High Line Art Announces Beyond The Horizon, a New Artwork by Małgorzata Mirga-Tas on the 18th Street Billboard Adjacent to the Park

Beyond the Horizon billboard rendering courtesy of the artist and High Line Art.

The Romani Artist’s Affirmative Depiction of a Migrant Culture Helps Introduce Recurrent Themes for the 2024-2025 High Line Art Season

The High Line today announced plans to present Beyond the Horizon, a new artwork by Roma artist Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, on a billboard adjacent to the park at 18th Street near 10th Avenue. On view from December 9, 2024 through February 2025, Beyond the Horizon offers a vibrant and affirmative depiction of Romani people to the diverse passersby of New York City, providing a counter to pervasive negative stereotypes.

The billboard artwork is the Poland-based artist’s first public artwork in North America, a new opportunity for American audiences to experience Mirga-Tas’ layered imagery of her culture and history after her historic presentation representing Poland in the 2022 Venice Biennale. This artwork, along with the recently unveiled fourth High Line Plinth commission Dinosaur, introduce a set of common themes that will be represented in High Line Art’s commissions throughout 2025–exploring timely and timeless questions related to migration, identity, and marginalization.

“It’s an honor and a pleasure for High Line Art to present Małgorzata Mirga-Tas’s warmly crafted representation of the Romani to New York City,” said Cecilia Alemani, the Donald R. Mullen, Jr. Director & Chief Curator of High Line Art. “I hope the people traversing the High Line and the streets below find resonance and connection with the people journeying on the billboard at 18th Street.”

Beyond the Horizon, a new work hailing from Mirga-Tas’ On the Journey series, continues the artist’s practice of reclaiming how the Roma have traditionally been represented throughout art history, and reimagining the iconography that has played a substantial role in proliferating and reinforcing negative stereotypes. The Roma are a transnational ethnic minority group that has historically been subject to discrimination, deportation, mass incarceration, and forced labor. Historically, the Roma were forced to adopt an itinerant existence due to the constant persecution they faced. In particular, the artist looks to small-scale black-and-white engravings by Jacques Callot and Auguste Raffet, 19th-century French artists who depicted scenes of the Roma as dangerous, armed criminals traveling on foot, horseback, and caravan with all their belongings in tow.

Beyond the Horizon presents the same core subject matter as Callot and Raffet’s work—a migrating Roma community—however, Mirga-Tas’ monumental interpretation instead offers an idyllic, pastoral scene, rich in color and texture to give shape and dignity to this community that has so often been misrepresented. Beyond the Horizon highlights the moving caravan not as something to be feared, but as an inspirational reminder of the will to live.

Mirga-Tas is a Roma artist, sculptor, painter, educator, and activist. Working alongside experienced seamstresses in her studio, Mirga-tas sews pieces of clothing, handkerchiefs, tablecloths, curtains, and sheets together —often fabrics collected from family and friends—to create vivid portraits and scenes that address anti-Roma sentiment and propose a new, affirmative, feminist vision of Roma communities. She takes particular care to show matriarchal family structures and depict strong female Roma figures she admires—artists, activists, community organizers, and politicians. In 2022, Mirga-Tas was selected to represent Poland at the 59th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale—the first Roma artist to ever represent any country.

Beyond the Horizon follows Glenn Ligon’s Untitled (America/Me), continuing the series of artwork presented by the High Line at that location at the gateway to Chelsea. The billboard at 18th Street, once a remnant of Chelsea’s industrial past, is now solely dedicated to the presentation of art, and artworks change every few months. Past artists featured include John Baldessari, Faith Ringgold, and Louise Lawler, among many others.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Małgorzata Mirga-Tas (b. 1978, Zakopane, Poland) lives and works in Czarna Góra, Poland. She has exhibited internationally, with solo exhibitions including Västerås Konstmuseum, Västerås, Sweden (2024); Tate St. Ives, Cornwall, England (2024); Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, Netherlands (2024); Haefner Foyer Kunsthaus, Zurich, Switzerland (2023); Andalusian Center for Contemporary Art, Seville, Spain (2023); Brücke Museum, Berlin, Germany (2023); Göteborgs Konsthall, Gothenburg, Sweden (2023); Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland (2023); Centre of Polish Sculpture, Orońsko, Poland (2020); and The Polish Institute, Bratislava, Slovakia (2017). She represented Poland at the Polish Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale, Italy (2022). She has participated in major international group exhibitions including Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2024); After Paradise, Kortrijk Triennale, Courtrai, Belgium (2024); After Rain, Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale 2024, Diriyah, Saudi Arabia (2024); Soft Power, Das Minsk Kunsthaus, Potsdam, Germany (2024); Belgrade Biennial, Belgrade, Serbia (2024); As Though We Hid The Sun in a Sea of Stories, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany (2023); Paraventi: Folding Screens From the 17th to 21st Centuries, Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy (2023); Images of Power, Textile Biennial 2023, Museum Rijswijk, Rijswijk, Netherlands (2023); SYMPHONY OF ALL THE CHANGES, Guangzhou Triennial, Guangzhou, China (2023); RomaMoMA, Documenta15, Kassel, Germany (2022); Herstories, 3rd Autostrada Biennale, Prizren, Kosovo (2019-2021); Warsaw Under Construction, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland (2020); 11th Berlin Biennale, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany (2020); and Romani Art, The Ethnography Museum, Tarnów, Poland (2018). Her work is featured in the collections of major institutions around the world, including Alkar Contemporary Collection (ACC), Bilbao, Spain; Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok, Poland; Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, Netherlands; ERIAC Collection, Berlin, Germany Gothenburg Museum of Art, Gothenburg, Sweden; Kunsthaus, Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland Kunstmuseum; Liechtenstein, Vaduz, Liechtenstein; Mucem Museum, Marseille, France; Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland; Museum of Romani Culture, Brno, Czech Republic; Tate Collection, London, England; Pérez Art Museum, Miami, Florida; and Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland.

SUPPORT

Lead support for High Line Art comes from Amanda and Don Mullen. Major support is provided by Shelley Fox Aarons and Philip E. Aarons, The Brown Foundation, Inc. of Houston, and Charina Endowment Fund.

High Line Art is supported, in part, with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council, under the leadership of Speaker Adrienne Adams.

ABOUT HIGH LINE ART

Founded in 2009, High Line Art commissions and produces a wide array of artworks on the High Line, including site-specific commissions, exhibitions, performances, video programs, and a series of billboard interventions. Led by Cecilia Alemani, the Donald R. Mullen, Jr. Director & Chief Curator of High Line Art, and presented by the High Line, the art program invites artists to think of creative ways to engage with the unique architecture, history, and design of the park, and to foster a productive dialogue with the surrounding neighborhood and urban landscape.

For more information on High Line Art, please visit thehighline.org/art.

ABOUT THE HIGH LINE

The High Line is both a nonprofit organization and a public park on the West Side of Manhattan. Through our work with communities on and off the High Line, we’re devoted to reimagining public spaces to create connected, healthy neighborhoods and cities.

Built on a historic, elevated rail line, the High Line was always intended to be more than a park. You can walk through the gardens, view art, experience a performance, enjoy food or beverage, or connect with friends and neighbors—all while enjoying a unique perspective of New York City.

Nearly 100% of our annual budget comes through donations. The High Line is owned by the City of New York and we operate under a license agreement with NYC Parks.

For more information, visit thehighline.org and follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram.

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