Tschabalala Self and Andra Ursuţa have been selected for London’s Fourth Plinth commissions in Trafalgar Square, featuring in 2026 and 2028 respectively.
Lady in Blue, a largescale bronze sculpture of a young woman of colour marching ahead in a blue dress and heels by Tschabalala Self, has been selected to go on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, London. The new design will be unveiled in 2026, and will be followed in 2028 by a new work by Romanian-born, New York-based Andra Ursuţa – a hollow, translucent, slime-green resin cast of an equestrian statue covered with a shroud.
Self’s said the woman in her sculpture, with her striking blue dress and her proud and determined attitude, is an ‘homage to a young, metropolitan woman of colour’ and ‘a walking icon of the everyday’. The New York-based artist added that Lady in Blue was ‘not an idol to venerate or a historic figurehead to commemorate. She is a woman striding forward into our collective future with ambition and purpose. She is a Londoner, who represents the city’s spirit.’
Ursuţa’s winning proposal meanwhile reads like a nod to the current debate around the colonial legacy of a lot of public sculpture. Her anonymous sculpture, pointedly Untitled, references the genre of equestrian sculpture that was long used to commemorate of historic figures, except this one has been covered up, perhaps to be replaced by new heroes.
The plinth was built in 1841 with the intention of hosting a permanent equestrian statue of William IV, but funding ran out. It remained empty for 150 years until in 1999 a temporary work by Mark Wallinger was commissioned. Since then artists including Rachel Whiteread, Yinka Shonibare and Heather Phillipson, have made work for the space. The commission is funded by the Mayor of London with support from the Arts Council England and Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Self and Ursuţa were selected from a shortlist including Chila Kumari Singh Burman, Gabriel Chaile, Ruth Ewan, Thomas J Price and Veronica Ryan. Their work will succeed to Samson Kambalu’s Antelope, which will sit on the plinth through 17 March, and to Teresa Margolles’s Improntas (Imprints), a monument to trans people around the world, to be unveiled in September.
