MTA Commissions New Transit Artworks from Forde, Paglen, and Pindell
MTA Arts & Design has commissioned 2026 works from Ivan Forde, Trevor Paglen, and Howardena Pindell for Brooklyn and Metro-North stations, the agency announced.
Programme
- MTA Arts & Design commissioned Ivan Forde, Trevor Paglen, and Howardena Pindell for new transit artworks
- Forde's mosaic *Bedtime Story for Brownsville* (2026) is set for Broadway Junction station and a bridge above Van Sinderen Avenue
- Paglen's *Perennial* (2026) uses an algorithm analyzing flower colors for Metro-North's Southeast stop
- Pindell's glass installation, based on New York Botanical Garden photos, goes to Metro-North's Botanical Garden station
- MTA Arts & Design director Tina Vaz called the three "among the most compelling voices in contemporary art today"
MTA Arts & Design has commissioned new transit artworks from Ivan Forde, Trevor Paglen, and Howardena Pindell, the organization announced this week. All three works are dated 2026 and will be installed in stations serving millions of New Yorkers and regional commuters.
Forde will build a large-scale mosaic installation at Broadway Junction subway station. The work, titled Bedtime Story for Brownsville: The Fish Who Carried the Moon (2026), is described in a release as "a mythic bedtime story in which flying fish carry the Moon from the ocean floor to the sky." The piece will occupy part of the L train entrance and a pedestrian bridge extending above Van Sinderen Avenue. Forde said he hopes the work "brings joy, bravery, and pride to young families in Brownsville and its sister neighborhoods, intergenerational community members, local and international travelers alike."
Where will Paglen's and Pindell's works appear?
Paglen's commission will sit in a pedestrian overpass and a new parking garage at the Southeast stop of the Metro-North train system. Titled Perennial (2026), the project takes a computational route to its subject. Paglen will photograph flora near the station, then run the images through an algorithm that analyzes the flowers' colors. The finished piece will resemble an abstracted spectrum. Paglen said the work is meant to "reflect on the increasingly blurred boundaries between human and machine perception."
Pindell's commission also begins with flowers. Her glass installation, destined for Metro-North's Botanical Garden station, draws on photographs she took at the New York Botanical Garden last summer. She edited those pictures and transferred the results onto glass; the outcomes occasionally veer into abstraction. Pindell said the work "adds a little joy ahead of getting to the garden, especially if you investigate where each of the images come from—such as the flowers, the squirrels, or the greenhouse."
Tina Vaz, director of MTA Arts & Design, framed the commissions in institutional terms. "These artists are among the most compelling voices in contemporary art today," Vaz said in a statement. "By bringing their work into the public realm, we affirm our commitment to making museum-quality art part of New Yorkers' daily lives and to transforming transit spaces into environments of beauty, imagination, and cultural resonance."
What does this change for riders?
For commuters at Broadway Junction, the Southeast Metro-North stop, and Botanical Garden station, it means permanent encounters with work by artists who normally show in galleries and museums — at no ticket price beyond the fare. The announcement does not specify installation dates beyond the 2026 labeling, nor does it disclose commission budgets, so questions of cost and timeline remain open. Two of the three commissions cluster on the Metro-North side, a signal that the program's ambitions extend beyond the subway system that made it known.
Source: ARTnews
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Market editor covering people, launches and day-to-day practice in arts in the broadest sense at Arts & Voices.
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