TimeOut
Lisa Davis
Abstract mosaics are bringing a powerful message to this Upper East Side subway station
Written by Rossilynne Skena Culgan, Things to Do Editor
Tuesday January 28 2025
Colorful mosaic artwork in the newly updated 68th Street-Hunter College subway station isn't just brightening up the area. Instead, these abstract glass mosaics by Lisa Corinne Davis tell an important story.
The artist and professor says her work explores the “intersecting worlds” at this particular Upper East Side train station where a diverse population comes together.
“As a graduate of Hunter's MFA program and as a current professor, I have had many years to observe the muscular congregation of the mostly white and wealthy residents of the neighborhood with the racial, ethnic, religious, economic and political diversity of the Hunter College population,” Davis said in a press release. “Their interaction fills this station with ample evidence of both the realities and aspirations of social and geographic mobility. It is a place where intersecting worlds collide and coexist en route to other actual, metaphorical or metaphysical destinations.”
“It is a place where intersecting worlds collide and coexist en route to other actual, metaphorical or metaphysical destinations.”
Working with MTA Arts & Design, Davis created three permanent pieces for the station titled “Tempestuous Terrain” and the two-part “Liminal Location.” She drew upon her paintings to create mosaics with engraved glass segments and hand-painted glass pieces.
In the mosaics, webbed lines snake through patches of bright orange, red, pink and purple. The works seem to suggest a map and allude to the geographic mobility. The pieces also evoke the intersection of personal narratives “within a station and community that flourishes as a crossroads,” per MTA Arts & Design.
You can find the mosaics flanking the seating area near the turnstiles, as well as in the station's mezzanine accessible by new stairs and elevators. They’re pretty impossible to miss, considering the size. In total, the installation covers around 370 square feet.
“The artwork by Lisa Corinne Davis celebrates the diverse population served by 68 St-Hunter College station, and echoed throughout the MTA system,” Juliette Michaelson, interim director for MTA Arts & Design said in a press release. “The new mosaics will spark the imagination of students and riders alike.”