The much anticipated Grand Central Madison is set to open on Wednesday, January 25, 2023. This brand-new terminal and concourse will run alongside Vanderbilt Avenue from 43rd Street to 48th Street, with four new entrances to Madison Avenue in addition to entrances into historic Grand Central Terminal.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) yesterday announced Long Island Rail Road service to Grand Central Madison will begin tomorrow, January 25th. The first train is scheduled to originate at Jamaica at 10:45 a.m. and run express to Grand Central Madison where it is scheduled to arrive at 11:07 a.m. For at least three weeks, LIRR will operate limited shuttle service between Jamaica and Grand Central Madison so customers can acquaint themselves with the new terminal as existing schedules continue. This will be followed by LIRR initiating full service from Long Island to Grand Central, per schedules that will be posted on new.mta.info/
The train will be the first of regularly scheduled Grand Central Direct trains to operate between Jamaica and Grand Central Madison. Trains will operate between 6:15 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. on weekdays and from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. on weekends. Trains will run every 30 minutes in both directions during weekday midday periods and on weekends and once per hour during peak periods (arriving in Grand Central between 6:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. and departing between 4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.)
Grand Central Direct schedules will be available in the TrainTime app and at new.mta.info/
During this initial period, the LIRR will have customer ambassadors on the Grand Central Madison concourse to greet customers and offer information about the new space. LIRR customers looking to travel to Grand Central Madison can use Penn Station tickets, as Penn Station and Grand Central Madison are in the same fare zone.
This special Grand Central Direct service will conclude with the initiation of full train service mirroring what was previewed in draft schedules published last June. To enable travel planning, the MTA will provide notice when full schedules, increasing overall LIRR service by 41%, are scheduled to go into effect.
Amenities include free Wi-Fi, spacious waiting areas, a ticket office and ticket vending machines, a nursing room, and a Customer Service Office. Customers who need help boarding trains can also speak with an LIRR Care Ambassador for assistance.
The new station will also feature site-specific large-scale installations commissioned by MTA Arts & Design. The new murals are designed by acclaimed contemporary artists Yayoi Kusama and Kiki Smith. There will also be digital artwork and a new photography lightbox exhibition curated by the International Center for Photography. Below ~ a peek at what to expect.
Grand Central Madison presents an opportunity for Arts & Design to expand its photography lightbox program. Ten uniquely designed lightboxes located on the concourse level at 43rd Street will feature rotating exhibitions of artwork by contemporary artists and photographers. In this inaugural exhibition, Arts & Design partners with the International Center of Photography (ICP) to present a new body of eye-catching photographic artwork by Paul Pfeiffer. This is the first in a series of contemporary photography exhibitions to be featured in these large-scale lightboxes.
Born in Honolulu, Paul Pfeiffer grew up between Hawaii and the Philippines before moving to New York in 1990 to attend Hunter College and the Whitney Independent Study Program. Pfeiffer is known for his highly sophisticated use of digital technologies and new media, and has created celebrated works of video, photography, installation, and sculpture since the late 1990s. Using digital erasure, magnification, and repetition, Pfeiffer samples and retouches images or video footage from sporting events, concerts, game shows, and Hollywood films to enhance their psychological effects. By drawing attention to certain aspects of visual culture and concealing others, he underlines the spectacular nature of contemporary media and its consumption.
Pfeiffer has had one-person exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art (2001); the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (2003 and 2017-18); the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2005); MUSAC León, Spain (2008); the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2009) and Sammlung Goetz, Munich, Germany (2011). Pfeiffer has presented work in major international exhibitions in recent years, including the Performa Biennial (2019), the Honolulu Biennial (2019), the Seoul Mediacity Biennial (2022) and the Toronto Biennial (2022). His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Inhotim Museu de Arte Contemporanea, Inhotim, Brazil; the Pinault Collection, Venice; and Kunst Werke, Berlin, among others.
‘A Message of Love, Directly from My Heart unto the Universe (2022)” by Yayoi Kusama
“A Message of Love, Directly from My Heart unto the Universe (2022),” by internationall renowned artist Yayoi Kusama, is located in Grand Central Madison, on the Madison Concourse between 46th and 47th streets. Expanding upon Kusama’s iconic “My Eternal Soul” series, the new glass mosaic artwork is an exploration of lines and forms, detailed with bold colors. At once abstract and figurative, the artwork highlights a variety of motifs for visitors to discover. They convey the messages of LOVE, UNIVERSE, PEACE, and OWE TO ALL MANKIND, which are central to Kusama’s oeuvre. She hopes that the work will bring joy for those who encounter it as they pass through the incredible new space.
Photo: Kelly McFate, Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts, David Zwirner
Yayoi Kusama was born in Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. From a young age, Kusama experienced visual and auditory hallucinations and began creating net and polka-dot pattern pictures. In 1957, she went to the United States and began making net paintings and soft sculptures, as well as organizing happenings and developing installations that made use of mirrors and lights, establishing herself as an avant-garde artist. Overcoming various obsessions, she discovered an artistic philosophy of self-obliteration via the obsessive repetition and multiplication of single motifs.
