Artist Brings a Touch of Nature to NYC Subway Station With Moss-Covered Letters

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New York City’s subway stations aren’t exactly known for their greenery. But one artist has found a creative way to bring a little nature underground. In a video shared on Instagram, Korean-American artist Eujue, known online as Eu Pottery, transforms an ordinary subway station into an unexpected display of public art using moss-covered letters.

Her original video, which tags the MTA and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, shows the tiled walls of the Delancey-Essex Street subway station in Manhattan, where the first “E” in Delancey is missing. Eujue quickly offers a solution to the public eyesore and quickly gets to crafting her own replacement tile. She offers viewers a glimpse into the creative process, from preparing the individual letter to bringing it into the station. The letter is covered in a thick layer of green moss, giving the finished piece a soft, almost fuzzy appearance. She used chia seeds to achieve this, growing them into a ceramic E tile that she made.

Once installed, the letter stands out against the surrounding tilework, transforming a familiar part of the daily commute into something worth stopping to admire. The organic appearance creates a striking contrast with the hard surfaces of the subway, bringing a touch of the outdoors into a space typically dominated by concrete, steel, and tile.

The unexpected artwork is a reminder that public art doesn’t have to be monumental to make an impression. Sometimes, a small intervention in an ordinary space is enough to encourage people to see their surroundings in a new light.

Nature is a key focus of Eujue’s art, most of which centers on the intersection between plants and pottery. In one of her projects, she grew chia seeds onto a ceramic vessel, covering it in their leaves and in yet another she incorporated mushrooms into a sculpture so that they appear to break through the vase. Her vision is that we allow plants to reclaim spaces that they’ve been pushed out of, a goal that she hopes to achieve with her mossy subway tiles.

This urban intervention project has since caught the eye of Mayor Mamdani’s team who personally reached out to Eujue to let her know they loved her video, with an invite to stay in touch about further ideas their administration can work on. Now, the artist has a separate website (NYC Tile Watch) where the public can submit photos of missing tiles around New York. The goal is to fill them in with creative, nature-oriented solutions.

For New Yorkers accustomed to rushing through subway stations on their way to work, the moss-covered installation offers a welcome change of scenery. It also demonstrates how a little creativity can bring new life to even the most familiar urban environments.

To keep up to date with the artist’s work, you can follow Eujue on Instagram. Missing tiles can be reported on Eujue’s NYC Tile Watch website.