Art at Amtrak Showcases Two New Installations at Washington Union Station

Public art program promotes local talent

WASHINGTON – Amtrak continues its celebrated Art at Amtrak public art program with two new installations at Washington Union Station, created by Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann and artists from the Art Enables studio. The installations officially open today and will remain on display through fall 2024.

“The latest installations provide multiple artists a significant platform to shine a spotlight on the uniqueness and vibrancy of the region,” Art at Amtrak Director Sharon Tepper said. “The artwork enhances this historic station and offers a surprise and delight for customers and visitors.”

Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann of Washington, D.C., created the installation titled Potomac River Shen Series. She designed three murals with each offering slight differences in content and color palette. The murals represent a thriving, frothing, flowing world populated by abstracted imagery of botanical and animal life endemic to the Potomac River watershed. Each piece was first painted on paper, and then digitally manipulated to span the length of the upper wall along the station’s concourse from Gates A through L.

The second installation is from the work of 22 artists from Art Enables, an art studio and gallery in the District dedicated to amplifying the creative careers of artists with disabilities.

The artwork is on the 30 windows along the Gate G, and Gate L hallways leading to the lower-level section of the station. Organized in six different displays, the artwork represents this visual diversity, unified by various themes:

• A continuous horizon spans travel landscapes in the Around the World in Eighty Days set while swooping, colorful lines breeze through Technicolor Wind.
• Densely packed stripes and patterns buttress human figures in Holding Pattern.
• In Party Guests and Tide Pool, playful forms bubble, bloom, and vibrate together in close quarters.
• And finally, Born in the Trees shares lush habitat views of birds and flowers in vivid greens and buttery yellows.

The artwork replaces the first installation at Washington Union Station created by Tim Doud, a District resident and professor at American University.

Amtrak launched Art at Amtrak in June 2022 in New York Penn Station and has since expanded to Moynihan Train Hall and William H. Gray III 30^th Street Station. More information about Art at Amtrak and a complete list of artists can be found here.

Amtrak has engaged Debra Simon Art Consulting to curate and produce Art at Amtrak. Simon was Director of Public Art at the Times Square Alliance; created Arts Brookfield, the largest privately funded public art program in the United States; and co-founded the River-to-River festival.