The subway as a subject has captured the artist’s imagination since its beginnings. A symbol of modern progress, the subway is a great unifier, the ultimate democracy where people from different boroughs, classes, races, and ethnicities come together for the same fare and experience. The subway and elevated provide dramatic possibilities for non-narrative art which explore the geometries and lines of girders and tracks as well as extreme darkness to bright sunlight.
This exhibition brings together a wide range of artists and media to investigate this captivating subject. Artists include Saul Chase, Howard Cook, Chris “Daze” Ellis, Steven Katz, Henry Koerner, Greg Lamarche, Martin Lewis, Louis Lozowick, F. Luis Mora, Reginald Marsh, August Mosca, Joseph Peller, Phase II, Philip Reisman, Doug Safranek, David Schmidlapp, John Sloan, Joseph Solman, Raphael Soyer, and Edmund Yaghjian among others.
The exhibition showcases an array of artists’ interpretations over the last century and demonstrates how the subway exemplifies the diversity and community that defines New York as a city.
