The High Line, the elevated park that runs for a mile and a half along Manhattan’s former West Side freight rail line, is already getting ready to welcome new works of art. Since 2019 it has been home to the Plinth, a space dedicated exclusively to major public art commissions, which has hosted works like Simone Leigh’s Brick House and, more recently, Iván Argote’s Dinosaur. The proposals for the seventh and eighth commissions, set to be installed in 2029 and 2030, already number 62 and are open for public comment through September 8. In just a few years, the Plinth has built a track record of works that get people talking. Here are the ten proposals from this new round that caught our eye the most.
Cinthia Marcelle – Economia de Base
An upside-down piggy bank resting on a safe, where anyone can deposit coins. Marcelle turns a private gesture into a collective one, drawing inspiration from the Black Panther Party’s mutual aid programs.
Wendy Red Star – One Blue Bead
Four monumental trade beads stacked vertically, from Venetian glass beads to those tied to the colonization of the American West. A monument to the exchanges that have shaped value, land, and identity throughout Manhattan’s history.
Kathleen Ryan – Red Delicious
A monumental apple core, glossy and red on the outside, glittering with abalone shell and crystals within. A symbol of New York, of desire, and of consumption, where beauty and decay coexist without contradiction.
Theresa Traore Dahlberg – Hakili – The Hare
A bronze hare rooted in stories told by the artist’s grandmother, a master storyteller originally from Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso. In African folktales, the hare is the trickster par excellence: small, cunning, and capable of outwitting the powerful.
Dawn Ng – The Sun
A circular installation projected onto two facing screens: on one side, a sphere of colored ice melts into flowing streams; on the other, the same process runs in reverse. Moving around the work, the sun appears to rise and set at the very same moment.
Daniel Otero Torres – ABRAZOS
A bronze sculpture of intertwined human figures arranged in a spiraling vertical form, inspired by the embraces of loved ones reunited after being separated by a political border. The project includes a collaborative performance program designed to involve migrant communities and turn the Plinth into a site of real, live encounters.
Simón Vega – Central American Interstellar Bus Voyager
A stele that doubles as a spacecraft, clad in the same bright colors, chrome details, and painted patterns found on Central American buses. Ancient monuments, everyday transportation, and futuristic imagery merge into a reflection on cycles of time and movement.
Jenna Sutela – Head Loss
A fountain built around a ruptured pipe, where water escapes through a breach rather than a controlled outlet. Making an ordinarily hidden water network visible, the work stages overflow as its central gesture, pressure exceeding containment.
Enrico David – Sleepwalker: Honouring the Tired
A tall, folded-over figure with a glowing onyx face, supported by a second figure leaning at its base. A quiet monument to exhaustion, physical and emotional, brought on by the relentless pace of life in New York City.
Raphaela Vogel – The Second Opinion
A rereading of the allegorical language of public monuments through the recurring symbols of justice: scales and eyes. In place of the traditional blindfolded figure, Vogel proposes a justice that sees, suspended between legal symbolism and the story of Saint Lucy.
These are just ten of the 62 proposals in the running for the Plinth. The rest can be discovered — and commented on — on the High Line’s website, before the final selection leads to the next two works for 2029 and 2030.
