"Hive (Bleecker Street)" is a LED light sculpture that takes the form of a honeycomb. It dramatically fills an architectural space in the shape of an ellipse above the staircase marking the transfer point between the Bleecker St and Broadway-Lafayette St stations. The enormous ceiling, hovering overhead, becomes a type of illuminated diagram as vivid colors, outlining each hexagonal honeycomb shape, move across the sculpture. Villareal created an unprecedented art experience for transit riders who use the station, in its use of technology and LEDs. 

"Hive (Bleecker Street)" has a playful aspect in its reference to games. Riders will be able to identify individual elements within a larger context and track this movement. The work explores the compulsion to recognize patterns and the brain’s hard coded desire to understand and make meaning. The patterns also take inspiration from the research of the mathematician John Conway who invented the Game of Life, the best-known cellular automata program.

"Hive (Bleecker Street)" speaks to a diverse audience: It is abstract and evocative and can have many different meanings. It creates an experience for riders through changing patterns presented in randomized progression. Overall, the piece resonates with the activity of the station, transportation network and the city itself. The work was fabricated by Parallel Development.

Leo Villareal was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and studied set design and sculpture at Yale University before attending New York University’s interactive telecommunications program at the Tisch School of the Arts. He was influenced by the work of James Turrell and Dan Flavin, as well as by the structures and systems of Sol Lewitt’s wall drawings. Villareal has made many temporary and permanent public installations, and his works are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, among others. Villareal lives and works in New York City.