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Ghost Series; Day and Night

Penn Station

Ghost Series; Day and Night

Andrew Leicester
Artwork in terra cotta by Andrew Leicester showing large columns.
“Ghost Series” and “Day and Night” (1994) by Andrew Leicester at Penn Station (LIRR). Photo: Rob Wilson

About the project

Andrew Leicester's "Ghost Series" consists of five monumental bas-relief terra cotta murals installed throughout the Long Island Rail Road section of Penn Station. The pieces evoke the building's illustrious predecessor, the 1910 Pennsylvania Station building by McKim, Mead and White, which was demolished in 1963 and triggered the historic preservation movement. Fragments of the old Penn Station are hidden in the lower depths of the building that replaced it, and the murals symbolically reveal the old building now hidden behind new walls.   

In "Day and Night," a 500-square-foot-mural in the main concourse, Leicester reinterprets Adolph Weinman's sculpture of the same name that presided over the old station's entrances, depicting two women flanking a gigantic clock. The artist embedded the date the original building was demolished — 10/28/63 — into the clock's blank face. Other murals include "Mercury Man," a reproduction of another sculptural figure, and a porcelain-on-steel rendering of blueprints for the demolished building. Taken together, "Ghost Series" is a compelling memento mori, a reminder that we are mortal. 

Part of the artwork has been de-installed or is concealed from view currently. 

About the artist

Andrew Leicester is a public artist born and educated in England who immigrated to the U.S. in 1970. He currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For the past three decades, Leicester has created public art projects that range in size and scope from small courtyards to municipal transit plazas, park entrances and water gardens throughout the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. Leicester has received numerous awards for his work as well as fellowships from the Bush Foundation, the McKnight Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Internationally recognized as a public artist, as well as a popular lecturer and panelist, he feels his art should exist in the public domain and form links between its specific location and host community. The iconography of his work, often humorous and multilayered, is derived from extensive research of the various social, historical, and environmental characteristics of each location.