Artists Kiki Smith and Yayoi Kusama have been commissioned to create a floor and ceiling mosaic underground gallery of sorts in the new Grand Central Madison terminal, which will be in Manhattan’s Midtown East neighborhood and opens this December.
Both will cover approximately 223 square meters of New York Central Station with their art, and the largest mosaic will be more than 30 meters long, as announced. The New York Times.
New York is the connecting point of both artists, with usually different styles: Smith’s works are generally monochromatic or bronze, while Kusama’s are dominated by bright colors.
Smith, a 68-year-old American of German descent and raised in New Jersey, has lived in New York since 1976, and Japanese Kusama, 93, lived in Iron City from 1958 to 1975.
“They had to be high-level artists,” he said in an interview with The New York Times Janno Lieber, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, who noted that the art on display must match the caliber of the facility’s aspirations.
For her part, Sandra Bloodworth, director of MTA Arts & Design, told the media that with their art these women will transform the underground terminal into a cultural corridor.
“The project is about connecting people to the city in a new way and the artwork will connect you in a different and less ephemeral way,” added Bloodworth.
Smith and Kusama were chosen by a committee of arts professionals and transit authority staff in 2020, following an open call.
The new terminal began in 2006, will have 65,000 32 square meters and cost the MTA more than 11 billion dollars, according to the newspaper.
The projects that will cover New York’s underground are still secret, but Smith has announced that his works will be linked to the beauty of the coasts of Long Island and the East River.
“I created this work with the aim of giving people a beautiful image to carry with them,” he noted.
With information from EFE
