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Residency Project · Chelsea, New York
Mount Rushmore
of Art
Above the Empire Diner, 10th Avenue
Chelsea Gallery District · New York City
In the heart of Chelsea — New York's most storied gallery district — The Sphere Gallery commissioned Eduardo Kobra to paint one of the most celebrated street murals in the city's history. Spanning the entire facade of the building above the landmark Empire Diner on 10th Avenue, the work reimagines Mount Rushmore as an homage to four titans of art history: Andy Warhol, Frida Kahlo, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Kobra's signature technique — photorealistic portraiture fractured by his trademark kaleidoscopic geometry — transforms the monochrome gravitas of the original monument into an explosion of colour and cultural memory. Each face is rendered in brilliant, interlocking polygons of pigment, their identities unmistakable yet reborn in Kobra's visual language. The mural stands as a declaration that the true monuments of our time are not carved from stone, but painted on the walls of the cities that shaped them.
Seven years on, the mural continues to draw visitors, photographers, and art lovers from around the world to the corner of 10th Avenue and 22nd Street — a permanent landmark in one of the world's most competitive artistic neighbourhoods.
