In a few years’ time, a giant teddy bear, a full-scale replica of a brownstone covered in clothing or a pair of legs painted with color dots could rise up on the High Line on New York’s West Side. Which work will ultimately be installed is up to the public.
High Line Art is once again seeking public comment for public art proposals that will go on view in 2029 and 2030 at its plinth, located above 30th Street and 10th Avenue. Until September 8, the public can leave a comment on each of the 62 proposals, responding to questions like, “Can you imagine this artwork on the Plinth? Why or why not? Is this proposal a good fit for the High Line? For New York City? For our time?”
The proposals come from some of today’s most closely watched artists, including Nina Chanel Abney, Kelly Akashi, Kevin Beasley, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Anthea Hamilton, Frieda Toranzo Jaeger, Omar Mismar, Michael Rakowitz, and Anicka Yi.
This cohort of proposals were nominated by a group of nine international curators that includes Samdani Art Foundation artistic director Diana Campbell Betancourt; Amanda Carneiro, chief curator of the 2027 Bienal de São Paulo; KW Institute director Emma Enderby; independent curator Ekow Eshun, who is also the current chairman of the Fourth Plinth commission in London’s Trafalgar Square; and Swiss Institute director Stefanie Hessler.
The idea of the High Line Plinth began in 2016, with the first two commissions by Simone Leigh and Sam Durant going on view in 2019 and 2021. They were part of an exhibition of maquettes of their proposals, which ultimately led to High Line Art to seek public comment on the proposals it was considering. The next round of proposals was subject to comment in 2021, from which works by Pamela Rosenkranz and Ivan Argote were selected. In 2023, High Line Art once asked for the public’s input, which led to the commissioning of Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s The Light That Shines Through the Universe, a giant version of a Bamiyan Buddha that is currently on view. A sixth commission also chosen from the 2023 cohort will be announced next year.
The High Line Plinth commissions have proven extremely popular with the public, with Argote’s Dinosaur, a giant sculpture of pigeon, becoming the subject of a Change.org petition begun six months ago in order to make it a permanent. “Removing the sculpture would eliminate a piece of art that has already become deeply meaningful to the community in a short period of time,” the petition reads. That commitment has spurred High Line Art to once again ask for the public’s commentary.
“Created by artists who hail from Bangladesh to Argentina to Madagascar and all other corners of the globe, these 62 new proposals for the High Line Plinth each present astonishing new visions for public monuments while speaking to the current moment,” High Line Art director and chief curator Cecilia Alemani told ARTnews in an email. “After receiving such enthusiastic responses to Iván Argote’s Dinosaur and Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s The Light That Shines Through the Universe, we’re very eager to hear from the public on what they’d like to see on the High Line Plinth in the future.”
Below, a look at 15 artist proposals for the High Line Plinth, along with short artist statements for each one. (The full list can be accessed on the High Line’s website.)
