What to Know
- Construction on current iteration of the Second Avenue line began in 2007 but planning for it stretches back generations
- Under the first phase of the project, trains will run from 63rd Street to 96th Street at 72nd, 86th and 96th streets
- Works by contemporary artists Chuck Close, Sarah Sze, Jean Shin and Vik Muniz will be featured at the new subway stations
The Second Avenue subway line, which opens New Year's Day, will have walls decorated with artworks by four celebrated contemporary artists.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo made the announcement about Manhattan's Second Avenue subway line Monday at the Museum of Modern Art.
The line opens Jan. 1 and will have four stations. Each station will display ceramic-tile or mosaic pieces by one of the four artists: Chuck Close, Sarah Sze, Jean Shin and Vik Muniz.
Sze's designs feature objects including trees, birds and scaffolding. Close made portraits of cultural figures including artists Kara Walker and Alex Katz.
Muniz created life-size figures of everyday New Yorkers. Shin produced images of the old Second and Third Avenue elevated subway.
The Second Avenue subway line is slated to eventually expand north into Harlem.
