In 2016, Turner Prize-winning artist Rachel Whiteread installed this piece, a concrete cast of a wooden shed, on one of Governors Island’s new hills. “I was really thinking about Thoreau and the American Romantics, as well as the opposite of that—the grimmer, darker underbelly of America and the idea that some lonely person might live in a different way,” she told the Guardian at the time. “I worked very hard to make something that wasn’t screaming for attention, but something that would hopefully draw emotions.” Mission accomplished—the shed amid a pastoral landscape is in contrast to the skyscrapers of Manhattan beyond, and evocative of a place other than New York.

When Arturo di Modica first installed “Charging Bull” in front of the New York Stock Exchange in 1989, he intended it to be “a way to celebrate the can-do spirit of America and especially New York.” In the more than two decades since, it’s also become one of the most popular tourist spots in the Financial District—if you walk by the statue, now situated at Bowling Green, on a random weekday, you’re likely to encounter someone taking a photo of it’s, um, rear end. Interest in the statue was renewed when ad agency installed “Fearless Girl” across from it in 2017, and Di Modica registered his displeasure over the addition to the landscape.

The street-level public space at 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza (recently rebranded as 28 Liberty Street) is a harmonious union of works by several modern masters. The building itself is a Gordon Bunshaft design; below, there’s the famed “sunken garden” by Isamu Noguchi. On the plaza itself, Jean Dubuffet’s “Four Trees”—made from aluminum and covered in fiberglass, and painted with squiggles and loops—is a whimsical counterpoint to Bunshaft’s modern skyscraper.

German sculptor Fritz Koenig designed this 25-foot bronze sculpture, which resembled a head covered in a helmet in its pristine state, as a counterpoint to architect Minoru Yamasaki’s sleek modernist towers at the original World Trade Center. It was badly damaged on 9/11, and for years had a temporary home in Battery Park. Last year, it moved permanently to Liberty Park within the new WTC; now, amid the megaproject’s gleaming glass towers, it serves as a reminder of what came before.

Belgian artist Francoise Schein has produced several large-scale works in subway stations (in Paris, São Paolo, and Stockholm, to name a few), but for this NYC work, she brought the subway out to the street. The piece, which was installed in front of 110 Greene Street in 1985, was made using stainless steel, concrete, and recessed lighting; on her website, Schein notes that it represents “the most democratic place in all cities.”

George Segal’s “Gay Liberation”—which features four figures, two male and two female, arranged around benches in Christopher Park—has been a Greenwich Village fixture for 25 years. The sculpture was intended to honor those who participated in the 1969 Stonewall Riots, and though funding issues and opposition to the project held it up for a decade, it was finally installed in 1992. Now, it’s one of the focal points of the larger Stonewall National Monument, which encompasses the park and the Stonewall Inn.

Unlike the other work on this list, Max Neuhaus’s “Times Square” isn’t an artwork you can see—it’s one you have to listen for, and amid the chaos of Times Square, no less. To find it, head to the north end of the pedestrian island between 45th and 46th streets, and open your ears to the “rich harmonic sound texture.” The work was first installed in 1977, and remained in place for 15 years; the Times Square BID brought it back in 2002, and it’s now operated by the Dia Art Foundation.

The sculptural version of Robert Indiana’s iconic “LOVE” graphic sits, appropriately, around the corner from the Museum of Modern Art; the image was first commissioned by MoMA for a Christmas card in 1965. It may not be unique—there are dozens of other LOVE sculptures, including a famous one in Philadelphia—but it’s still a perennially popular spot for photo-snapping tourists. This particular sculpture was installed in 1999.

Sculptor Henry Moore created this site-specific work—the only one of his pieces to be created to sit in the water—in the early 1960s, and it was installed within the complex’s reflecting pool (recently renamed the Paul Milstein Pool and Terrace) in 1965. It’s one of several pieces at Lincoln Center designed by prominent modern artists; Alexander Calder and Jasper Johns also have works within the complex.

The bronze figure atop Central Park’s Bethesda Fountain has the distinction of being the first piece of public art created by a woman—the sculptor Emma Stebbins—in New York City. It’s meant to depict the Angel of Bethesda (as in the pool in Jerusalem, which is described in the Bible); Stubbins “likened the healing powers of the biblical pool to that of the pure Croton water that cascades from the fountain,” according to the NYC Parks Department. It’s appeared in countless movies and TV shows, from Angels in America to Law & Order.

The number of historic women depicted in statues or monuments in New York City is woefully low, a wrong that the city hopes to rectify in the coming years. But in the meantime, one of the best statues of a female historical figure can be found in Harlem, where Alison Saar’s “Swing Low”—a monumental artwork depicting Harriet Tubman, who led countless slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad—is situated on Frederick Douglass Boulevard. “I wanted to depict Harriet Tubman not so much as a conductor of the Underground Railroad,” Saar explained, “but as an unstoppable locomotive that continued to work towards improving the lives of slaves and freed slaves for most of her 91 years of life.”

A bus depot at the corner of 146th Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem features a large-scale work created by Shinique Smith, which was inspired by a child’s drawing. The depot is named for Clara Hale, who founded a Harlem charity for abandoned children. Smith incorporated materials found around the neighborhood into her piece, which was ultimately rendered on the side of the building in colorful glass mosaic.

In the new Hunter’s Point South Park, a collaboration between sculptor Nobuho Nagasawa and landscape architect Thomas Balsley brings the moon to Queens—sort of. The piece, “Luminescence,” features seven huge concrete domes, which are arranged to represent the phases of the moon.

French artist Camilla Walala brought one of her colorful, Memphis-inspired pieces to the side of a drab Sunset Park building this spring. Walala says that her artwork reflects an “enthusiasm for playful, graphic patterns” and draws on influences from the Memphis Design movement, the Ndebele tribe and Hungarian-French artist Victor Vasarely. “The site is bathed in the most beautiful colors at sunset, which has inspired my palette for the project,” she notes.

The September 11 Memorial on Staten Island was built in 2004 and remembers the 275 borough residents who were killed in the September 11 attacks and 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The design is the work of New York architect Masayuki Sono and is called Postcards after the two 30-foot pillars that are lined with plaques bearing the name and birthdate of those who perished in the attacks. The two structures frame the space on the skyline where the original World Trade Center towers once stood.