The Blind Urban Subject

This interactive public art installation seeks to inspire mutual understanding of the blind and visually impaired in urban life. Curated by urban spontaneity, passersby are encouraged to experience a simulation of America’s four most common eye conditions through a modified tower viewer, like those found on boardwalks and vistas. Following research and development at Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design, Civic Vision (2024) debuted in June 2025 at Spring Street Park in New York City in partnership with NYC Parks and the Hudson Square Business Improvement District.

• https://www.blindurbansubject.org/

Publicolor

Fractured Spectrum: Colors in Motion, 2022

A partnership with Hudson Square Properties and UPS, the work encompasses 34 loading dock gates along 4 blocks, transforming Greenwich Street from West Houston to Spring Street into a unique, engaging, and colorful art installation spanning four city blocks.

• @publicolornyc

Magda Love

Soul Ancestors, 2018

“Soul Ancestors” is a celebration of femininity and a visual song dedicated to all the women who put their souls into what they do. Artist Magda Love aims to provide New Yorkers a moment of thoughtful pause in their hectic day.
@magdaloveart

• @magdaloveart

Eduardo Kobra

Ellis, 2018

In 2016, this 20,000-square-foot mural became the largest in NYC. Like his other works, Kobra uses trademark kaleidoscopic squares and triangles to create “Ellis,” a piece about immigration inspired by five real immigrants who arrived at Ellis Island a century ago.

• @kobrastreetart

ManMan

Desire Paths, 2023

Inspired by Massimo Vignelli’s transportation maps (including the 1972 NYC Subway Map), “Desire Paths” is a site-specific work that visually represents the physical connection between city streets and the people who move through them. Seen from afar, the pulse of the urban experience is evident in overlaying lines of color, mimicking the layering of different modes of transport: bus, car, train, subway, or bike in an abstracted, localized version of the surrounding transit networks and city grid.

In this specific site, “Desire Paths” enhances the pedestrian experience by bringing the energy and vitality of New York City plazas where it has previously failed to reach – at the heart of the Holland Tunnel where Canal, Hudson and Watt Streets meet. By energizing this car-dominated intersection, “Desire Paths” aims to create a more welcoming and safe space for foot traffic, anchored by a new state-of-the-art Oonee bike parking Pod.

Katie Merz

Public Art for Public Radio: A Katie Merz Art Installation, 2024

Acclaimed multidisciplinary artist, lifelong New Yorker, and Artist in Residence at The Greene Space, Katie Merz is best known for her contemporary large-scale murals on urban building exteriors and in public spaces. A passionate public radio fan whose work also includes NPR and WNYC host portraits, Merz created a public art piece on the street-facing windows of The Greene Space, inspired by a century of stories that define our city and listeners’ contributions of York, as part of New York Public Radio’s 100th anniversary. Along with the columns outside the Marriot on Varick Street, this is Katie’s 2nd work that is currently on display in Hudson Square.
View “Varick Street Verticals”.

• @katiemerz

JR

The Falling Dancer, Cir. 2014

A striking large-scale photograph by French street artist JR, featuring a “Falling Dancer,” adorns an exterior wall of this building. This giant ballerina draws inspiration from JR’s film Les Bosquet and his 2014 collaboration with the New York City Ballet, where dancers inspired several of his installations.

Dan Colen

Slow Drag, 2014

Dan Colen is a contemporary American artist known for his diverse and unconventional use of materials, ranging from oil paint to chewing gum and confetti. His work often explores themes of transformation, decay, and the intersection of popular culture with fine art. Colen’s practice challenges traditional artistic boundaries, creating pieces that are both provocative and deeply reflective. “Slow Drag” is a striking piece that features a NYC bench bent and suspended in mid-air, exploring themes of stasis and motion while capturing the tension between freedom and restraint.

José Luis Zorrilla de San Martín

Artigas monument

The statue of the Uruguayan independence leader and national hero, General José Artigas (1764-1850), is one of a pantheon of six sculptures to Latin American leaders which overlook the Avenue of the Americas. They include Juan Pablo Duarte (1813-1876), considered the Father of the Dominican Republic, at Canal Street, and Brazilian independence leader José Bonidacio de Andrada e Silva (1763-1838) in Bryant Park at 41st Street. Located on the Avenue at Central Park South are statues of the Cuban patriot, journalist, and poet José Martí (1853-1895), Argentine General José de San Martín (1778-1850), and South American liberator Simón Bolívar (1783-1830).

The larger-than-life statue of Artigas in Spring Street Park is a second cast of an original by José Luis Zorrilla de San Martín (1891-1975), which has stood in Montevideo, in front of the Uruguayan National Bank, since 1949. Zorrilla served as Director of the Uruguayan National Museum of Fine Arts, and was then considered his country’s what is iconically New outstanding sculptor. His father, Juan Zorrilla de San Martín, was both a poet and Uruguay’s Ambassador to Spain. This replica was fabricated by Vignali and Company, and placed on a Uruguayan granite base designed by architect Maria Cristina Caquías.

• https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/spring-street-park/monuments/1914

Nicola Arrighini

Duarte Monument, 1978

Bronze, granite
Donated by the Dominican Government to the City of NY

This bronze statue depicts Juan Pablo Duarte (1813–1876), the liberator of the Dominican Republic. Italian artist Nicola Arrighini sculpted the larger-than-life-sized statue of a stately, bearded Duarte in 19th century garb resting on his cane and holding a scroll. Donated by the Dominican Republic, the piece was dedicated in the square on the 165th anniversary of Duarte’s birth on January 26, 1978 and is one of a pantheon of six monuments to Latin American leaders that overlook the Avenue of the Americas.

As a young man, Duarte founded a society called La Trinitaria that sought to promote democratic ideals among the Spanish-speaking inhabitants of Hispaniola Island, most of whom were clustered around the city of Santo Domingo. In 1843 Duarte launched an attempt to free the eastern half of the island from Haitian rule. When the rebellion failed, Duarte fled Hispaniola. When a new revolution succeeded in winning independence for the Dominican Republic in February 1844, Duarte was invited to return as President of the new republic. Although he eventually lost control to a military dictator and died in exile, Duarte was instrumental in developing the Pan-American traditions of democracy and self-government celebrated by the Avenue of the Americas.

• https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/duarte-square/monuments/414