Sarah Lucas Unveils 'VENUS VICTORIA' Outside New Museum's New Building

Sarah Lucas's public sculpture 'VENUS VICTORIA' (2026) now stands outside the New Museum's recently unveiled building on the Bowery in Lower Manhattan. The work features a nude female figure with flailing arms and large pink breasts perched angularly atop a dusty washing machine, wearing bright yellow high heels. Installed on Tuesday, May 12, it inaugurates a decade-long series of public commissions by women artists at the museum's triangular entrance plaza. Lucas conceived the piece while developing her 2023 Tate Modern exhibition 'Happy Gas,' adapting it from her 'Bunnies' series (1997–ongoing) of knotted pantyhose figures. She chose this particular figure for its 'exuberance, optimism, and general good feeling,' qualities she felt were needed to start the New Museum's new era. The commission follows Lucas's 2018 New Museum solo exhibition 'Au Naturel.' Public reactions included a toddler asking why people were looking, a jewelry designer noting the figure's expression, and a Canadian tourist preferring it to a statue of Columbus. Lucas described the work as 'a bit Pop' and suited to New York street audiences.