Barbara Kruger

MetroCard (2017)

Created in conjunction with Performa, New York’s biennial of performance art, Barbara Kruger’s MetroCard extends her iconic graphic language into the realm of everyday circulation. Produced as a public artwork in collaboration with MTA Arts & Design, the project transforms a mass-used transit object into a critical multiple, inserting Kruger’s direct, declarative voice into the daily rhythms of the city. Bridging art, design, and public space, the MetroCard functions as a democratic and highly collectible piece of ephemera.

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Barbara Kruger (b. 1945) is an American artist whose work uses bold graphic language, appropriated imagery, and declarative text to question power, identity, consumerism, and mass media. Emerging from a background in graphic design and magazine publishing, Kruger became iconic for her black-and-white images overlaid with red, white, and black text—works that confront the viewer with direct statements about desire, control, and ideology. Her practice spans print, installation, video, fashion, and public space, and her work is held in major museum collections worldwide.