Tuan Andrew Nguyen High Line plinth
- Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s “The Light That Shines Through the Universe” opened on New York’s High Line Plinth in late April as its fifth commission. - The sandstone sculpture stands 27 feet tall above 10th Avenue, reimagining a sixth-century Bamiyan Buddha destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. - The work stays on view through fall 2027, replacing Iván Argote’s pigeon “Dinosaur.” (thehighline.org)
Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s “The Light That Shines Through the Universe” has opened on the High Line Plinth above 10th Avenue and 30th Street in Manhattan. (thehighline.org) (artsy.net) The work is the fifth High Line Plinth commission, the park’s program for large-scale contemporary sculpture on the Spur. Nguyen is a Vietnamese American artist, and the piece went on view in April 2026. (thehighline.org) (artnews.com) Nguyen’s sculpture is a 27-foot-tall sandstone reimagining of one of the Buddhas of Bamiyan, the sixth-century monuments carved into cliffs in central Afghanistan. The Taliban destroyed the two original statues in March 2001. (thehighline.org) (artasiapacific.com) The title comes from “Salsal,” the local name for the larger Bamiyan Buddha, which has been translated as “the light shines through the universe.” The site in Bamiyan is now recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as a World Heritage location. (artdaily.cc) (thehighline.org) The sculpture is not billed as an exact replica. High Line Art said Nguyen conceived it as an “echo” of the lost monument, and coverage of the opening described it as a work about cultural loss, memory and survival. (thehighline.org) (theartnewspaper.com) The piece was carved in Vietnam before installation in New York. High Line materials say it will remain on view through fall 2027, giving the work an 18-month run over one of Manhattan’s busiest intersections. (seegreatart.art) (thehighline.org) It replaces Iván Argote’s “Dinosaur,” the oversized pigeon that previously occupied the Plinth. That turnover keeps the High Line’s Spur as a recurring site for headline-scale public art timed to New York’s spring art season. (chelseanewsny.com) (fadmagazine.com) From street level, the new figure reads as both monument and absence: a massive body standing in for statues that no longer exist. That is the wager of Nguyen’s commission on the High Line — to put a destroyed landmark back into public view without pretending it was restored. (theartnewspaper.com) (thehighline.org)
