MTA unveils colorful new subway mosaics at Bedford and 1st Avenue L train stations

This week, the MTA unveiled two new mosaic series at the 1st Avenue and Bedford Avenue L train stations. In the East Village, artist Katherine Bradford created Queens of the Night, a fanciful tribute to the creatives and essential workers (depicted as superheroes) who ride the L train. And in Williamsburg, artist Marcel Dzama created No Less Than Everything Comes Together, a collection of theatric fairytale-like figures under the sun and moon.

Marcel Dzama is originally from Winnipeg, Canada but has spent much of his career in Brooklyn. He works across a range of mediums, often creating fanciful scenes that touch on historic components. In 2016, he created the whimsical costumes for Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Most Incredible Thing” at the New York City Ballet. And across his MTA mosaics, you’ll see ballet dancers featured. In fact, in the mural seen above, the black-and-white costumes are depictions of those worn by the NYC Ballet dancers.

According to MTA Arts & Design’s description:

In each theatric composition, an arabesque patterned curtain featuring fairytale figures provides an enchanting proscenium stage setting for these tableaux. The scenes are populated by elegant ballet performers that appear throughout his oeuvre of drawings and paintings.

MTA Arts also explains that “mischievous characters” representing infamous Brooklynites pop up throughout, including Bugsy Siegel and Captain Jonathan Williams, founder of Williamsburg.

Dzama told the MTA, “In these works, it is my intention to bring the sun, the sky, and the moon to the underground. What I love most about New York is its people, and for me, it was important to represent them and all of their wonderful complexities and diverse beauty in the piece. People looking and quietly observing together. In the subway, it’s always a togetherness that bonds us uniquely like no other place in the world.”

© Katherine Bradford, NYC Transit Times 1 Avenue Station. Commissioned by MTA Arts & Design. Photo: MTA/ Jason Mandella.

© Katherine Bradford, NYC Transit Times 1 Avenue Station. Commissioned by MTA Arts & Design. Photo: MTA/ Jason Mandella.

For her pieces at the 1st Avenue station, Bradford wanted to depict the diversity of those who ride the L train. As MTA Arts & Design explains:

The intriguing, ethereal figures seen in the mosaic panels represent the riders of the L train, which transports creative folk pursuing their dreams and the real-life heroes who provide essential services. In New York, these riders are dressed most often in black, which the artist believes is “merely a cloak over an inner life that is wildly colorful and unconventional”. This group of figures expresses the energy of camaraderie when people are gathered together and inspires viewers to consider the outward expression of one’s own interior vivacity.

© Katherine Bradford, NYC Transit Times 1 Avenue Station. Commissioned by MTA Arts & Design. Photo: MTA/ Jason Mandella.

© Katherine Bradford, NYC Transit Times 1 Avenue Station. Commissioned by MTA Arts & Design. Photo: MTA/ Jason Mandella.

The mosaic seen above, located in the 1st Avenue north mezzanine, depicts riders gathered in a group, all underneath a massive moon. “I’m pleased to have my work featured on the 1st Avenue stop on the L subway line, which is the train I take to my studio each day. Hopefully, Queens of the Night will transport train takers elsewhere, a brief moment of otherworldliness in the hustle and bustle of their day,” Bradford shared with the MTA. She is a painter best known for her depictions of swimmers, superheroes, and ships, forms that resonate within these mosaics.

© Katherine Bradford, NYC Transit Times 1 Avenue Station. Commissioned by MTA Arts & Design. Photo: MTA/ Jason Mandella.

© Katherine Bradford, NYC Transit Times 1 Avenue Station. Commissioned by MTA Arts & Design. Photo: MTA/ Jason Mandella.

Two of the characters from the larger mosaic seen above are blown up in a mosaic at the Avenue A north-east staircase.

© Katherine Bradford, NYC Transit Times 1 Avenue Station. Commissioned by MTA Arts & Design. Photo: MTA/ Jason Mandella.

© Katherine Bradford, NYC Transit Times 1 Avenue Station. Commissioned by MTA Arts & Design. Photo: MTA/ Jason Mandella.

And finally, at the staircases, there are two panels titled “Superhero Responds,” meant to portray NYC’s heroic essential workers.

Both of the murals were fabricated by Mayer of Munich, a German mosaic company that has done many other works for the MTA, including William Wegman’s dog portraits at the 23rd Street F,M station, Vic Muniz’s 36 life-size human portraits at the 72nd Street Q station, and, most recently, Nick Cave’s “Soundsuits” at the 42nd Street Shuttle passageway.

RELATED:

• Colorful ‘Soundsuits’ mosaics by Nick Cave revealed at 42nd Street Shuttle passageway
• William Wegman’s famous dog murals cheer up the newly reopened 23rd Street F, M station
• Reopened 86th Street B,C station boasts new murals inspired by Central Park and Beaux-Arts architecture
• 72nd Street B, C station outside the Dakota reopens with mosaics by Yoko Ono

© Marcel Dzama, NYC Transit Bedford Avenue Station. Commissioned by MTA Arts & Design. Photo: MTA Arts & Design/ Kris Graves.

© Katherine Bradford, NYC Transit Times 1 Avenue Station. Commissioned by MTA Arts & Design. Photo: MTA/ Jason Mandella.