The best outdoor art in NYC this fall

Puerto Rican artist Edra Soto is known for her larger-than-life sculptures, which challenge the viewer to think about identity, colonialism and social justice. 

Her latest installation, now on view at the Doris C. Freedman Plaza in Central Park, does just that: Graft is an eye-catching sculpture based on rejas, the wrought iron screens frequently seen inside homes throughout Puerto Rico.  

Made from steel and terrazo, the piece serves as an homage to Puerto Rico's working class communities, with one side representing a home's exterior and the other reflecting the privacy and intimacy of its interior.

The sculpture will be on display until August 24, 2025. 

More than a century ago, millions of bison roamed the U.S. … until European settlers slaughtered them for profit, dominion of land and westward expansion. Artist Cannupa Hanska Luger wants us to remember these creatures whose population has been deeply harmed by human hands. 

To that end, he created a massive sculpture of a bison skeleton that now sits in Lower Manhattan. Titled "Attrition," the 10-foot-long steel sculpture perches atop the Seal of NY State at City Hall Park and is nestled in a bed of regionally native grasses. The artwork explores cultural history, Post-Colonialism and environmental stewardship; it's on view through November 17, 2024. 

The sculpture sits on a path leading to City Hall itself, symbolically engaging with the heart of the city's policy-making. 

People often talk about New York City’s skyline after dark—where office lights and lit-up bridges glow like stars in the night sky. But the Garment District is taking lighting to the next level, in their new public art installation "New Start, New Hope." The installation, created by local artist Xin Song, features 135 ornate lanterns that dot the city streets along three Broadway plazas. 

The lanterns, strung in the air, light up in green, red and blue hues. Each one is designed with intricate patterns, some of which resemble flowers, diamonds or shamrocks. Find them on the Broadway plazas between 36th and 39th Streets where they're free to visit through January 2025.

It’s time to Oc-topi Wall Street!

Gillie and Marc, the renowned artistic duo known for a number of larger-than-life wildlife sculptures, are exhibiting an array of animal sculptures outside the World Trade Center, including the world’s largest octopus sculpture!

The exhibition named “Wildlife Wonders” includes three interactive bronze works from other pieces that feature their main two iconic characters, Rabbitwomen and Dogman, as well as sculptures of a range of endangered species. The spotlight, however, is on the giant octopus, which spans a whopping 36 feet and weighs around 7 tons. Woven throughout the animal’s eight tentacles are numerous endangered species, like rhinos and zebras. See it through July 31, 2025.  

Twenty-six sculptures have popped up across the neighborhood of Harlem, combining to create the community's first large-scale outdoor sculpture exhibition. 

The sculptures range from the abstract XOXO made of red steel tubes to the staggering "The Unbroken Project" in which an image of a ballet dancer is printed on bullet casings. The newly unveiled public artworks are on view and free to visit through October 30. 

Several local parks and venues now house the art installations, which were "curated to foster joy and beauty within our local community," organizers say. 

These statues of people who are torn apart and frozen in time are commanding attention in Manhattan. "Travelers" is a series of figurative sculptures by renowned artist Bruno Catalano, and they definitely deserve a look—and a second or third look, too. Find them in Murray Hill along Park Avenue between 34th and 38th streets.

Each sculpture depicts a person who looks like they’re stalled mid-step, perhaps caught between the past and the present. Their bodies are broken apart at the torso, evoking the scars, complex identities, shadowy areas of each person’s self-image. Though the sculptures are depicted in motion, we don’t know where they started and where they’re going. Each one—like all of us—carries their baggage with them.  

These "Travelers" will be turning heads in New York City for quite a while. See them in Murray Hill now through May 2025.  

If you find yourself around Union Square any time soon, head over to the park's center lawn to see a brand new interactive sculpture by artist Pasha Radetzki. There is a catch, though: you have to complete the statue yourself, with your own body.

The public installation consists of three eight-foot-tall interlocking letters made of colored plywood that spell out "LOV" and invites New Yorkers to form the letter "E" at the end to complete the word. Can you contort your body that way? 

The latest addition to the park is part of a series called "Love-Ego=LOV," which is inspired by notions of egoless love, unity, freedom and the bond between all humans in a chaotic and violent world. See it through November 5.

If you’re looking for the best public art in the city right now, a giant, 35-foot sculpture made of deconstructed rubber tires might just take the cake.

The monstrous—or playful, depending on your perspective—new abstract sculpture in Manhattan bends towards itself in symmetrical loops, ascending into the sky and back down again. 

The colossus, which was created by world renowned artist Chakaia Booker, is located between 39th and 40th Streets in Manhattan’s Garment District, and was unveiled to the public yesterday. "Shaved Portions" will remain on display until November 1. 

