{"id":248224,"date":"2026-05-29T21:56:45","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T21:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/248224\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T21:56:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T21:56:45","slug":"new-brooklyn-subway-mural-adds-a-touch-of-whimsy-to-commuting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/248224\/","title":{"rendered":"New Brooklyn Subway Mural Adds a Touch of Whimsy to Commuting"},"content":{"rendered":"

News<\/a><\/p>\n

Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze\u2019s mosaic \u201cMay Your Road Be Light and Fun\u201d at Borough Hall excerpts drawings from over 10 years of the artist\u2019s practice.<\/p>\n


\n \"Anna
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

\"New
\n At the Borough Hall subway station, Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze\u2019s \u201cMay Your Road Be Light and Fun\u201d is the latest public art installation from MTA Arts & Design. (photo Anna Lee\/Hyperallergic)\u00a0<\/p>\n

The mad dash between subway lines in Brooklyn\u2019s Borough Hall subway station has just gotten a little more colorful. In the corridor connecting the 2, 3, 4, and 5 subway lines, Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze\u2019s mosaic \u201cMay Your Road Be Light and Fun\u201d (2026) will now envelop passersby across a 110-foot leg of their journey.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

MTA Arts & Design announced the new installation on May 28, as a joint project between Amanze and Miotto Mosaic Art Studios, a workshop based 50 miles north of New York City. In an array of glazed and matte ceramic pieces, Amanze\u2019s drawings are brought from the paper to tiled underground walls.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"“May Your Road Be Light and Fun” (2026) (\u00a9 ruby onyinyechi amanze, NYCT Borough Hall, MTA Arts and Design; photo Sahar Coston-Hardy)<\/p>\n

There is no singular subject to \u201cMay Your Road Be Light and Fun.\u201d Instead, the mosaic plucks excerpts from around 50 of Amanze\u2019s drawings, dating back to 2012. Part mosaic, part collage, the artwork captures seven of the artist\u2019s most beloved motifs: swimming, aliens, birds, bikes, architecture, leopard-headed humans, and the medium of paper itself. Set against a white backdrop that mimics a blank sheet of parchment, these motifs emerge in colorful patchwork smatterings of algae green, ocean blue, grays, and fuchsia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"One of the mosaic\u2019s characters sports an astronaut\u2019s helmet.\u00a0(photo Anna Lee\/Hyperallergic)\u00a0\"\"Many of Amanze’s figures reference physical activities, such as diving or lunging. (photo Anna Lee\/Hyperallergic)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many of the figures throughout the piece reference various physical activities, such as diving or lunging. Born in Nigeria and straddling England and the United States for much of her artistic career, Amanze is familiar with much larger themes of movement. During the 10 years she lived in New York City, she noticed how the public transit system facilitated countless relocations on a smaller and more frequent scale, with commuters and tourists hustling between subway lines at all hours. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe title comes from that combination of referencing movement, journeying, magic, surprise, and delight,\u201d the artist told Hyperallergic in a phone interview For Amanze, the mosaic offers a fun parallel for city folk who are always on the move.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"“May Your Road Be Light and Fun” (2026) (\u00a9 ruby onyinyechi amanze, NYCT Borough Hall, MTA Arts and Design; photo Sahar Coston-Hardy)<\/p>\n

Although the work is the product of 14 years worth of drawings, \u201cMay Your Road Be Light and Fun\u201d marks Amanze\u2019s first public exhibition. \u201cI never saw an opportunity for my artwork to translate into a public sphere, because I work on paper,\u201d she said. Then, she met Stephen Miotto<\/a>, the eponymous owner of Miotto Mosaic Art Studios and the craftsman behind many of the mosaics that have graced the city\u2019s subway stations for the past four decades. Over years of collaboration, the two artists managed to create a mosaic translation of Amanze\u2019s one-dimensional drawings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a phone call with Hyperallergic, Miotto expressed his hope that the mosaic would positively affect passersby. \u201cMaybe this piece will change someone\u2019s day,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel really lucky to be involved in it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Amanze agreed with Miotto\u2019s sentiment: \u201cIn my drawings, my characters are happy and content, while doing mundane things. There\u2019s a levity to that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"News Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze\u2019s mosaic \u201cMay Your Road Be Light and Fun\u201d at Borough Hall excerpts drawings from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-248224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}