At CUCHIFRITOS art gallery/project space.

The Delancey St/Essex St subway station recently underwent a radical aesthetic transformation with the installation of two large-scale glass mosaic murals by Ming Fay. Entitled Delancey Orchard and Shad Crossing, the mosaics were commissioned by the MTA Arts for Transit permanent art program. Complementing the murals are sixteen small mosaic compositions - eight of cherries and eight of fish - situated throughout the station. This exhibition presents a visual documentation of Fay's creative process for developing this public art project. Hung salon style, it aims to mimic the studio setting and layered thought-process from the initial proposal stage to the project's ultimate completion.

Ming Fay was chosen for this commission by a selection panel in 1998. As with most of his public projects, Fay based his preliminary proposal on a multi-faceted exploration of the Lower East Side community, the architecture of the site, the area's history, geography and natural elements. Two symbolic metaphors emerged as thematic frameworks: the cherry orchard and shad fish. Inspiration for the orchard image grew out of historical research marking the time when the loyalist, DeLancey family owned substantial property in Manhattan. A farm, owned by Lieutenant DeLancey, stretched from the East River to the Hudson River. Present day Delancey Street served as a boundary line dividing the farm into East and West. Fay's orchard mural, located on the Manhattan-bound platform of the F line, references the cherry orchard that was part of the farm and was located where Orchard Street now sits. Environmental and natural history formed the shad fish thematic. Shad have been making their infamous runs though the waters in this area for centuries. After a period on the endangered species list, the shad population has been restored in recent years. Fay describes his collective of four shad and water murals as a celebration of the return of these fish. Designed specifically for the Brooklyn-bound platform, this collective speaks metaphorically of spring shad runs in nearby rivers and the subway commuter's own crossing of the river.