ART AT AMTRAK to Continue with New Installations at Penn Station by Shoshanna Weinberger and David Rios Ferreira

Amtrak will continues its celebrated Art at Amtrak public art program with two new installations by Shoshanna Weinberger and David Rios Ferreira, beginning Tuesday, August 1 at New York Penn Station. They will replace Derrick Adams' acclaimed, six-month installation which will now be featured as an animation on the 160-foot-wide state-of-the-art 4mm LED digital screens above the main concourse at Moynihan Train Hall.

“Introducing a fourth installment of Art at Amtrak within Penn Station shows the continued support and positive feedback we've received from customers about this wonderful program,” said Amtrak Vice President, Northeast Corridor Service Line Jina Sanone. “The addition of multimedia artwork on Moynihan Train Hall's digital screens is a natural next step in expanding the program's footprint, highlighting the exceptional talent of artists across New York City and New Jersey and improving the customer experience.”

The expansion of Art at Amtrak to the Moynihan Train Hall screens welcomes an exciting new partnership with Empire State Development to bring additional artworks to the existing public art program ESD established at the Train Hall. Adams created the inaugural animation, entitled The City Is My Refuge: In Motion, with animator Jahmir Duran-Abreu.

Newark-based artist Weinberger's Traveling Along Horizons explores how civilization measures time and travel between sunrise and sunset, and the complexity of Weinberger's hybrid identity as an Afro-Caribbean-American. The stripe patterns signify societal division according to race, gender, class, politics, and more. Weinberger will cover the Amtrak 8th Avenue concourse columns with various figures symbolizing marginalized bodies.

Newark- and Jersey City-based artist Rios Ferreira's Get Carried Away, You Have the Right transforms the Amtrak rotunda at New York Penn Station into a cosmic gateway covered in Indigenous and Afro-Futurist imagery. The four large pillars in the rotunda are adorned with “temporal beings” that blur the line between the figurative and abstract. To create this work, Ferreira combined images from different periods and sources, including imagery from Amtrak's archive. Throughout the installation, viewers may spot maps, train cars and design elements taken from previous Amtrak café menus, ticket stubs and route brochures.

Both installations will remain on view until January 2024.

Amtrak launched Art at Amtrak in June 2022 and has commissioned temporary installations for New York Penn Station by New York and New Jersey artists including Saya Woolfalk, Dahlia Elsayed, Dennis RedMoon Darkeem, Ghost of a Dream and Adams. In June 2023, the initiative grew to include the Metropolitan Lounge at Moynihan Train Hall, where Karen Margolis' four-panel artwork Continuum is on view through Summer 2024.

Art at Amtrak is curated by Debra Simon Art Consulting. Simon was Director of Public Art at the Times Square Alliance; created Arts Brookfield, the largest privately funded public art program in the United States; and co-founded the River to River festival.

The Moynihan Train Hall Public Art Program was established by Empire State Development, which led the development of the Moynihan Train Hall project with partners Amtrak, MTA Long Island Rail Road, and Vornado Realty Trust. The program features three monumental permanent installations by renowned artists Kehinde Wiley, Elmgreen & Dragset, and Stan Douglas commissioned by ESD in partnership with the Public Art Fund.

About Amtrak

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