On view through Spring 2024, four-panel piece adds color and inspiration to lounge
NEW YORK – Amtrak continues its celebrated Art at Amtrak public art program, expanding to the Metropolitan Lounge at Moynihan Train Hall with new work from multidisciplinary visual artist Karen Margolis. Comprised of four panels measuring approximately 6’3”x 6’8” each, the recently unveiled creation is the latest from Margolis’ Continuum series, which includes handmade linen, abaca laminated over wire, maps, thread, cotton-covered wire, acrylic, chicken wire, and found materials into a form that dissolves into nebulous clouds of color and texture. A full gallery of photos can be found on the Amtrak Media Center here.
“We are thrilled to build on the highly successful inaugural year of Art at Amtrak with this captivating new work by Karen Margolis that improves the customer experience,” said Amtrak Vice President, Northeast Corridor Service Line Jina Sanone. “As the only first class travel lounge in New York City, the Metropolitan Lounge is a perfect home for Art at Amtrak to showcase the region’s creative vibrancy and provide a platform for artists who live, travel and work here.”
Margolis’ new Continuum installation includes map fragments of Amtrak stops all over the country as a way of bringing people and places together. The series represents a blueprint of metaphysical possibilities for repairing tears in the fabric of the universe. The work grows and transforms with the addition of components in each new installation.
The Metropolitan Lounge at Moynihan Train Hall is available for Amtrak Guest Rewards® Select Executive and Select Plus members, Acela First Class and private room customers as well as Single-Day Pass holders, with same-day reservations. Lounge attendants are available to assist with reservations, ticketing, Red Cap service and local information. The space offers unique finishes, furnishings, and décor, including a grand entry and reception with a welcome desk and luxurious customer seating. Various seating options are available for solo, group or family lounging, luggage storage lockers, integrated power and USB access at most seats, a business center, complimentary refreshments and a cash bar, private restrooms, a nursing room, train information boards, a family area, and an expansive balcony with café-style seating overlooking the rest of the Train Hall.
Amtrak launched Art at Amtrak in June 2022 and has commissioned temporary installations for New York Penn Station by local artists including Saya Woolfalk, Dahlia Elsayed, Dennis RedMoon Darkeem, Ghost of a Dream, and, most recently, Derrick Adams.
Art at Amtrak is curated by Debra Simon Art Consulting. Simon was Director of Public Art at the Times Square Alliance; created Arts Brookfield, the largest privately funded public art program in the United States; and co-founded the River-to-River festival.
About Karen Margolis
Karen Margolis is a multi-discipline, process-based artist experimenting with structure, form, and materiality that blur distinction between interior and exterior worlds and allude to states of transition. She has created a public art installation for the 2020 Art on Paper Fair and completed a public art commission of mosaic panels for the MTA Arts in Transit Brooklyn 86 Street N line subway station in 2018. Recent solo gallery exhibitions include 490 Atlantic Gallery, Brooklyn, Foley Gallery, New York, K. Imperial Fine Arts, San Francisco and Garish & Hahn, Los Angeles. Her work was included in the “Cut up/Cut out” exhibition, traveling to regional museums throughout the United States from 2016 through 2021. Margolis’ work was featured in the Paper Biennial at the Rijswijk Museum in the Netherlands and additionally in solo exhibitions at Bridgewater University, MA, Salon Zurcher, Paris and in collaboration with M Missoni, New York City through Garis & Hahn. Prior exhibitions include Rockland Center for the Arts, The Hunterdon Art Museum, Weatherspoon Art Museum, The Fine Arts Center of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Parrish Art Museum and The Delaware Center for Contemporary Art. Margolis received a workspace residency at Dieu Donne Papermill and a Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant. Residing in New York City, she received a BS in Psychology and certificate in Microscopy. Her work is represented internationally in public collections.
About Amtrak®
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