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(NEW YORK, NY — January 27, 2025) — On February 4th, Pernilla Ohrstedt Studio will unveil a geometric heart sculpture constructed of over four dozen oyster cages in the middle of Times Square. The 50-square-foot sculpture is the winning design of the 17th annual Times Square Arts’ 2025 Love & Design Competition. Love Ever After is designed to create beauty through simplicity, where reuse, regrowth, and love for the environment and community are intertwined. The work is presented with the support of curatorial partner The World Around and collaborator Billion Oyster Project.
Love & Design Winner Unveiling
Tuesday, February 4th | 12pm
Duffy Square
(Between 7th Avenue & 47th Street)
RSVP to timessquarearts@culturalcounsel.com
Ohrstedt’s three-dimensional heart flickers and shifts in color and shape as the angle of its perception changes, creating a tactile and human-scale experience on the plaza below the high-tech screens for which Times Square is famous.
Pernilla Ohrstedt’s sculpture responds to The World Around’s curatorial vision, calling for a project “that addresses through its own creation the lifecycle of materials that go into the making of the spaces around us.” Can you create a design where every component has a happily ever after?
Oysters and oyster reefs foster biodiversity, filter water, and create a natural storm barrier. Before New York City became the "Big Apple," it was known as the Big Oyster because of the abundance of oysters in New York Harbor. The harbor was once one of the largest and most oyster-abundant in the world. Oysters were so plentiful in the city that their shells became a key waste product, used in road construction, mortar, and even burned to produce lime. Today, however, most oyster shells in New York City end up in landfills. Billion Oyster Project’s mission is to change this by collecting, cleaning, storing, and recycling oyster shells from over 80 restaurants at their two Shell Recycling centers; as a result, 2.4M pounds of oyster shells have been diverted from landfills since 2014. The recycled shells are used to create and rebuild oyster reefs to clean New York City’s water and protect its waterfronts.
“From the heart of New York City to its shoreline, our sculpture broadcasts love for people, community and environment, and highlights one of the city’s most exciting ecological initiatives, Billion Oyster Project, to the global audience of Times Square. After its installation in Times Square, the sculpture’s pieces will be returned to New York City’s shoreline. Monitored by hundreds of New York volunteers, the cages are used to create oyster reefs that clean our waters,” said Pernilla Ohrstedt.
Ohrstedt’s sustainable work specifically brings attention to the environmental benefits oysters play in cleaning New York City's water. The sculpture uses metal mesh that, after its installation in Times Square, will be placed in New York Harbor by Billion Oyster Project and their partners to function as oyster research stations. Love Ever After uses paint without harmful ingredients developed specifically for the installation by kt.COLOR.
Accompanying the installation will be one additional oyster cage filled with shells, to demonstrate Love Ever After’s future use and increase awareness of Billion Oyster Project’s mission of restoring one billion oysters back to New York Harbor by 2035 through public education initiatives.
Expertise was provided by industrial designer and color and materials specialist Salem van der Swaagh and lighting designer Sofie Bjärnram Nilsson. The lighting was realized with in-kind state-of-the-art light fittings by Lucifer Lighting. Signage graphics were made by Courtney Gooch Portrait Design.
Support for Love Ever After is provided in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Additional support is provided by The Consulate General of Sweden in New York.
Fabrication for Love Ever After is by Heini and engineering by Walter Woodington.
Times Square Arts’ annual Love in Times Square celebrations on Valentines’ Day, February 14th, will feature wedding ceremonies in front of the 2025 Love & Design winning sculpture, surprise proposals, and vow renewals. Registration is open now!
ABOUT PERNILLA OHRSTEDT
Pernilla Ohrstedt is a Swedish architect and designer, and the founder of Pernilla Ohrstedt Studio based in New York City. She has an international reputation for realizing innovative projects that span the disciplines of architecture, design, art, and fashion. Key to her practice is creating striking projects with minimal means - through reuse and unexpected material choices and by bringing together visionary teams of forward-thinking clients, community initiatives and exceptional designers and fabricators. Her projects range from buildings, art installations, museum exhibitions, interiors, set design and furniture. Learn more at https://pernilla-ohrstedt.com/ and @pernilla_ohrstedt.
ABOUT THE WORLD AROUND
The World Around is a nonprofit organization dedicated to making groundbreaking ideas in architecture and design accessible to all. Through its critically acclaimed public programs, research and initiatives, The World Around presents progressive contemporary architecture and design, focusing on interdisciplinary, forward-thinking solutions and climate justice. Its archive, featuring commissioned films, talks, and presentations from the world’s leading thinkers and creators is available free for all. The World Around's signature initiative is the Young Climate Prize, an award and mentorship program that trains and amplifies the work of global climate activists under the age of 25 by connecting them with world design leaders and experts. Learn more at theworldaround.com, @theworldaround, and @youngclimateprize on Instagram.
ABOUT BILLION OYSTER PROJECT
Billion Oyster Project is a nonprofit organization on a mission to restore oyster reefs to the New York Harbor through public education initiatives. They envision a future in which the New York Harbor is a world-class public blue space — well used and well cared for by New Yorkers with an effort to engage 1 million people to restore 1 billion oysters by 2035. Learn more at https://www.billionoysterproject.org/.
ABOUT kt.COLOR
Swiss artisan paint manufacturer kt.COLOR has unveiled a water-based paint free of biocides, forever chemicals, VOCs (volatile organic compounds), microplastics, and plasticizers. The paint specially developed for a public art installation by Pernilla Ohrstedt Studio is handcrafted from natural and inorganic artists pigments. It will debut at Times Square, New York, as part of an innovative project celebrating sustainable design. The custom-developed paint aligns with the project’s emphasis on sustainability, prioritizing human health and ecological integrity. kt.COLOR is proud to support Pernilla Ohrstedt Studio in reimagining more beautiful materials for a greener future.
ABOUT LUCIFER LIGHTING
Working in collaboration with the artist, Lucifer Lighting has generously donated twelve-cylinder light fixtures produced with a custom flat-lay design. This design enables the installation to be lit from within, allowing viewers to embrace the full installation in any climate and throughout all hours of the day. Lucifer Lighting is multi-generational, family-owned company that grew out of a love for art, design, and engineering, and has deep roots in San Antonio, Texas. The first fixtures we created were to illuminate the high-end designer apparel we carried in our Frost Brothers department stores - we designed lights that brought out the best in our products. Seeing an unmet need, Gilbert Mathews, our CEO and founder, became focused on creating the exceptional lighting fixtures that define our mission.
ABOUT HEINI
HEINI is a construction and design studio based in Brooklyn, NY, specializing in temporary structures and technical installations for both semi-permanent and permanent applications. We believe that construction is the endpoint of architectural pursuits and take pride in delivering high-quality results with expediency. Our expertise spans design, fabrication, and building of diverse structures and environments, working at multiple scales to create both permanent and temporary installations.
ABOUT TIMES SQUARE ARTS
Times Square Arts, the public art program of the Times Square Alliance, collaborates with contemporary artists and cultural institutions to experiment and engage with one of the world's most iconic urban places. Through the Square's electronic billboards, public plazas, vacant areas and popular venues, and the Alliance's own online landscape, Times Square Arts invites leading contemporary creators, such as Charles Gaines, Joan Jonas, Jeffrey Gibson, Pamela Council, Mel Chin and Kehinde Wiley, to help the public see Times Square in new ways. Times Square has always been a cultural district and place of risk, innovation and creativity, and the arts program ensures these qualities remain central to the district's unique identity.
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