Celestial motifs and cosmological geometries strewn throughout a prismatic panorama comprise “Abstract Futures” (2025), the most recent public paintings to grace the partitions of the New York Metropolis subway system. Designed by the feminist artwork collective Hilma’s Ghost, the 600-square-foot glass mosaic mural now greets transit riders between the turnstiles and escalators on the forty second Avenue entrance to the 7 practice in Manhattan’s Grand Central Station after being put in earlier this month.
The mission was commissioned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) Arts and Design program by means of the NYC Division of Cultural Affairs’s four-decade-old % for Artwork initiative, which has introduced site-specific works of greater than 400 artists into the town’s subways, buses, commuter rail stations, and different transit areas. On Might 6, the mosaic shall be spotlighted in a proper dedication ceremony.
The primary panel of the mosaic begins with the search of “The Fool,” a tarot card signifying new alternative.
“Abstract Futures” is split into three sections, ordered left to proper, that fuse reinterpreted tarot archetypes with basic heroic tales to focus on the shared transformations skilled by commuters on their particular person journeys.
The primary phase of the mosaic begins with the story of “The Fool,” a tarot card signifying new beginnings and alternative. Awash with crimson, orange, and pink hues, the figurative mural follows the search of a risk-taking protagonist in the hunt for a higher unknown vacation spot, in response to press supplies from the MTA. The following panel is laden with earth-toned tiles because the idiot grapples with challenges and non secular evolution, represented by the image for the “Wheel of Fortune” tarot archetype within the heart. Located nearer to the subway turnstiles, the ultimate part of the mosaic traces a non secular metamorphosis wherein the primary character discovers a deepened understanding of themself. This variation is depicted throughout a blue and purple sky that leads right into a blood-orange dawn, ending with a line of summary tarot wands, symbolizing the top earlier than a cycle begins once more.
The panels hint an evolutionary journey that ends with a deeper understanding of 1’s self.
Brooklyn-based artists Sharmistha Ray and Dannielle Tegeder, the founding duo of Hilma’s Ghost, advised Hyperallergic that the paintings was developed over two years and executed in shut collaboration with grasp mosaic fabricator Stephen Miotto, who has been working with the MTA for the reason that Eighties. It shares the identical identify as their first visible artwork mission, which consisted of a limited-edition summary tarot deck, constructing on the collective’s dedication to reimagining traditionally under-recognized non secular practices and gendered cultural narratives.
Impressed by the work of Swedish Theosophist artist Hilma af Klint, Hilma’s Ghost has engaged in quite a lot of artwork initiatives since its founding in 2020. Past tarot decks, the collective has held performances; created philosophical video games and ritualistic installations; made drawings, work, and artist books; and taught workshops.
Ray and Tegeder described their new mural as “both a celebration and a meditation on the city’s perpetual cycles of arrival, growth, and renewal honoring New York’s resilience, ambition, and the shared sense of collective belonging.”
“Our intention is to create a contemplative space that centers inclusivity, connection, and healing,” the pair added.
Executed in collaboration with mosaic fabricator Stephen Miotto, the mural options summary geometries that pull from tarot symbolism.
The work was supported by the % for Artwork program, which has introduced greater than 400 commissioned public works into the town’s transit system.
