The MetroCard

Part of Performa 17, Untitled (The Drop)from 2017 by Barbara Kruger

July 1 – 31, 2026

Barbara Kruger’s iconic white-on-red text first appeared on the now-defunct NYC MetroCard in 2017.

Kruger told the New York Times, “These issues of power and control and physical damage and death and predation are ages old. I wish some of these issues would become archaic.” Almost a decade later, her questions about power, privilege, and voice are even more open-ended in Trump’s America: Who is healed? Who is housed? Who is silent? Who speaks?

Originally distributed across NYC to a wide range of riders, we pulled this piece from the Lagniappe archives for America’s 250th anniversary—a small reminder that good art has legs.