A 1,600-square-foot folk-art mural now covers the asphalt and bike-lane barrier at Father Studzinski Square on McGuinness Boulevard, painting frogs, birds, lily pads and Polish-style flowers across a stretch of pavement where cars once sped through Greenpoint.
The piece, titled “Becoming,” was made by artist Kevin Cincotta and commissioned by the NYC Department of Transportation’s Art program. It runs along McGuinness Boulevard near Driggs Avenue, on the wide pedestrian bumpout beside the square, and transforms 1,600 square feet of asphalt plus 80 linear feet of concrete bike barrier, according to an email from Maria Cruz of the DOT’s Brooklyn Borough Commissioner’s office and reporting from Brooklyn Paper.
The imagery draws on Greenpoint’s past as marshland and its Polish heritage. Cincotta filled the mural with animals from Polish folklore: frogs that symbolize transformation and birds that represent freedom, surrounded by floral motifs from Polish papercutting. On one end, lily pads float in a painted pond in shades of blue, green and pink, Brooklyn Paper reported.
“Together, the elements in the mural tell a story of Greenpoint’s past, while remaining optimistically open-ended about its future,” Cincotta said in a statement. “It captures the beauty of change in Greenpoint over time, showcasing flora and fauna that once thrived here, when the area was largely marshland, while also paying homage to the Polish community that helped shape the neighborhood into what it is today.”
Cincotta designed the mural using direct community input. He collected opinions at local events, including the McCarren Park farmers market, where residents added Post-it notes to a board describing what they wanted the mural to say or show, according to North Brooklyn News.
The mural is on a street that neighbors have been fighting over for years. Make McGuinness Safe spearheaded the campaign to redesign the boulevard after local school teacher Matthew Jensen was killed by a speeding hit-and-run driver in 2021, Brooklyn Paper reported. The southern half of the redesign went in during late 2024, removing one vehicle lane in each direction between Calyer Street and Meeker Avenue and replacing it with protected bike lanes. That left a large, drab pedestrian bumpout next to Father Studzinski Square, which the advocacy group said it had spent more than a year asking DOT to address.
“In addition to being a captivating art piece it also serves as a valued expansion of pedestrian space, making it clear to all that this bulb out, once filled by speeding vehicles, is now a space for everyone to enjoy,” Make McGuinness Safe said on social media, per Brooklyn Paper.
The full redesign had been scuttled by then-Mayor Eric Adams in 2023, after local business owners who opposed the project allegedly bribed one of his top aides, according to Brooklyn Paper. On his third day in office, Mayor Zohran Mamdani visited the square to announce his administration would roll out the full redesign, extending the parking-protected bike lanes all the way up to the Pulaski Bridge. Construction on the northern end began in the spring.
“Since day one of our administration, we have been laser-focused on making our streets safer for every New Yorker, and that work began on McGuinness Boulevard,” Mamdani said in a statement, per Brooklyn Paper. “With construction on the redesign already underway, this public art installation celebrates the people and history that make this community so special.”
DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn said the mural is part of the larger street project. “This whimsical artwork brings together community identity and creativity in public space, helping turn a long-divided roadway into a welcoming neighborhood place that residents can recognize as their own,” he said in a statement to Brooklyn Paper.
City Council Member Lincoln Restler called it “a beautiful tribute to Greenpoint’s connection to the waterfront, our history as a marshland, and the Polish community that has shaped our neighborhood,” according to North Brooklyn News. Bronwyn Breitner, coordinator and co-founder of Make McGuinness Safe, told the outlet the mural “celebrates this new era for Greenpoint while honoring the Polish heritage of our community.”
The work is temporary. NYC DOT Art partners with organizations and professional artists to display public art on DOT property across the five boroughs for up to eleven months, and has produced more than 550 temporary artworks citywide since 2008, North Brooklyn News reported. The mural was in place as of June 16. More information on the program is at nyc.gov/dotart, and Cincotta’s work is at kevincincotta.com.
Featured image: Courtesy kevincincotta.com
