The best outdoor art in NYC this fall

Though only a few vestiges of this history remain, Union Square used to be known as New York City’s "Book Row," a literary commercial corridor once home to over three dozen booksellers between Union Square and Astor Place. A new abstract artwork captures the spirit of that literary legacy. 

Titled Recess: Reads, this bright red steel sculpture by New York-based artist Fitzhugh Karol will soon be displayed at Triangle Plaza in Union Square. This eight-foot-tall artwork invites passersby to pause, play and discover new perspectives on a familiar cityscape. See it from November 19 through June 2026.

In the shadow of the Empire State Building, a nine-foot-tall gorilla gazes toward the iconic skyscraper. A few steps away, a massive brown bear raises its head curiously, and a polar bear lifts a paw into the air. These gigantic sculptures newly placed along Park Avenue look remarkably lifelike—and incredibly cute. 

They also raise important messages about the beauty and vulnerability of the natural world, especially endangered species. The sculpture collection by renowned French artist Michel Bassompierre titled "Fragile Giants" is on view along Park Avenue between 34th and 38th Streets. This open-air gallery is free to visit through May 11, 2026.

Three colorful figures are now brightening up the intersection of 124th Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem: Called "Aunties," these figurative sculptures by local artist Fitgi Saint-Louis honor the women who passionately nurture and embolden the Harlem community.

As the artist puts it, "Aunties is an ode to the collective of women, builders, leaders, caretakers, changemakers and creatives who transform Harlem and beyond all while having impeccable style." You can visit the artwork through April 2026.

Midtown’s Garment District has been home to creativity and invention for decades and, now it's home to a massive metal sculpture that seems to be "growing" out of the cement.

Titled New York Roots, the installation by Steve Tobin is the Garment District Alliance's latest public exhibit on the Broadway plazas between 39th and 40th Streets and 40th and 41st Streets. Seven sculptures invite you to weave in an out of their roots and "reflect on relationships, families and communities coming together for a shared purpose—just as roots intertwine to strengthen a tree," per the Alliance. 

See it through February 2026.

More than a century ago, an elephant named Alice embarked on an epic adventure, escaping her enclosure in Coney Island and swimming about five miles to Staten Island. After having heard this unlikely story, local artist Diane Matyas felt hope, buoyancy, endurance—and artistic inspiration.

The tale led her to create The Luna Park Elephant, a larger-than-life exhibition capturing Alice's story. The public artwork is on display in Maker Park on the eastern edge of Staten Island through June 2026.

To catch Alice in action, find her at Maker Park (Thompson Street between Front and Bay Streets in Staten Island).

A massive mural stretching 150-feet in the air has taken over the side of a building in the Brooklyn's Brownsville neighborhood. Artist Victor "Marka27" Quiñonez titled the piece "Brownsville King of Love" and said on Instagram that it's "a call to spread love and honor our ancestors by celebrating our cultures, and lifting each other as a community."

Marka27 created the piece in partnership with ArtBridge, a New York City-based nonprofit that helps local artists find homes for their works. You can find Brownsville King of Love at 326 Rockaway Avenue in Brownsville, Brooklyn. 

The larger-than-life artwork features an image of a local Brooklyn youth wearing a golden crown and holding up a custom jean jacket with the message "Spread Love." The jacket is emblazoned with several patches and pins representing Brownsville's diverse culture and notable hip-hop legacy, such as M.O.P. and Duck Down Records.

There’s a sculpture on the High Line right now that’s causing some folks to question the content of their Instagram feeds. Mika Rottenberg’s Foot Fountain (pink) sits in all its weird glory at the 30th Street entrance, sputtering out water from its rather phallic top.

Foot Fountain (pink) is a giant pink foot and lower leg that stands 10 feet tall and is peppered with tongues that stick out of lipsticked mouths. Its toenails are splashed with red nail polish, too. But the real kicker is the sculpture’s function: the working sprinkler on top can be activated by moving a set of pedals nearby, surprising or delighting passersby.

It’s just one of those sculptures that begs for a double take. Stop by and see it through May 2026.

A new kind of monument has landed in Brooklyn, and it’s not celebrating war, politics or power, but something far more universal: care.

