By: Meyer Wolfsheim

Artists who’ve turned New York City’s iconic MetroCard into unlikely works of art are grieving its imminent disappearance, as the MTA phases out the familiar blue plastic pass in favor of the OMNY tap-and-go system, according to the NY Post.

“I was really in denial for a long time,” said artist Thomas McKean, who admitted he once believed the MTA’s notorious inefficiency might somehow spare the MetroCard, the NY Post reported.

McKean, who has been transforming MetroCards into collages and sculptures for more than 20 years, said the sudden removal of MetroCard vending machines from subway stations hit him hard, according to the NY Post.

“I know there are more important things in the world,” McKean told the NY Post, “but there’s a sense of grief and shock that they were just gone overnight.”

The Lower East Side artist said his fascination began underground, where he started playing with the word “MetroCard” and the creative possibilities hidden within its 10 letters, the NY Post reported. Since then, McKean has sold hundreds of thousands of MetroCard-based creations — from coffee cups and baseball caps to skyscraper mosaics made entirely from sliced-up fare cards.

“There’s something about the MetroCard,” McKean said, noting that people from “Iowa to Ireland” instantly recognize its cultural value, according to the NY Post.

He described the card as more than just plastic — a shared symbol New Yorkers carried daily in their wallets and pockets. By contrast, McKean said the OMNY card lacks personality, telling the NY Post it feels like something “designed by a committee.”

McKean still has a few thousand MetroCards stockpiled in his apartment, which he hopes will sustain his work for a few more years. Still, the thought of eventually running out weighs on him, the NY Post reported.

“It’s strange to think there may come a day when I don’t have enough to finish a collage,” he said.

Fellow artist Nina Boesch isn’t facing that problem — at least not yet. Boesch, a German immigrant living in the West Village, estimates she has about 90,000 MetroCards stored in her studio, enough to fuel decades of artwork, according to the NY Post.

Boesch said she began collecting the discarded cards after moving to New York in 2001 and seeing them litter the streets. What others saw as trash, she saw as recyclable art, the NY Post reported. Donations from environmentally focused groups later helped grow her collection.

Her first major piece was a collage map of the United States, but she soon focused on New York imagery — crafting rats, Statues of Liberty, and Brooklyn Bridges from the tiny plastic fragments, according to the NY Post.

While Boesch isn’t worried about supply, she acknowledged that the MetroCard’s disappearance could drive up demand — and prices — for her work.

“With the MetroCard going away, it feels like we’re losing an icon,” Boesch told the NY Post, calling the card a “souvenir of the past.”