Are these otherworldly sculptures emerging from the depths of the earth or returning to the underworld? That's the question Huma Bhabha hopes visitors will ponder as they explore her monumental new bronze artworks in Brooklyn. 

Titled "Before the End," the installation of four, eight-foot tall bronze sculptures topped with animal skull fragments is now on view through March 9, 2025. Find it at the Pier 3 Greenway Terrace in Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Bhabha is known for reimagining the figure in her sculptures and drawings. In this case, she did that by casting carved cork and skull fragments in a piece that interrogates the intersections of art, science fiction, horror, and mythology.

Wild Couch Party, a bronze sculpture featuring some of the most endangered animals in the world just hanging out, has debuted at 28 Liberty Street in the Financial District. It's the latest piece by husband-and-wife artist duo Gillie and Marc Schattner. 

Rabbitwoman and Dogman, the anthropomorphic characters brought to life by the artists as vessels for their own messages regarding the current world order, are the hosts of the couch party, each one sitting beside an African elephant.

Wild Couch Party also features a hippo, a Masai giraffe, a Bengal tiger, a koala, a chimpanzee, Grevy's zebra, a Northern white rhino, a lion, a mountain gorilla, an orangutan and an Arabian red fox. See it through May 28, 2025.

Artists are turning ugly construction scaffolding and fencing into beautiful artwork across the city, thanks to the City Canvas program. You can see their latest project, which covers 220 feet of fencing, in East Harlem on Second Avenue between 97th and 99th Streets. 

You'll see two pieces—one by Dario Mohr and the other created by East Harlem residents through the global art project Inside Out—that have taken over the construction scaffolding outside of NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan.

The Inside Out installation is a collection of black-and-white portraits of East Harlem residents, especially residents of NYCHA's East River Houses. It is part of artist JR's Inside Out Project. As for Mohr, he collaborated with youth from East River Houses on his monumental works titled Adinkrahene. The collection is tied together through Adinkra symbols, which originated from the Asante Kingdom, and have recently become a ubiquitous symbol of the greater African Diaspora. 

If you’ve spent any amount of time in Upper Manhattan, chances are you’ve seen a mysterious figure spray painting local storefronts in brightly colored hues.

Snoeman, a beloved NYC-based graffiti artist, likes to keep a low profile. On the streets, it’s unlikely you’ll recognize him without a spray can in his hands and a protective mask over his face. Online, you'll find nothing more than a partly-covered profile. But the same can’t be said for Snoeman’s work—a bold, unique style that is instantly recognizable from miles away.

Since the start of the pandemic, Snoeman has been at work beautifying bodega exteriors in Washington Heights and beyond. The artist’s use of vivid color and thick lines, most times paired with uplifting messages and signature figures, has helped local businesses gain attention while livening up surrounding neighborhoods. Take a stroll through the neighborhood and see how many you can find.

There's a massive sea serpent on the loose in the Rockaways with an uncanny resemblance to a subway train. This silvery gray creature snakes through an empty lot, but it comes in peace. 

"Subway Sea Serpent," the latest sculpture by Zaq Landsberg and Joey Castillo is now on view indefinitely at Beach 60th Street and Rockaway Beach Boulevard. 

The artists were inspired by the A train, the crucial subway line that links the Rockaways to the rest of New York City. Located not far from subway station, it looks as if the artwork jumped from the elevated tracks to burrow through the ground in search of the beach. Segments of the cars peek above the grass as if the serpent's swimming through the dirt. 

A pastel-hued floral mural with a feminist message is the newest addition to the High Line. Titled "Thank You Darling," this mural by Dutch artist Lily van der Stokker celebrates the playful, feminine realm often overlooked or derided in our culture. 

"Van der Stokker’s work, which she has referred to as 'feminist conceptual pop art,' is undeniably joyful and positive. However, it often simultaneously speaks to weighty themes—aging, health, and, more generally, the lived experience of being a woman within patriarchal structures," a press release from High Line Art explains.

Her installation for the High Line continues this practice for a wide public audience, offering a sweet expression of gratitude to the millions of passerby and inhabitants of nearby buildings. Find the words THANK YOU DARLiNG (with that capitalization) on the side of a building adjacent to the High Line at 22nd Street.

With the word "darling" styled in bright yellow bubble letters, the mural seems to reach out to personally thank every single person who sees it. Check it out through November 2024.

Right outside the historic Villa Albertine’s garden wall, sits a 4-foot-tall bronze sculpture of the Little Prince from the much beloved French children’s book, Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

The new artwork by French sculptor Jean-Marc de Pas and the American Society of Le Souvenir Français with the Antoine de Saint Exupéry Youth Foundation honors the 80th anniversary of the 1943 book and the lives it has touched across the decades.

