“New Art Installation in NYC Subway Features Watchful Eye-Themed Design”
In one of New York City’s busiest transit hubs, commuter eyes now meet hundreds of glass and ceramic faces gazing back at them. This is no ordinary gaze, though. Fred Tomaselli, an acclaimed artist, has transformed the bleak underground passageways of Manhattan’s 14th Street subway station into a stunning immersive experience through his latest installation, *Wild Things* (2024). Merging themes of nature, the urban environment, and a surreal vision of life, Tomaselli’s work brings vibrant mosaics filled with intricate eyes and colorful birds into the daily lives of hurried commuters.
### Context and Commission
In 2022, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) commissioned Tomaselli to create a lasting public artwork as part of their series of art installations across the city’s subway system. Known for its long, monotonous transfer pathways, the 14th Street subway station provided an ideal canvas for a transformation of public space. However, this wasn’t just any artwork to Tomaselli — the station holds particular significance to him personally, having lived nearby and used the L train, which services the station, for nearly four decades.
The project culminated in a 680-square-foot series of mosaics, meticulously installed over three weeks and unveiled to the public on November 4, 2024, just before the U.S. Election Day. According to Tomaselli, while his other recent works have often been explicitly political, *Wild Things* was an exercise in separating art from this overtly political space, leaving behind something that evokes the strangeness and beauty of the natural world.
### The Artworks: Nature Meets the Underground
Tomaselli’s works often combine elements of collage, painting, and references to the natural world. For *Wild Things,* the artist partnered with Mayer of Munich, a renowned German stained glass manufacturer, to translate his mixed-media style into glass and ceramic mosaics. Many of the individual elements — particularly the eyes that feature prominently in the pieces — echo motifs from his earlier works.
One of the central mosaics, a stunning psychedelic display of eyes that seemingly splits and diffuses into smaller and smaller eyes, has drawn particular attention for its spiritual and surreal impact. This piece is reminiscent of Tomaselli’s widely admired collage titled *February 25, 2024,* which imagined a New York Times front page announcing the fictional death of Flaco, a beloved free-roaming eagle-owl that had captured the imagination of countless city residents.
The eyes in these pieces evoke a profound presence, creating an atmosphere of ever-watchful yet benevolent observation, perhaps hinting at Tomaselli’s preoccupation with how we view both nature and each other in an increasingly disconnected world. A statement to Hyperallergic emphasizes this point: “I wanted to bring the complexity, the strangeness of life above ground, into the station … the natural world is strange and amazing,” he said.
Beyond that, the mosaics also feature vivid depictions of birds taking flight in a series of fragmented, dream-like representations. Positioning these pieces amidst the gritty reality of subway advertisements and the noise of city transit, Tomaselli juxtaposes the beauty and fragility of the natural world against the chaos and commercialization of modern-day life.
### Mosaics as Public Art: Permanence Beyond the Ephemeral
In New York, a city known for its constant transformation, public art often becomes a fleeting or unnoticed aspect of daily life. But Tomaselli is keenly aware of the enduring impact *Wild Things* will have. His installation joins the long tradition of MTA-commissioned subway art, and perhaps one of the most personal aspects of the project for him was the realization that long after he’s gone, his work will continue to stand sentinel in this city he’s called home for most of his life — and for millions of New Yorkers he may never meet.
This realization brought him a sense of melancholy. “I know my son will probably be riding the L train long after I’m gone,” he said in his interview with *Hyperallergic.* “When I finally saw it up there, I was like, ‘God, I’ve entered into the transit history of New York.’ Hundreds of thousands of people are going to pass by this every day.”
### Moving Beyond Politics: An Ode to Nature’s Complexity
Fred Tomaselli has previously used his art to make powerful political statements. His *New York Times* collages, for example, frequently comment on the chaotic and pathologically troubled state of world affairs. However, with *Wild Things,* Tomaselli consciously steps away from politics and instead offers commuters an opportunity to escape the political tensions above ground. For him, this project provided a kind of relief, a respite, both for himself and city dwellers.
“There’s no overt politics,” he noted, “other than this idea that art is worth making, nature is worth preserving, and the natural world is strange and worth experiencing.”
Though Tomaselli hasn’t given up on making political