A Is for Subway Art

Fast Track and Speedwheels, 1990. Mixed-media sculptures in the passageway between the S and 4, 5, 6 lines in NYC's Grand Central Subway station, detail 4 (left to right).

Artist: Daniel Sinclair.

Dan Sinclair's Fast Track and Speedwheels are assemblages crafted from bright metallic sections that include wavy aluminum sheets, steel wheels, brass disks, copper springs and wires. Installed within a long passageway between the subway and Grand Central Terminal above, they interpret the speed, energy and train travel imagery into a series of relief sculptures. The art-deco shapes and various turning wheels, spinning gears and pistons add to the aura of the location, below one of America's premiere rail stations. "I want my sculpture to make people think of the power of the engines that drive the trains, my sculpture to make people think of the power of the engines that drive the trains, the speed and efficiency of them . . . the sculptures also reflect the architectural elements of Times Square and the Art Deco glamour of Radio City Music Hall," says the artist.

There are several tile mosaic artworks in NYC subway stations all on the westside Manhattan subway lines. For more try the Christopher Street/Sheridan Square platform, Cathedral Parkway/110th Street platform (downtown-bound 1 train only); the mezzanine walls of the 42nd Street (Times Square) for the A, C and E trains; 42nd street/Times Square upstairs platform (1, 2 & 3 trains); 42nd Street/Times Square passageway between the 8th Avenue/Port Authority Bus Terminal (A, C, & E trains) and the 7th Avenue/Broadway (1, 2, & 3 trains) platforms; West 66th street/Lincoln Center Station (1 train); West 34th Street/Pennsylvania Station (A, C & E trains); Chambers Street (A & C trains); Houston Street (1 train); and Pennsylvania "Penn" station (1, 2 & 3 trains) [subway art archives] and, my favorite subway station of all, the American Museum of Natural History station at 81st and Central Park West (B & C trains) [AMNH archives].

Art abounds in New York and that is a F.A.C.T.