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Gov­er­nor’s Island Arts Presents Anna Valdez’s Spring Migra­tion, A Vibrant Mur­al Con­tem­plat­ing Move­ment and Trans­for­ma­tion on New York’s First Pub­lic Hybrid Elec­tric Ferry

May 20, 2026 12:40 pm

Inspired by the Island’s ver­dant nat­ur­al spaces the mur­al depicts the migra­tion of birds along­side the tran­si­tions between the Island’s inhab­i­tants — from the Indige­nous Lenape peo­ple to ear­ly set­tlers to mil­i­tary per­son­nel — as the fer­ry in turn moves pas­sen­gers to and from the Island

Gov­er­nors Island Arts, the pub­lic arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram pre­sent­ed by the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island, debuts mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary artist Anna Valdez​’s vibrant, sym­bol­i­cal­ly intri­cate Spring Migra­tion, the first mur­al com­mis­sioned specif­i­cal­ly for a Gov­er­nors Island Fer­ry. Spring Migra­tion cov­ers an inte­ri­or wall of the Har­bor Charg­er, itself a major mile­stone as New York’s first pub­lic hybrid elec­tric ferry. 

The mur­al explores the sea­son­al rhythms and tran­sient his­to­ries of Gov­er­nors Island. From the Indige­nous Lenape peo­ple who uti­lized the land sea­son­al­ly to the ear­ly set­tlers and gen­er­a­tions of mil­i­tary per­son­nel sta­tioned here, the Island has been an ongo­ing site of tran­si­tion. Like the birds that vis­it each spring, these inhab­i­tants have played vital roles in the Island’s his­to­ry and lega­cy before mov­ing on. 

Valdez employs illus­tra­tions of birds includ­ing the non-migra­to­ry Pere­grine Fal­con and the migra­to­ry Bal­ti­more Ori­ole, Orchard Ori­ole, and Mag­no­lia War­bler, cho­sen for their beau­ty, endurance, and envi­ron­men­tal impacts. The Pere­grine Fal­con stands as a sym­bol­ic guardian of this ecosys­tem. Once near­ly extinct in the state of New York, its re-arrival feels, says Valdez, ​“like a mir­ror of the Island’s own rebirth, from a restrict­ed mil­i­tary base to a thriv­ing green space used by vis­i­tors as a place of respite as well as a cul­tur­al hub.”

The birds are set against dig­i­tal­ly manip­u­lat­ed pho­tographs of Gov­er­nors Island’s land­scapes and botan­i­cal details, invit­ing view­ers across New York Har­bor to prac­tice the act of look­ing close­ly, beck­on­ing them to find the extra­or­di­nary details with­in ephemer­al space. As Valdez describes, she used ​“both macro and micro ele­ments in the piece to cap­ture a viewer’s atten­tion both near or far. View­ers close to the piece should feel the lush abstrac­tion found with­in the vari­ety of greens and yel­lows pulling in the Island’s botany. Each bird is sized for max­i­mum impact” — with one wing span­ning more than 20 feet long.

Says Valdez, ​“While the Island holds dense lay­ers of human his­to­ry, its accen­tu­a­tion of nature has been a con­stant anchor. Cre­at­ing this mur­al began as most of my works typ­i­cal­ly do. I began by pulling from my ref­er­ence draw­ings, pho­tographs, his­tor­i­cal doc­u­ments, and found objects into a for­mat that com­mu­ni­cates an abstract tem­po­ral­i­ty. I also decid­ed to lean into the role of a fer­ry as a lim­i­nal space bridg­ing land, sea, and sky. I see my art­work trans­form­ing the ves­sel into a float­ing island, open­ing a por­tal to the des­ti­na­tion before the pas­sen­ger arrives. Ulti­mate­ly, Spring Migra­tion func­tions as a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the social, artis­tic, geo­graph­ic nar­ra­tives to be found on the Island.”

Gov­er­nors Island Arts has con­sis­tent­ly pro­grammed trans­for­ma­tive pub­lic art­works that direct­ly engage with the Har­bor and water­front, and Spring Migra­tion now expands the Island’s artis­tic reach beyond its shores, bring­ing a thought­ful, eye-open­ing con­sid­er­a­tion of migra­tion to the jour­ney that con­nects peo­ple to it. Spring Migra­tion is a rich cen­ter­piece state­ment in a sea­son of work that med­i­tates on the theme of move­ment, explor­ing the Island as a site of arrival, depar­ture, and con­tin­u­al transformation. 

