In the 14th Street A/C/E subway station this morning, we took a look at the brass figures scattered over benches and under staircases and thought: Did the MTA, not Brownsville, win the Broad Prize?
Those statues, installed in the station in 2004, were designed by Brooklyn-based artist Tom Otterness, who also created the trophy that Broad Prize-winning school districts take home. Otterness’s work can also be found outside PS 234 in Tribeca and, since last year, at PS 20 on the Lower East Side. Perhaps his public education-oriented art is penance for his earliest work, which included shooting a dog on film; Otterness apologized for that project earlier this year.