Steel Spines and Soft Shadows: Klára Hosnedlová’s Embrace on the Bowery
A staircase that hugs you—this is the vision behind Klára Hosnedlová’s debut U.S. museum commission, soon to inhabit the New Museum’s striking new Bowery building. Her monumental installation weaves together the unexpected: a gleaming, spine-like steel frame swathed in flax textiles, forming a shelter that feels both futuristic and ancient.
As visitors climb the seven-story atrium, glimpses of suspended sandstone and glass slowly emerge, echoing themes of gendered space and bodily closeness in a place designed for public movement. Every detail nods to labor-intensive craft, with materials sourced from family-run studios in the Czech Republic and Berlin. The result is a paradox—robust yet delicate, visible from the street yet intimate within.
Hosnedlová’s work blurs boundaries between architecture, art, and the city itself, inviting passersby and museum-goers alike to experience softness at the heart of steel and glass. In a city of hard edges, this is a quiet invitation to pause and feel enclosed.
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