Arts for Transit and Urban Design

103rd Street

Nitza Tufiño

Neo-Boriken, 1990

Ceramic tiles in stairwells to platforms

Nitza Tufiño's ceramic tile murals grace the stairwell walls at the station. The work was based upon her research and interviews with neighborhood residents, many of whom are of Latin American and Caribbean heritage. The mural designs and imagery were also inspired by the petroglyphs of the Taïno Indians, Puerto Rico's first inhabitants, and by Mayan and Aztec motifs. The work is meant to be a lively guide through the streets and subways of New York City and captures the energy and rhythms of the surrounding neighborhoods.