Will Cotton’s Fantastical Public Art Takes Over Rockefeller Center

March 3, 2025 – May 30, 2025

45 Rockefeller Plaza, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, 10 Rockefeller Plaza and 50 Rockefeller Plaza
Between 49th & 50th Streets

For 25 years, Rockefeller Center and Art Production Fund have partnered to present Art in Focus, a public art initiative showcasing site-specific works by new and emerging artists across the campus. This spring, acclaimed New York-based artist Will Cotton transforms Rockefeller Center into a fantastical landscape with a dynamic exhibition of larger-than-life murals and striking sculptures that blend surrealism, Americana, and the dreamlike allure of confections.

Cotton’s site-specific installation brings together vivid imagery of cowboys, unicorns, and candy-coated utopias, offering visitors a whimsical yet thought-provoking experience. A massive mural along the Rink Level beneath 45 Rockefeller Plaza stretches 125 feet, featuring cowboys and unicorns from his painted series, while additional works appear at locations throughout the Center, adding color and fantasy to the urban environment. The exhibition explores the intersection of rugged Western iconography with the magical and ethereal, using these modern mythic figures to reflect on themes of temptation, indulgence, and the construction of American identity.

In vitrines at 45 Rockefeller Plaza, Cotton revisits his signature confectionary worlds with towering cake sculptures and richly textured frosting details, inviting viewers to confront the tension between desire and excess. Through this visually captivating presentation, Cotton’s work transforms Rockefeller Center into an imaginative realm that challenges and celebrates the complex narratives woven into both personal and cultural mythologies.