Alex Da Corte Presents Soft Power, a New Artwork for the High Line on The Billboard Adjacent to the Park at 18th Street

Alex Da Corte, Soft Power, 2025. Courtesy of the artist.

Da Corte Recreates the Oft-Reproduced Character of the Pink Panther as an Icon of Resistance

The High Line today announced the presentation of Soft Power, a new artwork by artist Alex Da Corte on the billboard adjacent to the park at 18th Street near 10th Avenue. On view from March 11, 2025 for two months, Da Corte’s artwork for the billboard recreates the cartoon and branding figure of the Pink Panther as a cultural signifier in repose. Toying with while also pointing to the iconic character’s mutability across American culture, Da Corte’s Soft Power opens up questions about familiar symbols, and their meanings and contexts, on the public stage of the High Line.

“I’m excited to have commissioned Alex Da Corte to bring his colorful brand of sly wit to the High Line and surrounding streets,” said Cecilia Alemani, the Donald R. Mullen, Jr. Director & Chief Curator of High Line Art. “The Pink Panther is a character that has been reproduced in so many contexts, from entertainment to commercial branding. With Soft Power, Alex Da Corte takes this familiar figure and asks what the ever-present imagery we take for granted really stands for.”

Created for the High Line’s 18th Street Billboard, Alex Da Corte’s Soft Power is inspired by the Pink Panther. The Friz Freleng cartoon, originally designed for the animated opening sequence of the eponymous 1963 Hollywood film, has evolved, through 60 years of spin-offs and reinventions, into cultural ubiquity. Pink’s durability across many generations has allowed it to sell countless products, from fiberglass insulation foam to artificial sweetener, yet the creature’s essence remains out of reach. With neither master nor peer—and seemingly eternally unbound by the rules of others—Pink represents a certain queer freedom. Da Corte revives Pink as an icon of resistance, supine but poised, wielding a sign of universal protest, brandishing a clear pink purpose.

“There is a difference between falling down and laying down,” Da Corte explains. “I call that soft power.” This billboard is an advertisement for the value of such power.

Known for his immersive installations, sculptures, and films, Da Corte’s work explores themes of identity, consumerism, and taste, challenging societal norms and reimagining the familiar in unexpected ways. The artist draws from myriad sources, including popular and consumer culture, art history, classical literature, and modern design, seamlessly weaving together disparate elements into cohesive narratives. His adept use of vibrant color and surreal imagery lends a dreamlike quality to his work that captivates viewers and blurs the lines between fantasy and reality.

Da Corte’s Soft Power follows works by Małgorzata Mirga-Tas and Glenn Ligon in the ongoing 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

Alex Da Corte (b. 1980, Camden, NJ) is a Venezuelan-American artist. Institutional exhibition highlights include the 20-year retrospective Mr. Remember at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark (2022–23), the video survey Fresh Hell at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan (2023), and the painting survey The Whale at The Modern, Fort Worth, Texas (2025); Glenstone, Potomac, Maryland (2025), the Whitney Biennial Quiet as It’s Kept, New York New York (2022); the Roof Garden Commission for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York (2021); the Biennale di Venezia May You Live in Interesting Times, Venice, Italy, (2019); the 57th Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (2019); and solo exhibitions at the Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany (2018); Secession, Vienna, Austria (2016); Art + Practice, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California (2016); MASS MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts (2016); Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands (2015); and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (2014, together with Jayson Musson). His work is featured in the collections of major institutions around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Guggenheim Museum and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York; the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark; the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; Glenstone, Potomac, Maryland; and the Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy. Recent longform critical writing include catalogue essays for the international touring exhibitions Marisol: A Retrospective and Ellsworth Kelly at 100. In 2026, with the Whitney Museum’s Meg Onli, Da Corte will co-curate the first Roy Lichtenstein retrospective in New York in more than 30 years. Da Corte was the 2023 Philip Guston Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome. He lives and works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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.

@HighLineArtNYC @alexdacorte