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Deets: Times Square Arts and Powerhouse Arts are pleased to present Making Love, an installation that celebrates love, craft, and the makers of New York City. On view from February 12-19, 2026, the work also serves as the backdrop for Love in Times Square, the district’s annual weddings, proposals and vow renewals that take place on Valentine’s Day.
Presented with Brooklyn-based fabrication hub Powerhouse Arts, Making Love foregrounds the artistry of fabricators often working behind-the-scenes to bring our city’s creative endeavors to life. Inspired by paper peep-shows and theatrical set design, Making Love takes the form of a larger-than-life carousel book — a three-dimensional pop-up that opens into an immersive and multi-dimensional story with a circular narrative. Visitors are invited to step inside and move across a sequence of four distinct scenes that represent a crossroads of experiences and cityscapes where one might encounter love — at a botanical garden, canal, or even the corner bodega. Visitors are encouraged to move through the structure, linger within each vignette, and in one scene, take away an artist-designed love note.
Featuring the work of artists and Powerhouse fabricators Lisa D. Archigian, Kelsey Breen, Nellie Davis, Cythali Sapuis, and Jacqueline Veliz, Making Love celebrates not only romance, but love as labor, craft, and collective creation.
Special thanks to the many artists and collaborators that made this work possible at Powerhouse Arts including Alondra Acevedo, Lisa D. Archigian, Kelsey Breen, Andrew Canlon, Brittni Collins, Nellie Davis, Ed Farrell, Natalie Griffin, Dennis Hrehowsik, Emma Hollister-Colby, Jesse Katz, Hallie Lederer, Angélica M. Millán Lozano, Fiona Nugent, Devon Petrovits, Xavier Petromelis, Vivian Pullan, Daniel Quinn, Alec Reed, Cythali Sapuis, Erika (Saki) Sequeira, and Jacqueline Veliz.
The Bodega: Lisa D. Archigian & Jacqueline Veliz
A classic New York City bodega becomes a tribute to the unseen labor that keeps the city alive—an intimate third space of care, memory, and community shaped by late-night workers, fabricators, and dreamers. Created by two New York City-born artists, the scene honors immigrant resilience, shared hustle, and the quiet magic made possible by workers long after the city sleeps.
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The Canal: Nellie Davis
Depicting the Gowanus Canal, this scene playfully renders a once-toxic waterway as a site of fragile rebirth, where urban wildlife and beauty emerge alongside the unresolved trauma of colonization and industrial harm. Neighboring Powerhouse Arts, the Gowanus Canal has become a place the fabricator has grown to love—fostering a sense of belonging and community despite everything.
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The Gardens: Kelsey Breen
Inspired by visits to the New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx, this scene explores memory through a child’s sense of scale, where first encounters feel oversized and vivid. Breen’s work reflects how environments imprint our inner lives, allowing memory to distort, reappear, and evolve over time.
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Love Letters: Cythali Sapuis
The Love Letters scene creates an intimate, immersive backdrop for three weddings on Valentine’s Day as a part of Love in Times Square. Outfitted with envelopes holding love letters, the environment invites guests into a shared, embodied experience of intimacy and attention.
Hint for the Average Socialite: This event is free and open to the public.
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