Allison Katz Presents Don’t Ask for the High Line on the Billboard Adjacent to the Park at 18th Street

Allison Katz, Don’t ASK, 2025. Photo by Timothy Schenck.

The High Line announced the presentation of Don’t ASK by artist Allison Katz as a billboard, adjacent to the park at 18th Street near 10th Avenue. On view for two months, Katz offers passersby a visual take on a prototypical joke while denying viewers the punchline. Katz presents the street here as a soaring extension of 10th Avenue into the skyline, while playing with the classic opener, “Why did the chicken cross the road?”

“Allison Katz so playfully employs trompe l’oeil, sparking curiosity and surprise,” said Cecilia Alemani, the Donald R. Mullen, Jr. Director & Chief Curator of High Line Art. “Whether you see Don’t ASK from the High Line or from the thoroughfare below, Katz’s installation will make you stop and reconsider the public space of the street.”

For the 18th Street Billboard, Katz presents Don’t ASK, a reproduction of a detail from her 2023 painting of a rooster and hen moseying across an asphalt road at a monumental scale overlooking Chelsea’s streetscape. The painting offers a nod to her interest in roads and other arterial systems as symbols of momentum and the transit of thought and experience.

When reflecting on her depiction of chickens in this scene, Katz notes that she sees the joke’s lack of conclusion as analogous to painting: a build-up of expectation that ultimately leads to the unknown. In its structure, the set-up of the joke also resembles Katz’s vision of painting as a series of questions, requiring endless invention rather than logical answers. She also reflects on the joke’s potential underlying themes of mystery and anxiety regarding “the other side,” or the after life, revealing unexpected pathos and significance embedded in something so seemingly simple and child–like. The title, Don’t ASK, continues the artist’s practice of weaving acronyms and wordplay of her name and initials (Allison Sarah Katz) throughout her work. It could also be seen as one response to the problem of painting itself, as the expression is commonly used when something is too strange, embarrassing, or complicated to explain.

Katz’s work incorporates elements of personal biography, art history, cultural symbols, and humor. Her varied paintings expand beyond the flat plane of the canvas and become windows into another world. Katz sees painting as a process where the surface and subject remain open to continuous exploration and reinterpretation. She explains that her ideas evolve and shift as she works, often leading to unforeseen meanings and connections between seemingly disparate images. To underpin this ambiguity, however, Katz has developed a recognizable lexicon of visual motifs and metaphors that recur throughout her work—such as roosters, roads, walking figures, cabbages, elevators, and even her own name.

Don’t ASK follows works by Alex Da Corte, 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

Allison Katz (b. 1980, Montreal, Canada) lives and works in London, United Kingdom. Katz has presented her work in solo exhibitions at institutions around the world, including Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada (2025); Camden Art Centre, London, United Kingdom (2022); Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, United Kingdom (2021); MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts (2018); and Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, United Kingdom (2015). Notable and recent group exhibitions include From Cindy Sherman to Francesco Vezzoli, 80 Contemporary Artists, Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy (2025); In the House of the Trembling Eye: an exhibition staged by Allison Katz, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado (2024); In Focus. A Closer Look at Photorealism, Centraal Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands (2024); Capturing the Moment, Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom (2024); and Making Their Mark, Shah Garg Foundation, New York, New York (2023). Katz’s work has been featured in major international exhibitions including The Milk of Dreams, 59th International Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (2022); and Palama (permanent installation), MANIFESTA 13, Marseille, France (2020). She has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including the Gershon Iskowitz Prize at the AGO (2023), Pompeii Commitment. Archeological Matters (2023), and the Emerging Artist Grant from the Rema Hort Mann Foundation (2008).

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.

Program support for High Line Art is provided by Molly Gochman. Additional support for High Line Art commissions is provided by Sarah Arison and Agnes Gund.

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 a public park on the West Side of Manhattan operated, maintained, and funded by the nonprofit conservancy Friends of the High Line. Through our work with communities on and off the High Line, Friends of the High Line is 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 the park under a license agreement with NYC Parks.

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

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