Manhattan’s High Line has opened its newest commission by Vietnamese sculptor and visual artist Tuan Andrew Nyugen. The work, a 27-foot-tall sandstone Buddha sculpture entitled The Light That Shines Through the Universe (2026), is now on view at the above-ground park’s intersection of 10th Avenue and 30th Street. It will be installed there for the next year and a half.
Nguyen, who was honored with a MacArthur Fellowship in 2025, recently closed a major presentation at the Art Institute of Chicago. The artist’s practice explores lost or forgotten histories and memories that have been erased by global conflict and violence. His sculptures and films draw upon reparation, and give voices to stories of those who have been overlooked. His monumental sculpture at the High Line, The Light That Shines Through the Universe (2026), takes the form of a Bamiyan Buddha replicating two massive statues carved from cliffs in Afghanistan over a millennium ago. Both were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. Nguyen uses melted-down artillery shells, which he reshaped into the Buddha’s hands, leaving a gap between the sandstone figure and its glowing appendages to signify that hope remains despite some irreparable damage.
“Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s The Light That Shines Through the Universe is a timely monument for our public space,” said Cecilia Alemani, director & chief curator of High Line Art in a press statement. “It stands today as a powerful and poetic counterpoint to extremism and iconoclasm we continue to witness globally. By resurrecting the memory of the lost Bamiyan Buddhas, The Light That Shines Through the Universe reminds us that cultural treasures—and shared history—can transcend physical destruction.”
Previous High Line Plinth commissions include Iván Argote’s monumental pigeon sculpture, Pamela Rosenkranz’s pink-and-red Old Tree, and Sam Durant’s fiberglass drone. Other works currently on view this season include new works by Katherine Bernhardt, Patricia Ayres, and Derek Fordjour.
