Calendar

Exhibition

Presented by SVA Galleries

Women’s History Month: A Half-Century of Underground Images

March 15 - 28, 2023
Remnants of torn posters from the 50s or 60s with text written in French, one of which includes a partial photograph of actor Jimmy Stewart.
Credit: Eve Sonneman

SVA Flatiron Windows

133/141 West 21st Street, 1st floor, New York, NY 10011
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In celebration of Women’s History Month, SVA Galleries presents highlights from “Underground Images,” the ongoing traveling exhibition of SVA’s subway posters. SVA placed its first woman-designed poster in New York City’s subway system in 1973—the same year the NYC Transit Authority named its first woman motorman—joining the push for gender parity across all sectors of American labor. Spanning five decades, this small sampling from SVA’s nearly 200 subway posters highlights the dynamism, variety and creative breadth of the contribution by its women designers and artists. This exhibition offers a glimpse into the vibrant legacy of one of the City's most enduring public art projects, on view before thousands of subway riders daily.


Since 2007, Executive Vice President Anthony P. Rhodes has been the creative director for SVA’s subway posters and curator of “Underground Images.”

Poster showing a photograph of crayons with the copy "Spend a few nights with us. It may change the way you spend the rest of your days," written below it.

Audrey Flack

A wide poster depicting a busy town scene from a birds-eye view, with the sign saying "Art Is!" above a large SVA logo on the bottom right of the illustration.

Hyesu Lee

Poster with abstract design stating "To be good is not enough when you dream of being great / School of Visual Arts."

Paula Scher

A poster showing illustrations of many, many people holding up signs, both blank and with statements on them, surrounding the words "Art Is!"

Julia Rothman

The top half of the poster is a photograph of many torn subway posters, the graphic bottom half states "Surface. Texture. Form. Line. Color. Only words until an artist uses them."

Eve Sonneman

Fantastical design of someone in a space suit flying upward with flames shooting out of their shoes and ropes connecting them to clouds. The text below the figure states "Fly Higher."

Yuko Shimizu

Three photographs (eyes with glasses, a banana, and close-up of a person with red lipstick) stand atop each other vertically with the words "Consider / Develop / Reveal / SVA" overlaid.

Gail Anderson

Graphic of seed packet for multicolored pansies, with the words "Watch Your Future Grow" written above the flowers and "School of Visual Arts" below them.

Louise Fili

Collaged poster made of many different drawn or printed pieces of paper, with a quote in the top left corner: "Go on working freely and furiously and you will make progress -Paul Gauguin"

Carin Goldberg

Graphic mimicking a holographic panel, with a highlighted tile stating "Art Is" in the center

Adrienne Leban

Poster with phrase "Computer Graphics" shown above a 1980s-era computer drawing of a woman's face. Below it is a quote, "Science states meanings. Art expresses them. -John Dewey"

Barbara Nessim