The sculpture was carved from clay and cast in bronze in one single piece at the sculptor’s studio in Normandy, France and was just unveiled at the Villa Albertine’s Payne Whitney Mansion at 972 Fifth Avenue.

Four beautiful, powerful murals are adding some colorful inspiration around Brooklyn thanks to a local art organization called Groundswell. Local students painted each one with the help of a professional artist, giving kids a chance to truly make their mark on the neighborhood. 

More than 50 students worked on the murals as part of Groundswell's Summer Leadership Institute program. Since its founding more than two decades ago, Groundswell has focused on using art as a tool for social change; it's painted more than 600 murals across the city so far, including these new additions.

Find the murals in Bushwick, Sunset Park, Cypress Hills and Brownsville. Here's the story behind each one.  

Visitors to Marsha P. Johnson Park in Brooklyn will now be greeted with a colorful floral archway in honor of the late transgender activist. 

After growing up in New Jersey during the 1940s, Johnson moved to Greenwich Village adopting the full name Marsha P. Johnson with the "P" standing for "Pay It No Mind." The archway bears that phrase in bold white lettering. "To her, this was a life motto and a response to questions about her gender," according to the New-York Historical Society.

Large floral sculptures in pink, blue, red and yellow decorate the top of the archway, with gem-like petal designs along the sides.

A new 25-foot-tall statue celebrating the life of abolitionist hero Harriet Tubman now sits in the recently renamed park Harriet Tubman Square by Broad Street in Newark, New Jersey. It's located just 20 minutes from NYC.

“Shadow of a Face,” designed by architect and New Jersey native Nina Cooke John, replaced the monument of Christopher Columbus that stood in its place until its removal in 2020, following George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis.

Every day, thousands of people walk through Times Square, rushing to catch the subway, heading to work, meandering through shops—many of them unaware that they're stepping over a revolutionary art project that's been a part of the city for decades. 

Purposely unmarked, it's easy to miss this piece of auditory art because truly experiencing it requires tuning into a specific frequency in the most cacophonous place in America. The late artist Max Neuhaus's installation called "Times Square" sounds like the echo of a bell ringing. It's hard to place this droning tone among all the other noises there, especially because the sound emanates from a typical grate right beneath your feet. 

The work is on view 24/7, but we recommend visiting in the early morning when it's quieter. Head to the Broadway Pedestrian Plaza between 45th and 46th Streets (between Broadway and Seventh Avenue), remove your headphones and listen. 

Next time you're near the Times Square subway station, check out the entrance found within the pedestrian plaza near the corner of 43rd Street. It has a massive new mosaic by artist Nick Cave that commuters can admire. Commissioned by the MTA's public arts program, the work is called "Every One, Each One, Equal All," and it is made up of three separate art pieces.

"Times Square is one of the busiest, most diverse and fabulously kinetic places on the planet," Cave said in an official statement. "For this project I took the above ground color, movement and cross-pollination of humanity, bundled it into a powerful and compact energy mass that is taken underground."

A cool art installation that uses augmented reality is transforming Battery Park City into a bird watcher's paradise. Those who walk along Battery Park City's riverfront, from South Cove north along Rockefeller Park, will be able to access an invisible world of birds.

Named "Bird’s-Eye View," this new artwork by New York City-based artist Shuli Sadé showcases 30 species of birds that seek temporary or permanent refuge near Manhattan’s waterways via photographs and original watercolors by Sadé through the Adobe Aero app and a smartphone camera. All you need to do is scan one of 70 QR codes on any of the 14 signs along the water to view local birds and explore their habitats and migratory patterns.

The massive ghostly figure of a shed now rises out of the Hudson River near Pier 52.

The permanent exhibitition, named "Day's End" by its creator David Hammond, is made of slender steel pipes that reach 52 feet at its peak and together measure 325 feet long and 65 feet wide. It pays tribute to an artist, Gordon Matta-Clark, who transformed an abandoned shed that once sat on Pier 52 as well as to the history of the city's waterfront. In 1975, he carved massive openings into the shed, which he described as a "temple to sun and water," according to the Whitney, which proposed the public art installation.

Weighing in at 1,000 pounds, Isa Genzken's "Rose III" was unveiled on the seventh anniversary of Occupy Wall Street’s takeover of Zuccotti Park.

Genzken works in a wide range of mediums, and giant flowers have been a recurring theme for her: A similar rose sculpture was installed on the New Museum’s facade from 2010 to 2013, while a pair of gargantuan white orchids (rising to 28 and 34 feet respectively) stood at Doris C. Freedman Plaza in front of Central Park during the spring and summer of 2016. As for "Rose III," it remains on long term view at Zuccotti Park.