The MTA has commissioned a new mosaic project at the Grand Street (L) Station! Artist Glendalys Medina designed this mosaic by touring the neighborhood, incorporating elements and colors they would see into the art. Walking from the station to their studio, Medina would reflect on their COVID-19 pandemic ritual of walking outside and feeling gratitude for the neighborhood. These feelings and memories were poured into the mosaic, alongside their practice inspired by Taíno culture, Hip-hop, music, Latinx culture, and the way people sort patterns in their minds. All photos are courtesy of Osheen Harruthoonyan.
“The two mosaic panels at the Grand Street station appear on each platform mezzanine. On the Brooklyn-bound side, Medina reflects on the various communities who have comprised East Williamsburg and Bushwick over time. The large color fields represent the original Lenape inhabitants and Pan-African, Irish, Italian, Puerto Rican, and Dominican immigrants. On the Manhattan-bound side, more intimate color studies were derived from the artist’s experience of the neighborhood across seasons. A nearby church, birds in the springtime, the Moore Street Market, and the collar of a passing dog provided inspiration for these compositions of interlocking forms that call to mind schematic design drawings. Fabricated by Miotto Mosaic Art Studios, the two panels feature overlapping shapes that allow the eye to complete forms that are disrupted, inviting viewers to look a little longer and contemplate gratitude.”
About the artist
Glendalys Medina is a conceptual interdisciplinary visual artist and received an MFA from Hunter College. Medina has presented artwork at such notable venues as PAMM, Participant Inc., Performa 19, Artists Space, The Bronx Museum of Art, El Museo del Barrio, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Vigo, Spain, and The Studio Museum in Harlem among others. Medina was a recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2020), a Jerome Hill Foundation Fellowship (2019), an Ace Hotel New York City Artist Residency (2017), a SIP fellowship at EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop (2016), a BACK IN FIVE MINUTES artist residency at El Museo Del Barrio (2015), a residency at Yaddo (2014, 2018), the Rome Prize in Visual Arts (2013), a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Interdisciplinary Art (2012), and the Bronx Museum Artist in the Marketplace residency (2010). Medina is currently a professor at SVA’s MFA Art Practice program and lives and works in New York.
My practice is inspired by how humans learn, create order out of chaos and make sense of the world; how previous knowledge is essential for learning and perceiving; how the ambiguity of the world increases our reliance on that previous knowledge; how we project that knowledge when we don’t understand; and how we see with our brains recognizing patterns of information. I create work that amplifies marginalized voices, deconstructs and reconstructs image, language and systems to incite a change in cognitive structures that occur as a result of an experience. I am interested in creating moments when previous knowledge gets an upgrade and new perspectives are formed to establish cultural inclusivity. My work exhibits Taíno (indigenous Caribbeans) culture, Hip- hop and Latinx culture and music, and explores personal development as an empowering tool to re-identify societal and personal value structures to gain cultural equity in a transcultural global society.