It’s a graphic redux.
The City’s Department of Transportation (DOT) announced the artists whose work will “enliven and beautify the walls” of the 191st Street Tunnel.
From a pool of 57 applicants, DOT has selected five artists, most of whom have ties to Northern Manhattan.
The artists will begin their work in the fall.
The tunnel is a roughly 1,000-foot passageway connecting Broadway to the #1 subway line at 191st Street and St. Nicholas Avenue.
Though it bears the characteristics of an above-ground tunnel, the space is actually categorized as a mapped city street above one of the system’s deepest stations, at 180 feet below street level.
The selected artists are listed below.
Vicky Azcoitia: The Washington Heights-based artist works with photography and design. Dedicating most of her time to freelance photography, photo-editing, and graphic design, she also works on developing her own documentary photography projects. Azcoitia currently teaches digital photography at the Bronx River Art Center and is a member artist at Cornerstone Studios.
Daniel Bonilla: A Washington Heights/Inwood-born and raised artist who is curating the Riverside-Inwood Neighborhood Gardens ‘Art in the Garden’ for the third year in a row. Bonilla has been an artist his entire life, working previously with Colossal Media and independently since 2019, he strives to do public art in The Heights and Inwood area to feel connected to his neighborhood and roots.
Denise Coke: A Queens-born Caribbean-American who is based in Jamaica, Queens, is an award-winning creative director and owner of $NP Designs who is best described as an augmented reality artist, muralist, and digital artist. Coke visited Washington Heights when younger to visit friends and family and she references the many cultural aspects of uptown in her work, such as bodegas and bustling city life. She has earned commissions from The Madison Square Garden Company, New York City’s Department of Education, Nike, and Google, while her work is showcased globally.
Rasheeda Johnson: A multidisciplinary artist with 13 years as a Washington Heights resident, Johnson has had the opportunity to experience the rich cultures represented in the area which she uses as inspiration for her work. Johnson was exposed to art at a very early age with a scholarship to Saturday art classes at the Carnegie Museum in her hometown of Pittsburgh, PA. Her passion for creating visual art has not wavered over the past 40 years as she looks toward the next 40 creating art in her community.
Carla Torres: A Washington Heights-based artist since 2006, originally from Ecuador, Torres works across several media including drawing, painting, illustration, animation, and murals. Torres has been commissioned by NYC DOT, the Garment District Alliance, NYC Health + Hospitals, the HBO Max Latinx Diaspora Campaign, and Google NYC, and has received a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Creative Engagement grant three times since 2019.
Read more: Mural Makeover | Manhattan Times
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