Mosaic Moments

Using my freedom in between postings ( my husband and I are in transition between Brazil and China) I am currently visiting friends and mosaics in the US before I will head to this years summit of the Association of American mosaic artists (SAMA) in Nashville /Tennessee. It’s a good time of the year spring everywhere, new beginning, opening, exploring….

Last week I was in New York visiting my cousin. She pointed out new mosaics in NY subway stations. So one afternoon I spent underground. Traditionally the subway stations in New Yorks Subway (which was opened in 1904) are tiled in white tiles with the station names and some ornaments that could count as mosaics made out of colored ceramic tiles.

There are many modern art works in mosaic techniques in several stations. I came across the following:

More recently art works were commissioned by the subway authorities for the newly build Q – line. The so called Chuck Close mosaics (Large photograph like Portraits modeled in glass mosaic) at 86 Street, Jean Shin’s large street scenes in glass and ceramic mosaic at 63 Street and Vic Muniz live size figures in 72 street on the newly build Q- line where opened in 2017 and made many headlines. Because of my affinity with Brazi I visited 72 street station on the Qline with its very lively and colorful figures by brasilian artist Vic Muniz.

I was deeply impressed by the craftsmanship of the mosaics. Unfortunately I could not find out about the fabrication from the internet.

May 1, P.S. thanks to Lillian Sizemore whom I met at the SAMA conference in Nashville, I can amend that the well known glass and mosaic manufacture “Mayer of Munich” too created these protrait series “Perfect Strangers” of Vic Muniz.

This was different for the white marble mosaic at the new WOrld Trade Center/Cartland Av. Station. American Artist Ann Hamilton designed this fantastic composition in white marble, interweaving the Declaration of Independence with the declaration of human rights. The craftsmanship is extraordinary with the letters seemingly cut out of sheets of mosaic, that’s my guess. The Fabrication of this enormous mosaic was done by Mayer of Munich, a famous mosaic fabricating manufacturer.

On my way back I was stared at from many eyes at Chamber Station R Train.

In the Internet I foundout about this project:

Oculus consists of 301 mosaic panels by artists Kristin Jones, Andrew Ginzel and Rinaldo Piras. The project presents the eyes of three hundred individual New Yorkers translated from a photographic study conducted by Jones/Ginzel into stone mosaic by the classically trained Piras. The centerpiece of the work is an elliptical glass and stone mosaic floor, with a magnificent micro mosaic eye at the center of an ultramarine vortex with the image of the City of New York woven into the picture. Source: italcultny.org.