Spring Migra­tion will be on view on the Har­bor Charg­er through 2027, and joins the Gov­er­nors Island Arts’ diverse ecosys­tem of pub­lic art on dis­play through­out the Island’s open space that includes works by Sheila Berg­er, Chaka­ia Book­er, Mark Dion, Mark Hand­forth, Shantell Mar­tin, Duke Riley, Sam Van Aken, and Rachel Whiteread.

About Anna Valdez

Anna Valdez is a mul­ti-dis­ci­pli­nary artist who exam­ines the rela­tion­ship between objects, cul­tur­al for­ma­tion, and col­lec­tive con­scious­ness. Cre­at­ing an epic tableaux in her stu­dio, Valdez moves seam­less­ly between still life and land­scape paint­ing as she col­lects objects and makes new ones — throw­ing, fir­ing, and glaz­ing new ceram­ic ves­sels inspired by ideas for paint­ings, new plants or taxi­dermy, recent trips, or works in progress. Tog­gling between col­lec­tion, cre­ation, obser­va­tion, and fic­tion­al­iza­tion, Valdez works with sat­u­rat­ed hues and sur­pris­ing scale shifts to com­mu­ni­cate an abstract tem­po­ral­i­ty. Lay­er­ing the per­son­al with the his­tor­i­cal in dense com­po­si­tions that col­lapse fore­ground and back­ground, Valdez’s com­po­si­tions resem­ble immer­sive installations.

Valdez (b. 1985, Cal­i­for­nia, Unit­ed States) received her BA in Anthro­pol­o­gy and Art from Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, Davis in 2009 and her MFA in paint­ing from Boston Uni­ver­si­ty in 2013. Her work has been exhib­it­ed nation­al­ly at venues includ­ing Crys­tal Bridges Muse­um of Amer­i­can Art in Ben­tonville, AR; North Car­oli­na Muse­um of Art in Raleigh, the Con­tem­po­rary Art Muse­um in Raleigh, and Asheville Art Muse­um, in Asheville, NC; New Britain Muse­um of Amer­i­can Art in New Britain, CT; Hashimo­to Con­tem­po­rary in San Fran­cis­co, CA and New York City, NY; David B. Smith Gallery in Den­ver, CO; and OCHI in Sun Val­ley, ID and Los Ange­les, CA. Valdez’s work has been fea­tured in pub­li­ca­tions includ­ing The New York Times, Jux­tapoz Mag­a­zine, New Amer­i­can Paint­ings, Art­sy, and Artillery Mag­a­zine. Her work is includ­ed in var­i­ous pri­vate and pub­lic col­lec­tions includ­ing the New Britain Muse­um of Amer­i­can Art in New Britain, Con­necti­cut, The Colum­bus Muse­um in Colum­bus, Geor­gia, Amer­i­can Muse­um of Ceram­ic Arts in Pomona, CA, Xiao Muse­um in Chi­na, the Phyl­lis & Ross Escalette Per­ma­nent Col­lec­tion of Art at Chap­man Uni­ver­si­ty in Orange, CA, the Microsoft Art Col­lec­tion in Seat­tle, WA, and Aritzia in Toron­to, Cana­da. Valdez cur­rent­ly lives and works in Los Ange­les, CA and Sacra­men­to, CA.

Web­site: https://​www​.annavaldez​.com/

Insta­gram: @missannavaldez

Fund­ing Credits

Gov­er­nors Island Arts presents its pro­gram with sup­port from Cha­ri­na Endow­ment Fund, Anony­mous, Don­ald A. Pels Char­i­ta­ble Trust, Sur­go Foun­da­tion US, the New York State Coun­cil on the Arts (NYSCA) with the sup­port of the Office of the Gov­er­nor and the New York State Leg­is­la­ture, Rip­ple Foun­da­tion, Great Hill, and the Howard Gilman Foundation.

About Gov­er­nors Island Arts

Gov­er­nors Island Arts, the pub­lic arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram pre­sent­ed by the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island, cre­ates trans­for­ma­tive encoun­ters with art for all New York­ers, invit­ing artists and researchers to engage with the issues of our time in the con­text of the Island’s lay­ered his­to­ries, envi­ron­ments, and archi­tec­ture. Gov­er­nors Island Arts achieves this mis­sion through tem­po­rary and long-term pub­lic art instal­la­tions and exhi­bi­tions, an annu­al Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence pro­gram in the Island’s his­toric hous­es, and the curat­ed mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary INTER­VEN­TIONS per­for­mance series. Learn more at www​.gov​is​land​.org/arts.