Christopher Myers: Unbound at Brooklyn Central Library, Prospect Park, NYC: 40-Foot Tapestries and Stained Glass

Brooklyn Public Library's Central Library, on Grand Army Plaza, is hosting Unbound, a new site-specific exhibition by artist and children's book author Christopher Myers. It runs from August 1, 2026 through January 15, 2027. Architecturally scaled tapestries and original stained-glass sculptures appear across the building's façade, Grand Lobby, Youth Wing and second-floor balcony. Myers describes the idea as setting the pages of books loose inside the library.

The centerpiece is a pair of 40-foot tapestries that montage characters and settings from frequently banned books, among them George Orwell's Animal Farm and Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. The library frames them as both a portrait of the weight of ongoing book bans and challenges across the United States and a counter to it. They tie in with BPL's Books Unbanned initiative and point to what is lost when stories are shut out. During Banned Books Week in early October, Myers joined a panel on artistic freedom at the library.

The second thread comes from Night Ride, Myers's forthcoming picture book from Penguin Random House, due in September 2026. Its group of New York kids cycles across Brooklyn and the other boroughs under the night sky, rendered in jewel-toned stained glass whose fragments of color and shape sketch out recognizable cityscapes. The figures beckon visitors into the library as the next stop on the ride.

Myers was born in New York in 1974 and lives and works in Brooklyn. He earned his B.A. at Brown University, won a Caldecott Honor in 1998 for Harlem, and received a Coretta Scott King Award in 2016 for illustrating Firebird with Misty Copeland. His practice spans textiles, performance, film and sculptural objects, often made with artisans around the world, and he was featured in the 24th Biennale of Sydney in 2024. His work is in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum and the National Gallery of Art, among others.

The show is organized by BPL Presents, BPL visual art curator Cora Fisher and Myers, and is funded in part by the Katowitz-Radin Endowment. Entry is free, and the library sits close to Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the Brooklyn Museum.