Located at the Grand Army Plaza entrance to Prospect Park, Monuments to Motherhood, a towering bronze sculpture by artist and activist Molly Gochman that is part of an eponymous series, stands 15 feet tall and offers a tribute to caregiving in all its beautiful, invisible and often thankless forms. 

Crafted using casts of household items like bowls, foil and plastic wrap—all symbols of domestic work and nurturing—the sculpture is part of Gochman’s ongoing effort to reshape the American monument landscape. See it through May 2026.

Most New Yorkers encounter pigeons every day and don't pay much attention to these ubiquitous birds often maligned as "flying rats." But this new pigeon—a 16-foot tall aluminum version—is impossible to ignore. 

Called “Dinosaur,” this colossal pigeon has perched on the High Line. This artwork by Iván Argote isn't just a hyper-realistic rendering of the bird; instead it challenges traditions of who and what we monumentalize, as well as explore ideas around migration and the long view of history. The pigeon statue was one of the most polarizing proposals when High Line Art shared artwork suggestions a few years ago, so it's surely ruffling some feathers.

See it until April 2026. 

Artists are turning ugly construction scaffolding and fencing into beautiful artwork across the city, thanks to the City Canvas program. You can see their latest project, which covers 220 feet of fencing, in East Harlem on Second Avenue between 97th and 99th Streets. 

You'll see two pieces—one by Dario Mohr and the other created by East Harlem residents through the global art project Inside Out—that have taken over the construction scaffolding outside of NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan.

The Inside Out installation is a collection of black-and-white portraits of East Harlem residents, especially residents of NYCHA's East River Houses. It is part of artist JR's Inside Out Project. As for Mohr, he collaborated with youth from East River Houses on his monumental works titled Adinkrahene. The collection is tied together through Adinkra symbols, which originated from the Asante Kingdom, and have recently become a ubiquitous symbol of the greater African Diaspora. 

If you’ve spent any amount of time in Upper Manhattan, chances are you’ve seen a mysterious figure spray painting local storefronts in brightly colored hues.

Snoeman, a beloved NYC-based graffiti artist, likes to keep a low profile. On the streets, it’s unlikely you’ll recognize him without a spray can in his hands and a protective mask over his face. Online, you'll find nothing more than a partly-covered profile. But the same can’t be said for Snoeman’s work—a bold, unique style that is instantly recognizable from miles away.

Since the start of the pandemic, Snoeman has been at work beautifying bodega exteriors in Washington Heights and beyond. The artist’s use of vivid color and thick lines, most times paired with uplifting messages and signature figures, has helped local businesses gain attention while livening up surrounding neighborhoods. Take a stroll through the neighborhood and see how many you can find.

There's a massive sea serpent on the loose in the Rockaways with an uncanny resemblance to a subway train. This silvery gray creature snakes through an empty lot, but it comes in peace. 

Subway Sea Serpent, the latest sculpture by Zaq Landsberg and Joey Castillo is now on view indefinitely at Beach 60th Street and Rockaway Beach Boulevard. 

The artists were inspired by the A train, the crucial subway line that links the Rockaways to the rest of New York City. Located not far from subway station, it looks as if the artwork jumped from the elevated tracks to burrow through the ground in search of the beach. Segments of the cars peek above the grass as if the serpent's swimming through the dirt. 

Right outside the historic Villa Albertine’s garden wall, sits a 4-foot-tall bronze sculpture of the Little Prince from the much beloved French children’s book, Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

The new artwork by French sculptor Jean-Marc de Pas and the American Society of Le Souvenir Français with the Antoine de Saint Exupéry Youth Foundation honors the 80th anniversary of the 1943 book and the lives it has touched across the decades.

The sculpture was carved from clay and cast in bronze in one single piece at the sculptor’s studio in Normandy, France and was just unveiled at the Villa Albertine’s Payne Whitney Mansion at 972 Fifth Avenue.

Four beautiful, powerful murals are adding some colorful inspiration around Brooklyn thanks to a local art organization called Groundswell. Local students painted each one with the help of a professional artist, giving kids a chance to truly make their mark on the neighborhood. 

