NYC Subway’s Largest Artwork To Be Unveiled

The Main St., Flushing, station’s massive 525 square-foot ceramic mural — the City subway’s largest — will be put on display next week, it was announced by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).
The nearly black and white multi-scened pattern will be visible to commuters every morning as they descend the speedy east escalators. Highlighting the panoramic display’s backgrounds, will be giant color swirls that represent new beginnings and new hopes.
Crouching on a 15-foot scaffolding, Ik-Joong Kang, the artist, explained that each tile contained a separate scene from everyday life that applied to everyone who viewed it: fruit in a bowl, a man walking, a fish, and flowers — all pictures of things that we see every day, regardless of our backgrounds.
Despite the many cultural, ethnic and racial diversities that are found in Flushing, the artist said that "we are separate, yet we are the same."
Explaining his unique style, he said, "An artist is like a fisherman casting a line in waters that he has never fished in before . . . he never knows what he will reel in." Public art, he added, should always relate to the public.
The project took two years: 2,030 six-inch square tiles were first hand-made in Provincetown, Mass., the pictures were then painted with extra-fine brushes, numbered, then glazed in a kiln (or oven), and now, are finally being cemented in pre-determined slots on the wall.
Since 1991, the creation and development of the mural has been a roller-coaster adventure for the Pratt Institute graduate, after being chosen from a field of 41 artists by the MTA’s Arts For Transit program. During this time, amidst a saga of four municipal "fiscal constraint" cancellations, a court case, and a variety of construction delays, he finally began installation of his tiles this past spring.