Spring has officially arrived on the High Line — and it brought some of the most exciting public art New York has seen in years. From a neon-water corn cob fountain that doubles as a commentary on genetic modification, to monumental bronze sculptures landing in Brooklyn Bridge Park next week, to community murals stretching from the Bronx to Prospect Park, the city is an open-air gallery right now. Lace up your walking shoes and go find it.
⭐ Don’t Miss: The High Line’s 2026 Spring Art Season
The High Line (enter at Gansevoort Street, 14th Street, 23rd Street, or 34th Street) has unveiled its spring 2026 art commissions, organized around the theme of bodies, labor, and infrastructure — and the works are extraordinary. Admission to the park is always free. Here is what you need to see:
Derek Fordjour: Backbreaker Double (22nd Street)
Fordjour’s monumental mural at 22nd Street depicts two Black marching band drum majors performing the “drum major backbend” — one of the most thrilling and physically demanding moves in the tradition. Installed in December and commanding the attention of everyone who walks past it, Backbreaker Double is a celebration of Black showmanship, athleticism, and cultural inheritance. Fordjour has also placed new bronze figures nearby — a waiter and a boxer — that extend the work’s meditation on Black labor and performance. This is public art doing exactly what it is supposed to do: stopping you in your tracks.
Ximena Garrido-Lecca: The Golden Crop (23rd Street)
Step one block north and you will encounter one of the most conceptually loaded pieces on the High Line: a nine-foot bronze corn cob fountain by Peruvian artist Ximena Garrido-Lecca. The water trickling through The Golden Crop is tinted a vivid neon yellow — a reference to chemical runoff from genetically modified agriculture that contaminates the water sources communities rely on for drinking, fishing, and daily life. Corn holds a sacred place in pre-Columbian mythology; Garrido-Lecca uses that reverence to make the contamination viscerally visible. It is beautiful and unsettling at the same time. That is the whole point.
Katherine Bernhardt: Spring Cleaning (18th Street Billboard)
Bernhardt’s contribution to the High Line’s 18th Street billboard is a burst of wild color — a still life of cleaning products and domestic goods rendered in her signature animated brushwork. Spring Cleaning manages to be simultaneously domestic and hallucinatory, a celebration of the ordinary made extraordinary. It is the kind of piece you will photograph from multiple angles trying to capture why it makes you feel so good.
Walk the High Line any day this week. All three works are currently installed and on view, free to all. thehighline.org/art
🗽 Opening May 5: Woody De Othello at Brooklyn Bridge Park
Mark your calendar: on Tuesday, May 5, the Public Art Fund opens Woody De Othello: Guardian Spirit — the San Francisco-based artist’s first major public art exhibition in New York City. Monumental bronze sculptures installed throughout Brooklyn Bridge Park explore the concept of nkisi, ritual objects from Kongo traditions that embody spiritual presences and channel protective or healing forces.
De Othello’s totemic structures are described as both symbols of spatial protection and sites for “capturing the wind” — which sounds poetic until you see the work, at which point it makes perfect physical sense. The exhibition runs through March 8, 2027, so you have time, but don’t let that lull you into waiting. Brooklyn Bridge Park at dusk with these sculptures is going to be one of the visual experiences of the year.
There is also a Public Art Fund Talk with Woody De Othello on Thursday, May 7 at 6:30 PM at The Cooper Union (7 E. 7th Street). Free to attend; registration at publicartfund.org.
🌿 Prospect Park: Risha Gorig’s “The Journey”
Running through August 28 in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, Risha Gorig’s “The Journey” uses sculptural installation as a metaphor for displacement — of animals and humans alike — driven by climate change, war, and land loss. The work is integrated into the park’s landscape in a way that rewards slow, attentive walking. Prospect Park is free; the art is part of the NYC Parks Art in the Parks program. nycgovparks.org/art
🎨 The Bronx: Yafatou Sarr’s “Weaving the Future” at Grand Concourse
The NYC DOT Art program has commissioned Weaving the Future: A Vessel of Water, Roots, and Community by Bronx-based artist Yafatou Sarr, created in collaboration with Concourse House. The work is on display at Grand Concourse and East Fordham Road in the Bronx through June 2026 — a neighborhood-scale piece that reflects the community it lives among. It is the kind of public art that earns its place by being specific: to this block, this history, these people.
🚶 Your Public Art Walking Plan for This Week
The most satisfying way to consume all of this is to build a day around it. Here is a suggested route for a half-day of free public art in Manhattan:
- Start at Gansevoort Street and walk the High Line north, stopping at the Bernhardt billboard (18th St), Fordjour’s mural (22nd St), and Garrido-Lecca’s fountain (23rd St). The park is open daily; hours vary seasonally.
- Exit at 30th Street and head to the Javits area for lunch — the West Side is full of options now.
- If you can extend the day, head to Brooklyn Bridge Park after May 5 for the De Othello sculptures. The DUMBO waterfront at golden hour is its own reward.
Public art is one of the things New York does better than anywhere else on earth. This spring’s slate is proof. Go find these works before they become things you meant to see.