River Light; The Presence; The Spring; The Sound; The Water’s Way by Kiki Smith
Since the 1980s, Kiki Smith has been known for her multidisciplinary work that explores embodiment and the natural world. Five individual mosaics by the acclaimed artist are located across two levels of Grand Central Madison. The glass mosaics, totaling over 1,400 square feet, were fabricated by Mayer of Munich, with whom Smith has been creating works over the last 25 years. The artwork builds on the motif of the natural world that Smith has explored for decades.
Photo: Anthony Verde
“The Sound” (2022) by Kiki Smith at Grand Central Madison.
Photo: Anthony Verde
“The Spring” (2022) by Kiki Smith at Grand Central Madison.
Photo: Anthony Verde
Photo: Anthony Verde
Photo: Anthony Verde
Kiki Smith, born in Nuremberg, Germany, uses a wide variety of materials to continuously expand and evolve a body of work that includes sculpture, printmaking, photography, drawing, and textiles. Smith has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions worldwide, and her work has been featured at five Venice Biennales, including the 2017 edition. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2017 was awarded the title of Honorary Royal Academician by the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Previously, Smith was recognized in 2006 by Time Magazine as one of the “Time 100: The People Who Shape Our World.” Other awards include the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture in 2000; the 2009 Edward MacDowell Medal; the 2010 Nelson A. Rockefeller Award, Purchase College School of the Arts; the 2013 U.S. Department of State Medal of Arts, conferred by Hillary Clinton; and the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sculpture Center, among others. She is an adjunct professor at NYU and Columbia University.
Platform by Gabriel Barcia-Colombo
Marking the inauguration of five-channel LED screens at the north end of the Grand Central Madison concourse, mixed-media artist Gabriel Barcia-Colombo presents a new two-minute video artwork “Platform.” The LED screens, each measuring 17’ wide and over 7’ high, will engage passersby with an immersive and interactive experience.
Featuring life-size portraits of 40 New Yorkers gathering in a super slow-motion, “Platform” examines what it means to be back in a crowd post-pandemic. The moment of awe and interaction between those featured on-screen and the commuters passing through Grand Central Madison creates an ephemeral encounter that makes New York unique.
The work is presented by MTA Arts & Design with technical support from ANC Sports.
Gabriel Barcia-Colombo is a new media artist whose work focuses on collections, memorialization, and the act of leaving a digital imprint for the next generation. His work includes video sculptures, immersive performances, large-scale projections, and vending machines that sell human DNA. It plays upon the modern exigency in today’s culture to chronicle, preserve, and wax nostalgic, an idea that Barcia-Colombo renders visually by “collecting” human portraits on video. Barcia-Colombo is a New York Foundation for the Arts grant awardee and faculty member at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He serves as a member of the artist advisory board at the New York Foundation for the Arts, as well as an education committee member at the Museum of Art and Design. In 2014, he was awarded a senior TED fellowship.
The Grand Wander by Jordan Bruner
Digital illustrator Jordan Bruner’s “The Grand Wander” explores many of the sights one might encounter while traveling from Grand Central to Long Island, including the cityscape of midtown Manhattan, wildlife and beaches, the historic fishing industry, and local wineries and food culture. These colorful scenes celebrate the broad range of experiences offered throughout Long Island.
The work is presented by MTA Arts & Design with technical support from ANC Sports.
Jordan Bruner is an artist and filmmaker from Virginia Beach. She developed a love for painting, illustration, and movie-making from her time experimenting as a child and studying at the Governor’s School for the Arts in high school. She continued her studies in animation and filmmaking at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. Bruner has continued to create films and paintings while also working professionally as an animation director for clients such as The New York Times, Google, Eve Ensler, Amazon, and “This American Life.” In 2013, she was the recipient of the Art Directors Club Young Guns Award, which honors creative individuals under 30 worldwide for their collective portfolio. Her films have shown at festivals worldwide including Pictoplasma and the LA Film Festival, and her illustration work has been honored by the Society of Illustrators and American Illustration. Bruner currently lives in Richmond with her partner Zack, cat Pablo, and dog Zucchini.
Hat Trick by Red Nose Studio
“Hat Trick,” a two-minute stop-motion animation by Red Nose Studio, celebrates the opening of Grand Central Madison and the inauguration of five-channel LED screens at the north end of the concourse. The LED screens, each measuring 17’ wide and over 7’ high, will engage passersby with an immersive and interactive experience.
“Hat Trick” depicts a playful cat-and-mouse chase through Grand Central Madison between a man and his bowler hat, inspired by the magical feeling of traveling throughout New York on the MTA’s vast system. Portals appear and whisk the characters from one place to another with motion, timing, and surprise, doubling as a metaphor for the experience of moving through everyday life.
The work is presented by MTA Arts & Design with technical support from ANC Sports.
Service to the station will begin with Grand Central Direct trains between Jamaica and Grand Central Madison. These will operate between Grand Central Madison and Jamaica every 30 minutes during middays and on weekends, and hourly during weekday rush periods. They will be overlaid as additions to the LIRR’s existing timetables to ensure there are no changes to existing trains to Penn Station and other destinations.
The new LIRR service to Manhattan’s east side is the most transformative change to Long Island Rail Road service in over a century. There will be new schedules on every branch of the LIRR, with more trains running during peak hours and better reverse commuting options to Long Island. Two new tunnels between Manhattan and Queens will increase train capacity to and from New York City by 50% and improve reliability.
Take a look at The Second Avenue Subway, Phase I and II.
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