Legal Subway Art: The Coolest Arts For Transit Projects

Back in the 1980s, New York's Mass Transit Authority launched the Arts For Transit program. Through this initiative, the MTA selected artists for permanent installations at stations around the city and surrounding areas*, as well as founding the Music Under New York, the Transit Poster Program, and the Lightbox Project. Now, New York's rail and subway systems are home to museum quality works that enliven commutes and daily travels.

But, if you blink, you might miss them. That would be a real shame.

Some of the world's greatest artists are represented in mosaic, terra cotta, bronze, glass and mixed-media sculpture throughout the Arts For Transit program. All you need is $2.25 and a sense of adventure in to check it out.

Need a head start? We recommend finding these installations first and foremost.

Check out The Coolest Arts For Transit Projects.

*In case this wasn’t implied, the art can be found in the MTA NYC Transit, Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad stations. Enjoy!

Flushing Meadows, Queens Poster

Subway Line: 7

In addition to installations, Arts For Transit also commissions awesome posters. John Fekner is responsible for one of our favorites, Flushing Medows, Queens, which was produced in 1994. Remember to look for similar posters when riding around to find the installations we've highlighted.

Poster text: "Powerful images of Flushing Meadows, site of a great park, two World's Fairs, and home to the Mets, as seen by artist John Fekner. Get there by public transportation. In New York, the MTA takes you everywhere."

Untitled, 1986 @ Astor Place - Materials: Porcelain enamel

Subway Line: 6

Glaser is probably most famous for designing the I <3 New York Logo, however, what most people don’t know is that he also is responsible for the bold geometric forms in the Astor Place Station.

Be Good or Be Gone, 2011 @ Beach 98 Street the Rockaways, Queens - Materials: Faceted glass

Subway Line: A

Three groupings of five panels, as well as two sets of diptychs can be found at the Beach 98 station. The subject matter clearly reflects Duke’s love and interest in maritime history and waterway customs.

Fast Track and Speedwheels, 1990 @ Grand Central-42nd Street - Materials: aluminum, steel, brass, and copper

Subway Line: 4,5,6,7, & S

Sinclair’s sculptures can be found in the passageway between the S shuttle and 4,5,6 lines. These sculptures are intended to resemble speed, energy, and train travel. Sinclair explains, "I want my sculpture to make people think of the power of the engines that drive the trains, the speed and efficiency of them . . . the sculptures also reflect the architectural elements of Times Square and the Art Deco glamour of Radio City Music Hall.”

Fossils, 1988 @ 137th Street-City College - Materials: Bronze relief

Subway Line: 1

Over 160 reliefs featuring a fossilized biological life form fill this Uptown station. in the station. Woods explains, "The idea behind Fossils is simple: the subway is underground, fossils are found in the earth...I wanted these reliefs to be 'scattered' over the walls of the northbound and southbound platforms in such a way that both children and adults would see them personally and close-up. They are meant to be looked at, touched, talked about, and remembered."

Hook (Archean Reach), Line (Sea House), and Sinker (Mined Swell), 2004 @ Atlantic Avenue- Pacific Street , Brooklyn - Materials: polished granite, brushed steel, limestone, and Rockville granite

Subway Line: R

A perfect mixture of architecture and art. Trakas uses forms and materials that highlight the raw beauty of this space. What the viewer sees is a boat shaped support system beneath the skylight with a granite wave that runs along the walls. It looks like this train station could pass for a seaport.

Celadon Remnants, 2008 @ Broadway Station in Flushing, Queens - Materials: Ceramic and glass mosaic

Subway Line: R

Jean Shin uses the shapes and silhouettes of pottery in his large-scale mural projects. As seen in his Celadon Remnants mosaic mural, Shin uses teapot forms made out of greyish green celadon fragments and white tiles to capture a unique balance of positive and negative space.

Ghosts Series, 1994 @ Penn Station -Material: Terracotta

Subway Lines: A,C,E,1,2, & 3

Andrew Liecester’s Ghost Series consists of five terracotta murals that can all be found throughout the Long Island Rail Road station.

One specific piece, titled Day and Night, is a 500 square foot mural that reinterprets Adolph Wineman’s sculpture that was originally found at the entrance of the Old Penn Station from the sixties (before it was knocked down).

Leicester has completed other transit projects for Charlotte Area Transit System in North Carolina and the Cincinnati Gateway in Cincinnati, Ohio, among many others.

Masstransiscope, 1980 @ DeKalb Avenue, Brooklyn - Materials: Paint

Subway Line: Q

Masstransiscope, originally painted in 1980 by Bill Brand, was recently restored in 2008 by a group of volunteers. The coolest part about this piece of art is that it transforms into a 20 second animated movie. Commuters using the express track see the sequence of 228 hand painted panels as a moving picture (much like a zoetrope) while racing by.

Urban Renewal, 2008 @ Simpson Street, Bronx - Materials: Faceted glass

Subway Line: 5

Amowitz aims to capture the fragility of large buildings and structures, most notably through her chosen medium of glass. She uses flowers in her art to represent renewal, rebirth, and rebuilding, as flowers will always grow back after being destroyed. The flowers found in windscreens and station niches at Simpson Street represent how the Bronx is continuously renewing itself.

B is for Birds in the Bronx, 2006 @ Bronx Park East - Materials: Faceted glass

Subway Line: 5

The MTA website quotes Alvarez saying, “"I wanted to subvert [the birds] by making them white, and make them invisible, large and regal. The birds in their emptiness give attention to their transparency and how they hold a space for the trees, the bushes, the snow, the branches, the wind, the sky, and the leaves to exist, like a still-life painting...where the space outside of the object, really creates the form of the object..." For Alvarez, it’s important not to forget nature in such an urban city.

Wall-Slide, 2002 @ 161st Street- Yankee Stadium, Bronx - Materials: Stone, tile, and fiberglass

Subway Line: D

Acconci creates a space that pushes and pulls you in every direction. The 161st Street Yankee Stadium station invites you to view the space as an archaeological site. This means protruding walls provide seating for subway users and the illusion of stone and steel can be seen under the walls. Sounds pretty cool to me.

Also, you can check out a project by Acconci at the nearby Bronx Museum titled “Lobby-For-The-Time-Being.”