More than 50 students worked on the murals as part of Groundswell's Summer Leadership Institute program. Since its founding more than two decades ago, Groundswell has focused on using art as a tool for social change; it's painted more than 600 murals across the city so far, including these new additions.

Find the murals in Bushwick, Sunset Park, Cypress Hills and Brownsville. Here's the story behind each one.  

Visitors to Marsha P. Johnson Park in Brooklyn will now be greeted with a colorful floral archway in honor of the late transgender activist. 

After growing up in New Jersey during the 1940s, Johnson moved to Greenwich Village adopting the full name Marsha P. Johnson with the "P" standing for "Pay It No Mind." The archway bears that phrase in bold white lettering. "To her, this was a life motto and a response to questions about her gender," according to the New-York Historical Society.

Large floral sculptures in pink, blue, red and yellow decorate the top of the archway, with gem-like petal designs along the sides.

In this work by James Yaya Hough, three panels present different topics related to the carceral system. Hough contrasts the somber imagery with bright and bold colors, offering a sense of optimism for the future of a reformed carceral system.

Justice Reflected remains on view to the public along the sweeping 90-foot-long granite wall overlooking Esplanade Plaza and the Hudson River, a location Hough selected for its openness and accessibility, as well as its proximity to high foot traffic areas in Lower Manhattan.

Next time you're near the Times Square subway station, check out the entrance found within the pedestrian plaza near the corner of 43rd Street. It has a massive new mosaic by artist Nick Cave that commuters can admire. Commissioned by the MTA's public arts program, the work is called "Every One, Each One, Equal All," and it is made up of three separate art pieces.

"Times Square is one of the busiest, most diverse and fabulously kinetic places on the planet," Cave said in an official statement. "For this project I took the above ground color, movement and cross-pollination of humanity, bundled it into a powerful and compact energy mass that is taken underground."

Every day, thousands of people walk through Times Square, rushing to catch the subway, heading to work, meandering through shops—many of them unaware that they're stepping over a revolutionary art project that's been a part of the city for decades. 

Purposely unmarked, it's easy to miss this piece of auditory art because truly experiencing it requires tuning into a specific frequency in the most cacophonous place in America. The late artist Max Neuhaus's installation called "Times Square" sounds like the echo of a bell ringing. It's hard to place this droning tone among all the other noises there, especially because the sound emanates from a typical grate right beneath your feet. 

The work is on view 24/7, but we recommend visiting in the early morning when it's quieter. Head to the Broadway Pedestrian Plaza between 45th and 46th Streets (between Broadway and Seventh Avenue), remove your headphones and listen. 

The massive ghostly figure of a shed now rises out of the Hudson River near Pier 52.

The permanent exhibitition, named Day's End by its creator David Hammond, is made of slender steel pipes that reach 52 feet at its peak and together measure 325 feet long and 65 feet wide. It pays tribute to an artist, Gordon Matta-Clark, who transformed an abandoned shed that once sat on Pier 52 as well as to the history of the city's waterfront. In 1975, he carved massive openings into the shed, which he described as a "temple to sun and water," according to the Whitney, which proposed the public art installation.

Fearless Girl is the work of artist Kristen Visbal as commissioned by State Street Global Advisors. The bronze sculpture was moved away from its first location in 2010, following complaints that it was distracting tourists from the Charging Bull statue that is also found there. The outline of Fearless Girl's footprints is still by the downtown park, though, and folks are encouraged to "stand for her" while in the area.

The statue itself has been standing tall and strong in front of the New York Stock Exchange for a few years now. No matter where our girl stands, one thing's for sure: women are making strides all around the country and we should celebrate them today and forevermore.

Weighing in at 1,000 pounds, Isa Genzken's Rose III was unveiled on the seventh anniversary of Occupy Wall Street’s takeover of Zuccotti Park.

Genzken works in a wide range of mediums, and giant flowers have been a recurring theme for her: A similar rose sculpture was installed on the New Museum’s facade from 2010 to 2013, while a pair of gargantuan white orchids (rising to 28 and 34 feet respectively) stood at Doris C. Freedman Plaza in front of Central Park during the spring and summer of 2016. As for "Rose III," it remains on long term view at Zuccotti Park.