New York City’s Waterfront to Welcome Major Public Artwork by Miguel Braceli

Miguel Braceli’s "The Flag" to Join NYC’s Public Art Collection Through Percent for Art Program

New York, NY — Venezuelan-Spanish artist Miguel Braceli announces his forthcoming public art project, The Flag, to be permanently installed on the Staten Island waterfront in Spring of 2026. Commissioned by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs Percent for Art Program, the sculpture will become a landmark at the new Mary Cali Dalton Recreation Center in the Tompkinsville neighborhood on Staten Island, engaging in a striking visual dialogue with the Manhattan skyline and responding to the surrounding New York City cultural landscape. The work addresses themes of migration, diversity, and the complexities of geopolitical identity through a transformative reinterpretation of the flag as a borderless symbol rooted in nature.

 The Flag. Miguel Braceli. Public Art. Percent for Art Collection. Staten Island, NYC. 2025

The newly released images mark a significant milestone in the development of this ambitious project, which recently received unanimous approval from the New York City Public Design Commission. The sculpture translates Braceli’s ongoing research on geopolitical structures and communal identities into a lasting public monument. It will stand 25 feet tall, fabricated in stainless steel, as part of a process of studying and sculpting patterns found in trees, branches, interconnections, and growth through 3D modeling and 3D printing—serving as a learning process inspired by natural systems. The commission emerged from a competitive Percent for Art selection process that reviewed proposals from both local and international artists, and it is part of the new Mary Cali Dalton Recreation Center, a project by the NYC Department of Design and Construction for NYC Parks and Recreation, located adjacent to Staten Island’s historic Lyons Pool.

Braceli’s concept reimagines the flag as a living, natural form—an evolving sculpture that reflects both New York City’s physical landscape and the patterns of solidarity, interconnectedness, and collective belonging among its inhabitants. “This work invites us to imagine territories beyond nation-state divisions, approaching land in its primary state: a living, borderless continuum,” Braceli explains. “This is a flag composed of nature itself—of growth, transformation, and a sense of belonging without exclusion.”

The Flag. Miguel Braceli. Public Art. Percent for Art Collection. Staten Island, NYC. 2025

“The Flag reimagines one of the most charged symbols of our time and turns it into a monument of connection rather than division. This is exactly what public art can do: transform our shared spaces into places of dialogue, beauty, and collective imagination,” said Sergio Pardo López, Director of the Percent for Art Program at the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

Rooted in community engagement and dialogue, the project is part of Braceli’s broader public art practice, which spans the U.S., Latin America, and the Middle East. His previous works—Here Lies a Flag (New York, 2021), Green Chalkboard (Saudi Arabia, 2024), Tierras Libres (Uruguay, 2024), and Enterrar las banderas en el mar (Chile, 2019)—reflect a long-standing commitment to participatory, site-responsive practices. The Flag expands on Braceli’s ongoing research into Emancipatory Lands; a body of work that intervenes in the architectural imagery of states, nations, and other forms of governmental territory, aiming to propose social, environmental, and pedagogical alternatives to how we inhabit and imagine land. Working across both rural and urban contexts, this project invites a rethinking of borders through collective engagement and symbolic transformation.

Over the last two years, Braceli has been collaborating with the NYC Department of Design and Construction, the Department of Cultural Affairs, the Design-Build team (Ikon.5 Architects and Kokolakis Construction), and the Tompkinsville community to bring this vision to life. The 3D model was produced by Mary Nanckel Studio. The renderings were produced by Mary Nanckel Studio, and the sculpture is currently being fabricated by UAP Company. It is expected to be installed in Spring 2026.

In addition to his public art practice, Miguel Braceli is the Artistic Director and Co-Founder of LA ESCUELA___, a platform for collective learning and making in public space, developed in collaboration with the non-profit Siemens Stiftung. LA ESCUELA___ will present its first institutional exhibition opening on November 6 at MoMA PS1 in New York. He is also a current fellow at the Tulsa Artist Fellowship, where his work continues to explore the intersections of art, architecture, education, and social practices. With The Flag, Braceli invites the public into a dialogue that is as poetic as it is political—calling us to imagine new forms of citizenship and belonging through shared space, collective memory, and the transformative possibilities of art.

About the Percent for Art Program

Established by law in 1982, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs’ Percent for Art Program is a pioneering initiative in public art. The program commissions site-specific, permanent artworks for City-owned properties, forming New York City’s distinguished public art collection. To date, Percent for Art has commissioned more than 350 permanent works by artists including Alison Saar, Hank Willis Thomas, Jeffrey Gibson, Ursula von Rydingsvard, and Sarah Sze, among others. Currently managing over 100 active commissions—with artists such as Vanessa German, Jennifer Wen Ma, Serge Attukwei Clottey, Christopher Myers, Olalekan Jeyifous, and Amanda Williams—the program represents an investment of more than $30 million in public art across the five boroughs.

www.miguelbraceli.com

info@miguelbraceli.com

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