New York’s New Museum has announced that Czech artist Klára Hosnedlová will create a major site-specific installation for its newly expanded building on the Bowery, designed by Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas, partners of the architecture firm OMA. The work—the artist’s first museum commission in the United States—will be unveiled as part of the institution’s reopening exhibition program in fall 2025.
The large-scale sculpture, installed within the new atrium staircase, reflects Hosnedlová’s distinct practice, combining futuristic and historical references with labor-intensive craftsmanship. The installation will feature a spine-like, stainless steel structure draped in flax-based textiles to create a shelter-like form. Within this framework, a suspended sandstone and glass sculpture will be gradually revealed to visitors as they ascend or descend the seven floors of the museum’s central stairway.
Drawing on themes of gendered space, modernist architecture, and bodily intimacy, the artist aimed to create a sense of enclosure in a highly visible public thoroughfare. “I wanted the space to feel like it was hugging you,” Hosnedlová said during a conversation with Artsy. “I like that even though it’s such a big sculpture, it’s created from extremely fragile and soft materials: linen, hemp. It’s all ecological, so you can disappear with nature.”
Due to the structure’s visibility through the building’s glass façade, the piece will also serve as a visual connection between the museum and its surrounding urban environment. Before the public opening, the museum will host a private performance involving the installation, with resulting photographs and films becoming reference materials for future works.
Hosnedlová has been developing the project for over a year in collaboration with craftspeople in the Czech Republic, where she was born, and Berlin, where she lives and works. The sandstone and molten glass components were produced in partnership with traditional, family-run studios in the Czech Republic, a longstanding preference in the artist’s process.
“Klára’s work has a deep engagement with visionary architecture and ideas around possible collective futures, which makes her perfect to be the first young artist to make a site-specific work for our new building,” said Gary Carrion-Murayari, senior curator at the New Museum. “We’re proud to host her first project in the United States.”
This commission is part of an initiative launched by the New Museum and the Danish textile company Kvadrat in 2017. Additional site-specific works will be unveiled as part of the building’s reopening, including a sculpture by British artist Sarah Lucas for the new outdoor plaza.
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