable in war—they served as military messengers in both World War I and World War II, saving hundreds of soldiers’ lives by transporting messages quickly to both the trenches and front lines. Many of these pigeons received gallantry awards and were celebrated as war heroes, before technology eventually rendered them obsolete.

Dinosaur recognizes this seemingly prosaic figure and celebrates its anonymity amongst the urban landscape, while also taking aim at classic monuments erected in honor of great men, who all too often are neither honorable nor great. Argote humorously suggests that, in fact, the not-wild—but no longer domesticated—birds are likely more deserving of being placed on a pedestal and celebrated for their contributions to society than most. Further, by highlighting their origins, Argote reminds viewers that, to some degree, everyone is an immigrant. Even the pigeon, a New York fixture, initially migrated here and made the city their home, like millions of other “native” New Yorkers.

Flashback- Brooklyn Murals- Coney Art Walls- Kashink

Art, Artists, Brooklyn Street Art, New York Street Art, Painting / Painters, Public Art, Street Art

Oct 312025

Kashink was one of the many artists who created murals for Jeffrey Deitch’s Coney Art Walls in Coney Island, Brooklyn. You can find their most recent work on Instagram.

Below is Jeffrey Deitch‘s statement about the project from his website-

“Coney Art Walls was an outdoor museum of street art in the center of the Coney Island amusement park. Sixty-eight murals by leading and emerging artists from around the world were presented during the three year curatorial project from 2015 – 2017. Coney Art Walls was possibly the most visited contemporary art installation in the world during its run, experienced by many of the five million people who visit Coney Island each summer. Since the 1970s, when I would visit Coney Island with my punk rocker friends, I had a dream of creating a populist art installation there. Reading about a large vacant lot in the center of the amusement park, I approached the owner, Thor Equities, with my proposal for an outdoor museum of street art. They were enthusiastic about the concept and funded a remarkable three-year project. The mural project was enhanced by a Brooklyn food court with outdoor seating and a music program. It was thrilling to see hundreds of young people dancing in front of the murals on summer nights.”

Florida Murals- Reid Jenkins and Scott Hillis in Pinellas Park

Art, Artists, Florida Street Art, Painting / Painters, Public Art, St. Petersburg Street Art, Street Art

Oct 302025

Mural by Reid Jenkins and Scott Hillis, located in Pinellas Park, Florida.

It is one of several murals outside a group of buildings that includes Studios at 5663 and Saint Paint Arts.

SHINE Mural Festival 2019- Morning Breath

Art, Artists, Florida Street Art, Public Art, St. Petersburg Street Art, Street Art

Oct 282025

Brooklyn-based artists Doug Cunningham and Jason Noto (aka Morning Breath) created the mural above for the 2019 edition of SHINE Mural Festival in St. Pete, Florida.

Below are a few of the references in the mural from the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance website–

At 250 Dr. Martin Luther King Junior Street North, a scattering of images in the style of a “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” ad spreads out on a light blue wall, as if the wall were an old comic book-style pamphlet held out wide.

The design was brush painted, inspired by the business that’s been at this location since 1926 — the Coney Island Sandwich Shop. That business and the artists have roots in New York, so there are subtle nods to the city throughout.

On the left is a large cartoon man’s face tilted slightly, with a garish, wide-open grin. Hair parted in the middle with old-fashioned waves on each side of the temple, arched black eyebrows over wide red eyes. The mad grin is missing a tooth.

This face is the artists’ version of the iconic Coney Island Steeplechase “Funny Face” that welcomed guests from 1908 through 1964. So the family who founded this shop would have seen it, when they visited. Even now, that grinning face appears on shops and merchandise at Coney Island.

Just below the face, the word “Look” in red, with white snow resting on the letters, next to an arrow pointing to the left, that points to a small cut-out in the wall. This was where African Americans would be served if they came to the restaurant in its early days.

To the right of Popeye, in another section of the wall, is a large pair of old-fashioned glasses with angled black frames and red lenses, and wide-open white eyes. The glasses are a tribute to the artist Casey Paquet, who passed away in 2018. Below the glasses, the phrase “Ideas are a Dime a Dozen” is painted above a red hand pointing to the left, and a large hardback book with a black cover. The spine of the book reads “CP 1977 through 2018,” another tribute to Paquet. The front cover spells out “Para CP” vertically, in red, beside a line drawing of a sword swallower, a trick Casey practiced.

In the center of the wall, a huge red hand holds a pamphlet almost as tall as the wall, that reads “Welcome to Fear City,” with a skeleton in a black cowl. This is a reference to a 1970s scaremongering pamphlet called “Fear City: A Survival Guide for Visitors to the City of New York,” published by the New York Council on Public Safety.

