As the last swipe of the iconic yellow MetroCard approaches, a small but passionate community of artists must come to terms with the impending loss of their creative outlet. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s decision to stop selling the beloved cards marks the end of an era in urban art.
The Last Swipe: Farecard Artists Face Extinction
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s recent announcement that it will stop selling the iconic yellow MetroCards by December 31 has come as heartbreaking news to a small but passionate community of artists who use the credit-card-sized passes to create surprisingly engaging works of creativity. Giving new meaning to the term ‘underground art,’ MetroCard art has thrived in New York ever since the cards replaced metal tokens as the city’s essential transportation appliance 32 years ago.
A MetroCard is a reusable fare payment system used by public transportation systems, particularly in New York City.
Introduced in 1993, it replaced the traditional token-based system.
The MetroCard uses magnetic stripes to store value and track usage.
It has undergone several upgrades, including the introduction of OMNY, a contactless payment system, in 2019.
As of 2022, over 12 billion MetroCards have been sold, with an average daily ridership of 6 million.
The MetroCard, a reusable payment card for public transportation in New York City, was introduced in 1993 by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).
The first cards were made of paper and had to be replaced every three months.
In 1997, the MTA switched to plastic cards, which increased durability and reduced waste.
By 2006, the MetroCard system had expanded to include contactless payments, allowing riders to pay with a simple tap of their card or a wave of their OMNY-enabled devices.
The Evolution of a Medium
Juan Carlos Pinto, Brooklyn-based artist and pioneer of MetroCard art, has been at the forefront of this unique art form for almost as long as New Yorkers have been swiping the cardboard passes. Leveraging skills honed creating street mosaics, Pinto painstakingly carves the cards into tiny shreds, then applies them to canvas to create portraits of artists, politicians, entertainers, sports stars, and others.
Pinto’s studio is a testament to his craft, with works on display that include iconic figures like ‘Barack Obama,’ ‘Keith Haring,’ ‘Jean-Michel Basquiat,’ ‘Will Smith,’ ‘David Bowie,’ ‘Pelé,’ ‘Tupac Shakur,’ among many others. There are also birds, landscapes, and artworks, including ‘da Vinci’s Mona Lisa’ and ‘Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring.’
A Palette of Possibilities
The MetroCard art scene extends beyond individual practitioners like Pinto. The ‘Single Fare‘ gallery exhibition series, initiated in 2010, brought together hundreds of artists who created miniature masterpieces on the cards. These shows revealed an astonishing diversity of approaches: some artists completely transformed their cards with gesso or paint, while others exploited the cards’ physical properties through techniques like contour-line carving or folding.
One such artist is Thomas McKean, East Village-based collector and creator of intricate mosaics from discarded MetroCards. McKean’s process involves meticulous cutting, sorting, and reconfiguration to transform the cards into complex visual compositions that range from monsters to tiny 3D recreations of buildings.
A Symbolic Loss
For some New Yorkers, the disappearance of MetroCards represents more than just the loss of a medium—it symbolizes New York’s relentless march toward digitization at the expense of tactile, analog experiences. These small rectangular cards were New Yorkers’ constant companions, tagging along in pockets and purses while waiting to exercise their utilitarian purposes.
While some MetroCard artists view the coming fare card obsolescence with resignation, others see opportunity in scarcity. As supplies dwindle, existing MetroCard artworks may appreciate in value since no more can be created. A collectors’ market already exists for the more than 400 special edition MetroCards issued over the years, with particularly rare specimens fetching surprising sums online.
Preserving a Tactile Past
For artists like Pinto and McKean, the challenge is whether to hoard their remaining supplies, racing against the MetroCard’s extinction, or to explore new materials and forms. Both said they plan to explore alternatives during the final years of the MetroCard run.
As New York’s subway system evolves toward a frictionless future, these artists preserve fragments of a tactile past—each MetroCard masterpiece contributing to the preservation of an urban legacy, a marker in the history of an ever-transforming metropolis, maybe even a small rebellion against time’s relentless tide.
New York City's iconic MetroCard has been a staple in the city's transportation system since its introduction in 1993.
However, over the years, it has also become a canvas for artistic expression.
Many artists have used the 'the MetroCard as a medium to create unique and often provocative works of art.'
In fact, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has even partnered with local artists to create limited-edition MetroCards featuring original designs.
These cards not only add a touch of personality to commuters' daily routines but also serve as a testament to the power of 'street art in urban spaces.'
