Alexi Antoniadis, Storyline, 2026, steel and urethane paint, PS 116 Addition, Queens ​

Storyline is a site-specific artwork created by Alexi Antoniadis for the lobby of the new P.S. 116 Addition, Queens. It is made of slender painted steel tubing, shaped into energetic curves, circles and squiggles that form a colorful procession along the upper portion of the lobby’s perpendicular walls. Our eyes follow the horizontal arrangement of sculptural elements like a line drawing in space. The artist sometimes refers to the individual colored forms as “glyphs” to suggest that each shape carries meaning, like a word, and also contributes to a larger narrative. Their forms mark out a rhythm like punctuation in a sentence or notes in a musical score. Each element is painted in a vibrant hue—ladybug red, forest green, bubble gum pink, tangerine, aquamarine, apple green, grape soda purple, and buttercup yellow—evoking the sweet, sensory presence of color in childhood memory. 

The dancing linear shapes are installed inches off the wall, allowing their cast shadows to animate the white surface behind them. Their forms sometimes nest together and sometimes push apart, creating a lively sense of movement and exchange. These shifting relationships invite viewers to read the artwork from one end to the other. As the artist states, “lyrical abstraction and color combine to create compositions that allude to many things. What is ‘depicted’ remains open for the viewer’s interpretations.” In the school setting, Storyline encourages students to slow down, look closely and decide for themselves what the lines might suggest, using them as a starting point to imagine scenes, characters and stories of their own.