Jing Wei, Recess, 2025, printed aluminum composite and porcelain enamel, PS 5 Addition, Staten Island

Recess is a site-specific artwork created by Jing Wei for the lobby of the new P.S. 5 Addition, Staten Island. Vibrant printed panels span the upper register of the lobby walls, depicting a surreal landscape where people of all ages and abilities are joyfully engaged in a variety of activities—reading, drawing, exploring, playing sports and sharing stories under a canopy of trees. Wei’s lush artwork brings the outdoors inside. To develop the artwork’s imagery, the artist took research walks around the Prince’s Bay neighborhood, drawing inspiration from the plants and flowers in local gardens and Arbutus Woods Park, as well as from the shoreline views of Wolfe’s Pond and Huguenot Beach. These familiar details help root the artwork in its community, greeting its viewers with personal meaning and a sense of enchantment.  

Wei’s design creates harmony through contrast. Her stylized figures seamlessly move between indoor and outdoor settings. Bold colors mix with soft pastels and sharp geometric shapes blend with rounded, organic forms. Wei’s playful approach to scale and layering allows foreground and background to coexist in the same visual plane. Spatial depth is further heightened by the addition of twelve shiny porcelain enamel components that pop out from the wall, catching the light and adding a sense of flow and dynamism throughout the composition. These elements project into the space and even round the corner, with trees and birds accompanying students up the stairs into the school. Wei’s evocative title, Recess, suggests the imagination and whimsy with which the artist approached her design. She explains, “I wanted to create a visual environment that reflects a sense of peace, where these characters can feel safe to play, to exist and to grow all at once. Within this surreal and expansive landscape, anything is possible.”