As part of his 2018 “Beacons” series, displayed on the platform walls of the 167th Street B/D station, Rico Gatson derived a mosaic portrait of James Baldwin from a photo by Steve Schapiro.
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"The New York City subway commute can be unpleasant: the rats, the packed cars, the schedule changes, the smells. But
Contemporary Art Underground: MTA Arts & Design New York (The Monacelli Press, $60), by Sandra Bloodworth and Cheryl Hageman, invites us to see extraordinary beauty in the mundane. Showcasing the more than 100 site-specific projects that have been commissioned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for the city’s subway platforms, overpasses and tunnels since 2015, this book also documents the artists’ creative processes in drawings, models and photographs. Along the walls of the B/D train station on 167th Street, Rico Gatson created 'Beacons,' eight portraits of Black and Latino leaders with connections to the Bronx. He modeled each mosaic on black-and-white photographs, adding bright rays 'coming out of a Pan-African sensibility of black, red and green,' Gatson has said, 'but expanding with yellow and orange and sometimes evolving into silver and gold.' ..."
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