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(NEW YORK, NY — July 21, 2025) — Times Square Arts is pleased to present Magic Grasshopper, a 30-foot-long pink kinetic sculpture by multidisciplinary artist Yvette Mayorga. The public installation invites viewers into Mayorga’s world where the artist subverts childhood nostalgia, confectionary arts, and the color pink to critically explore the intersection of migration, feminized labor, and colonial histories. Magic Grasshopper marks the artist’s largest installation to date and will be on view in Times Square from October 15 to December 2, 2025.
“I’m thrilled to be sharing my biggest work yet on one of the world’s largest stages,” said Yvette Mayorga. “Magic Grasshopper is a metaphor, a vehicle, an archive, a monument. It's excessive and grand, but also incisive and delicate. I hope that everyone who encounters it leaves with a feeling of joy, recognition, or even fantasy.”
Part float, part fantastical vessel, Mayorga’s work metaphorically transports viewers across borders and historical eras. The work is a tribute to the physical and personal journeys humans have historically undertaken in pursuit of the American Dream, and a layered critique of the systems that shape it.
Elaborately piped in Mayorga’s signature faux-frosting—thickened acrylic applied through pastry bags—the sculpture references familial labor and the broader histories of women’s work and immigrant labor. A carriage with swirling pink ornamentation is pulled by carousel-style horses sporting Hello Kitty backpacks; stacked suitcases sit atop the carriage; a smiley-face flag flutters optimistically; and tricked-out wheels with gold rims sit low to the ground, paying homage to the lowrider culture rooted in Mexican-American communities of Chicago where the artist’s family lives. Wrapped around the float are painterly scenes of migration, challenging European art historical tropes with personal and collective narratives. And in Mayorga’s world, pink is more than just an aesthetic choice—it becomes an act of resistance, a sugary shield, and a portal to a hopeful future.
The work itself builds on Mayorga’s signature style of “Latinxoco”—a term she coined to describe the maximalist intersection of Latinx and Rococo aesthetics, and the shared decadence of colonial Mexico and American culture. The carriage featured in Magic Grasshopper references the royal carriage of the Second Mexican Empire, which was modeled after the opulent coronation coach of Louis XVI at the Palace of Versailles, and was used at the Castillo de Chapultepec in Mexico City—a castle built atop sacred Aztec land. The title, Magic Grasshopper, refers to the English translation of the Nahuatl word Chapultepec (“hill of the grasshopper”), and evokes a mythical vehicle able to transcend the constraints of space and time.
As part of the project, Mayorga will partner with ART FOR CHANGE—a hybrid platform that connects socially conscious collectors with in-demand contemporary artists—to debut a limited edition work. A portion of net proceeds from the edition will benefit a nonprofit organization of the artist’s choice.
Magic Grasshopper will be on view free and open to the public 24/7 in Times Square from October 15–December 2, 2025. Further programming details will be announced at a later date.
Fabrication services for Magic Grasshopper are by Stronghold Arts and The Factory NYC.
ABOUT YVETTE MAYORGA
Yvette Mayorga is a Chicago-based Mexican-American multidisciplinary artist whose work merges Rococo-inspired aesthetics with confectionary labor, found imagery, and an adamant use of pink to explore themes of belonging, femme power, consumer culture, and the alluring contradictions of the American Dream.
Mayorga holds an MFA in Fiber and Material Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA from the University of Illinois. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at the Museum of Arts and Design (New York, NY), LACMA (Los Angeles, CA), El Museo del Barrio (NY), Vincent Price Art Museum (CA), the Center for Craft (Asheville, NC), Museo Universitario del Chopo (Mexico City, MX), and more. Notable solo exhibitions include La Jaula de Oro at Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Mexico (2024–25), Dreaming of You at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum (2023–24), and What a Time to Be at The Momentary at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (2022–23).
Mayorga’s works are in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution’s Renwick Gallery, Washington, D.C.; The Davis Museum at Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA; The City of Chicago permanent public art collection at O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, IL; Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH; 21c Museum Hotels, Louisville, KY; Cerámica Suro, Guadalajara, MX; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, IL; El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY; John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chicago, IL; Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA; and New Mexico State University Art Museum, NM. She has been featured in Artforum, Artnet, Art in America, Art News, Cultured Magazine, DAZED, Galerie Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, Hyperallergic, Latina Magazine, Teen Vogue, The Guardian, The New York Times, Vogue, W Magazine, and Women’s Wear Daily. Mayorga is currently developing her largest public artwork to date, set to debut in New York City’s Times Square in fall 2025 with Times Square Arts.
Website: www.yvettemayorga.com
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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