New Museum unveils Sarah Lucas Commission created for New Public Plaza
The New Museum unveiled a new sculpture by Sarah Lucas (b. 1962, London, UK) as the first commission produced for the Museum’s outdoor plaza at the terminus of Bowery and Prince Street—a new public space created through the New Museum’s OMA-designed building expansion.
Lucas was selected as the first artist to create work for the plaza by an all-artist jury comprised of Teresita Fernández, Joan Jonas, Julie Mehretu, Cindy Sherman, and Kiki Smith. She is the first of five recipients over ten years to be selected by a rotating jury of women artists for this commission series which supports the production and presentation of public sculpture by women. Her commission entitled VENUS VICTORIA opens today, May 12, 2026, and will be on view for two years.
Recognized as one of Britain’s most significant contemporary artists, Lucas has cultivated an expansive practice spanning sculpture, photography, and installation characterized by irreverent humor and the use of everyday, readymade objects—furniture, food, tabloid newspapers, tights, toilets, cigarettes—to conjure up corporeal fragments. The body, in its many guises, is her prevailing subject. Lucas developed VENUS VICTORIA from her Bunny series (1997–present) of biomorphic sculptures evoking reclining female nudes clamped to chairs or other domestic objects. Lampooning traditional—and typically male—monumental public statues of historic figures, VENUS VICTORIA mischievously sits atop a giant washing machine, presiding over the Bowery’s cacophony of traffic, pedestrians, and appliance stores.
Main Image: Image: Sarah Lucas, VENUS VICTORIA, 2026. Installation view: New Museum, New York. Courtesy New Museum. Photo: Thomas Barrett