Astoria subway station features temporary ode to Joe Biden
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Artist Adrian Wilson, who goes by Plannedalism on social media, posts an ode to President Joe Biden on the wall of the 46th Street subway station in Astoria. Photos courtesy of Lisa Scott
By David Brand
Stand clear of the closing doors, Donald. Your ride is over.
A New York City artist temporarily turned Astoria’s 46th Street M and R train station into an ode to President Joe Biden, and a reminder that a certain Queens native was heading to the exit Wednesday.
Adrian Wilson, who goes by “Plannedalism” on social media, redecorated the 46th Street subway tiles to read “46th Joe” with an arrow below pointing “45th out.”
The subway piece was a welcome to a regular Joe,” he said. “Hopefully we enter a period of more friendliness, less hostility, less polarization. No matter whether you like Joe Biden or not, we’re going to enter that period.”
Wilson told the Eagle that his artwork had been removed by 11:30 a.m., but said the ephemerality was the “nature of the work.”
Astoria’s 46th Street subway station Wednesday.
The subway tile display, first reported by Patch, wasn’t the only piece of Inauguration-inspired public art that has Wilson created this week.
On Tuesday, he repurposed the sign outside the station, using the directional text and the M and R train logos to spell out “Brooklyn & Manhattan <3 MR. BIDEN.” He also fine-tuned a sign marking Thompson Street in Lower Manhattan to read “Trumpgone St.”
He said the artwork bids a not so fond farewell to Trump, the 45th president.
"New York can spit you out the other side if they don’t want you anymore and I guess that's what happened to Trump and his whole family,” Wilson said. “The last four years have ruined their life and they’ve ruined a lot of people's lives.”
Wilson has a history of sprucing up subway stations with political and memorial art. He honored late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September 2020 by altering the 50th St. subway station in Manhattan to read “Ruth St.” In 2016, he added David to a Bowery Street sign to honor the iconic musician David Bowie.
Wilson’s friend Lisa Scott accompanied him as he set up the 46th Street Biden sign and shared the photos on Instagram. She said she has long admired her friend’s creative messaging.
“Any type of street art, whether it be political or cultural is important in every community,” Scott said. “It conveys a message of current events, and inspires communication.”
