{"id":207620,"date":"2026-03-26T23:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T23:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/207620\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T23:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T23:42:12","slug":"meet-magic-grasshopper-the-massive-pink-carriage-sculpture-that-just-popped-up-on-beach-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/207620\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet ‘Magic Grasshopper,’ the massive pink carriage sculpture that just popped up on Beach Drive"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Beach Drive\u2019s beloved kapok tree has some new competition for the most popular photo op on the block. The Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg (225 Beach Drive NE) today unveiled \u2018Magic Grasshopper\u2019 on its front lawn, a 30-foot-long, pastry-pink sculpture of a horse-drawn carriage created by Chicago artist Yvette Mayorga.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the kind of thing you have to see to truly grasp (that\u2019s what the pictures are for), and even when you\u2019re standing in front of the beautiful piece, there\u2019s still so much to take in. It evokes \u201990s nostalgia with the appearance of carousel horses in Hello Kitty backpacks, but the cutesy first impression belies the deeper meaning of the sculpture. <\/p>\n

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Beneath the smiley face flags and Sleeping Beauty-esque carriage lie themes of migration, feminized labor, and colonial histories. Look closely and you can see the details that make Mayorga\u2019s piece \u201ca tribute to the physical and personal journeys undertaken in pursuit of the American Dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sculpture is elaborately piped in Mayorga\u2019s signature faux-frosting: thickened acrylic applied through pastry bags, which references the artist\u2019s familial labor of baking and the broader histories of women\u2019s work and immigrant labor,\u201d MFA explains. \u201cThe disarmingly sweet exterior and the color pink become a subversion, a sugary shield, and a portal to a hopeful future. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe carriage itself looks prepared for a journey, with suitcases stacked on the roof, horses sporting Hello Kitty backpacks, and a smiley-face flag fluttering optimistically above. Tricked-out wheels with gold rims beneath the carriage serve as an homage to the lowrider culture rooted in Mexican-American communities of Chicago, where the artist is based. <\/p>\n

\u201cWrapped around the carriage are painterly scenes of migration, layering European art historical tropes with personal and collective narratives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A\"AMagic Grasshopper on display in New York City. Photo via Times Square Arts<\/p>\n

Mayorga refers to her distinctive artistic style as \u201cLatinxoco,\u201d a mix of Latinx and Rococo aesthetics. The carriage in Magic Grasshopper references the royal carriage of the Second Mexican Empire, which was modeled after the opulent coronation coach of Louis XVI at the Palace of Versailles, and was used at the Castillo de Chapultepec in Mexico City, a castle built atop sacred Aztec land. The title, Magic Grasshopper, refers to the English translation of the Nahuatl word Chapultepec (\u201chill of the grasshopper\u201d), and \u201cevokes a mythical vehicle able to transcend the constraints of space and time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally commissioned for and displayed in Times Square, the installation will remain in St. Pete through the summer in advance of the Mayorga\u2019s upcoming Rococo-themed interior exhibition that will debut at the Museum of Fine Arts in June. Learn more about Magic Grasshopper and Mayorga here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beach Drive\u2019s beloved kapok tree has some new competition for the most popular photo op on the block.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-207620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}