The New Museum has unveiled "VENUS VICTORIA," a new public sculpture by British artist Sarah Lucas, inaugurating the museum's outdoor plaza at the junction of Bowery and Prince Street in downtown Manhattan. The sculpture, which features Lucas's signature Bunny figure seated atop a giant washing machine, was selected by an all-artist jury including Teresita Fernández, Joan Jonas, Julie Mehretu, Cindy Sherman, and Kiki Smith. It opens on May 12, 2026, and will remain on view for two years as the first of five commissions dedicated to public sculpture by women artists.
This commission matters because it launches the New Museum's OMA-designed building expansion and establishes a new civic threshold for contemporary art in downtown Manhattan. Lucas's irreverent take on monumental public sculpture challenges traditional commemorative forms dominated by heroic male figures, using comic, sexual, and unashamedly present imagery to provoke and engage with the urban environment. The rotating jury of women artists over the next decade also signals an institutional commitment to elevating female voices in public art.