New Museum has unveiled a major new facade sculpture by Tschabalala Self, marking both the artist’s first large-scale public work in New York and a defining moment in the institution’s expanded Bowery campus.
Titled Art Lovers, the work forms part of the museum’s longstanding Facade Sculpture Program and was revealed alongside the completion of its OMA-designed expansion. Installed on the exterior of the third floor, the sculpture is visible from Bowery and Prince Street—embedding itself directly into the rhythms of the city.
Known for a practice that moves fluidly between painting, printmaking and sculpture, Self has built a distinctive visual language centred on figuration and the construction of identity. Here, that language expands into the public realm. Art Lovers depicts a couple in an intimate embrace, a scene that is at once playful and symbolic—echoing the architectural “kiss point” where the original SANAA-designed building meets its new extension.
The result is both a literal and conceptual joining: bodies, buildings and narratives meeting at a single point.
“As we look forward to opening the New Museum’s expanded campus on the Bowery, we are delighted that Tschabalala Self’s sculpture for the facade pays homage to the joining of our SANAA building with our new OMA-designed expansion,”
said Lisa Phillips, Toby Devan Lewis Director of the New Museum.
Massimiliano Gioni, the museum’s Artistic Director, described the work as both emblematic and accessible:
“We are thrilled to collaborate again with Tschabalala Self, who has been a friend of the New Museum for many years. Her sculpture is like a giant lapel pin placed on our facade: an insignia of love that we can’t wait to share with New York and visitors from around the globe as we open our expanded museum.”
Self’s commission follows earlier facade interventions by artists including Chris Burden, Isa Genzken, Glenn Ligon and Ugo Rondinone, continuing a programme that has consistently brought ambitious sculpture into direct dialogue with the city.
The unveiling coincides with New Humans: Memories of the Future, a major exhibition spanning the museum’s expanded spaces, alongside further site-specific commissions by Sarah Lucas and Klára Hosnedlová. Together, these projects mark a broader shift for the institution—one that positions the building itself as an active site of artistic production.
With Art Lovers, Self offers a portrait of connection—intimate yet public, personal yet architectural—fixed to the facade but animated by the movement of the city around it.
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