You can also find Morning Breath on Instagram. For more on the SHINE murals including the upcoming 2025 festival in November, head here.

Oct 182025

The Recap, my Substack newsletter, returns today with a focus on abstract art, punk rock, the American flag, the 90s, and more. It adds a little more dimension to what I post on the website and ties things together thematically.

Check it out and subscribe!

California Murals- Iker Muro for Wide Open Walls in Sacramento

Art, Artists, California Street Art, Painting / Painters, Public Art, Sacramento, Street Art

Oct 142025

This colorful mural by Iker Muro (aka MurOne) was created for the 2018 edition of Sacramento’s Wide Open Walls Festival.

From Wide Open Walls about the artist-

Iker Muro (MurOne) is an illustrator and graphic designer who began creating public murals in 2002. Born in Bilbao, Spain, Muro describes his work as “an acid mixture of pop culture, graffiti, illustration, and graphic design.” As a youth, he began painting on skateboards and drawing caricatures of teachers and classmates at his desk in the back of the classroom. He went on to complete his studies in graphic design and has worked in many different disciplines including graffiti, graphic design, prints, and large-scale murals.

Muro’s vibrant, bold murals strike a distinctive balance between design and art. His work draws from his extensive international travels, and he takes inspiration from whatever city he is painting in. “Travelling and discovering different cultures is a gift,” he says. “I feel lucky to make my living with what I love, I don’t know what will happen in the future, I don’t have a job and a stable life, but painting and giving life to places that don’t have any is very gratifying.”

For more of his work, also check out his Instagram.

Flashback- NYC Public Art- Huma Bhabha at Brooklyn Bridge Park

Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, Brooklyn, Mixed Media, New York Art Shows, Public Art, Sculptors / Sculpture

Oct 102025

Today’s flashback is to Huma Bhabha‘s spooky figures for Before The End, which was on view until March of this year at Brooklyn Bridge Park. It is just one of the many projects organized by Public Art Fund.

From Public Art Fund about the work-

With the ominous title Before the End, Huma Bhabha (b. 1962, Karachi, Pakistan) sets the stage to evoke mythologies as old as humankind. Conceived for Brooklyn Bridge Park, Bhabha’s four monumental painted and patinated bronzes were cast from carved cork and skull fragments. The mysterious figures recall ancient effigies cut into tombstones, their surfaces evoking centuries of eroded sediment and stone. Yet, unlike a tomb, these four-sided vertical forms stand elevated above the earth, their bones open to the sky.

“Before the End” is a title borrowed from the writings of Vincent of Beauvais (ca. 1184–1264), whose medieval imagination sparked with supernatural and apocalyptic visions. Today, the related popular genres of horror and science fiction continue to inspire Bhabha, as does art history from antiquity to the present day. Her rough-hewn figures are ambiguous—are they emerging or trapped within, rising from the depths of the earth or returning to the underworld? Set amidst an expansive landscape where the natural and man-made converge, Bhabha’s sculptures captivate through contradiction, seemingly forged in geological time yet animated with a visceral sense of immediacy.

NYC Public Art- William Wegman’s Subway Murals

Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, Fashion, Glasswork, Mixed Media, New York Art Shows, Photographers / Photography, Public Art

Oct 072025

William Wegman‘s portraits of his Weimaraner dogs were recreated in glass mosaic form by Mayer of Munich in 2018 for “Stationary Figures”, lcated in the 23rd Street subway station. The eleven murals brighten up the walls and are one of the many projects created by MTA Arts & Design.

From MTA Arts & Design about the work-

Photographed with the artist’s deadpan sense of humor, the dogs take on human attributes, from wearing street clothes like a shiny raincoat or flannel shirt, to being grouped like passengers as they gaze into space or peer down the platform as if waiting for the train.

Situated in bold blocks of color, the larger-than-life mosaic dogs are bursting into space and interacting with commuters. The mosaic fabricator, Mayer of Munich, interpreted the photographs taken for this project by meticulously transforming the facial expressions, skin textures and patterns of the dogs’ vibrant attire into glass mosaic. Wegman has lived and worked in the neighborhood for decades, and together with his dogs Flo and her brother Topper, they have created images that enliven this busy station.

Speaking about the project, Wegman said, “I wanted to create portraits of individual characters, people who you might see next to you on the platform. For these I dressed the dogs in more or less ordinary clothes, nothing too fashionable. I was very interested in the way in which photographs, even the out of focus dogs in the background of some images, could be translated into mosaic by Mayer of Munich, who skillfully turned gray stones into gray dogs.”

Below are the two series consisting of three panels each-

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