Arts for Transit and Urban Design

110th Street

Manuel Vega

Sábado en la Ciento Diez (Saturday on 110th Street), 1996

Ceramic mosaic on platform walls

Artist Manuel Vega's childhood memories are revealed in the station's artwork, a series of four mosaics panels. The panels - Earth, Air, Fire, and Water - capture the joyous, colorful atmosphere of la ciento diez in images that make the neighborhood come alive. Air illustrates a typical summer-in-the-city diversion: children playing under the spray of a fire hydrant (a piraguero shaves a block of ice to make tropical fruit-flavored snow cones of guava, papaya, mango, and tamarindo.) In Earth, a street vendor sells bananas, plantains, papayas, avocados, and coconuts. Shangó - a deity from the Yoruba pantheon - embodies Harlem's West African roots in Fire, dancing to the beat of three bata drummers. In Water, an elderly woman represents motherhood as she carries a bouquet of flowers and leads a child by the hand from a neighborhood botánica.