Bettina Pousttchi: Vertical Highways at the Rockefeller Center New York

Rockefeller Center is pleased to present Vertical Highways V03 (2025), a monumental new sculpture by Bettina Pousttchi, at the Channel Gardens, the historic retail promenade connecting 5th Avenue to The Rink, from March 18 through April 17, 2026. 


Located at the top of the Channel Gardens off 5th Avenue, this is the first time a sculpture from the Vertical Highways series will be shown to the public in the United States, following presentations in Paris at the Jardin des Tuileries; a permanent installation in Berlin in front of the Berlin Central Station; and in front of the Istanbul Modern Museum in Istanbul. The exhibition offers an opportunity to experience one of the artist's largest sculptures in one of New York’s most iconic public spaces. 


The sculpture is made from guardrails, which the artist has transformed and arranged into a new composition. For several years, Bettina Pousttchi has used objects in her sculptures that structure the physical experience of the urban space, including crowd barriers, street bollards, and guardrails. By applying techniques like bending, pressing, or changing their color, Pousttchi relieves these everyday objects of their regulatory function and detaches them from their context of meaning, transforming them into signs of change, fluidity, and dissolving boundaries. With her serial use of the source material, the artist conceptually draws on Minimal Art as well as on Marcel Duchamp‘s ready-mades.


Bettina Pousttchi (born 1971 in Mainz, Germany, lives in Berlin) has been realizing large-scale sculptures in public spaces and monumental site-specific installations for building facades for more than 15 years, referencing the architectural, social, and cultural implications of their respective settings.


“By installing my sculpture Vertical Highways V03 in front of Rockefeller Center, I want to initiate a dialogue of art and architecture that resonates with the urban history of New York City.” —Bettina Pousttchi, artist


“Bettina Pousttchi’s Vertical Highways V03 transforms the language of infrastructure into a striking visual experience. Public art has long been central to Rockefeller Center’s identity, and this installation continues that tradition in a way that feels both contemporary and deeply connected to our architectural heritage. We’re proud to share this work with everyone who visits Rockefeller Center.” —EB Kelly, Head of Rockefeller Center and Senior Managing Director, Tishman Speyer

Rockefeller Center’s public art program was established nearly 100 years ago by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and his wife Abigail, and has been expanded and accelerated as a place where New Yorkers can enjoy free, public, permanent and exhibit-based art, indoor and out, year-round. Today, 100+ historic works of art can be found on permanent display throughout Rockefeller Center’s campus, in addition regularly curated exhibitions which showcase the works of emerging and diverse artists, many of whom were commissioned to create original, site-specific works that are showcased for the first time at the Center.

Bettina Pousttchi is one of Germany’s foremost contemporary artists and has received significant recognition internationally, where solo exhibitions of her work have been held in institutions such as the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC, the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, the Arts Club of Chicago, the Phillips Collection Washington DC and the MoCA Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai as well as at the Aurora Museum Shanghai. In Europe she recently had solo exhibitions at the Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, the Berlinische Galerie—Museum for Modern Art Berlin, and the Museum Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich.