Bettina Pousttchi’s "Vertical Highways" at Rockefeller Center

This spring, Rockefeller Center welcomes “Vertical Highways V03” (2025), a monumental sculpture by German artist Bettina Pousttchi, on view in the Channel Gardens from March 18 through April 17, 2026.

Installed at the Fifth Avenue entrance to the Channel Gardens, the sculpture marks the first public presentation of Pousttchi’s “Vertical Highways” series in the United States. The work has previously been shown internationally, including at the Jardin des Tuileries, outside Berlin Central Station, and at the Istanbul Modern.

“Vertical Highways V03” is constructed from highway guardrails that Pousttchi bends, presses, and reconfigures into a powerful sculptural form. By transforming these familiar elements of urban infrastructure, the artist removes them from their everyday regulatory function and reimagines them as symbols of movement, change, and shifting boundaries within the modern city. The work draws conceptually on traditions of Minimal Art as well as the ready-made objects pioneered by Marcel Duchamp.

For more than fifteen years, Pousttchi has created large-scale sculptures and site-specific installations in public spaces around the world, exploring the architectural, social, and cultural contexts of the environments in which they appear. Installed within the historic Channel Gardens, “Vertical Highways V03” creates a dialogue between contemporary art and the surrounding architecture of Rockefeller Center—one of New York City’s most recognizable urban landmarks.

Public art has been part of Rockefeller Center’s identity for nearly a century, dating back to the vision of John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Abigail Aldrich Rockefeller. Today, visitors can discover more than 100 historic works of art across the campus, alongside rotating exhibitions that bring new and diverse artistic voices to The Center.