Meditating Figure by Matt Johnson, Montauk, New York, USA
Artwork FileMontauk · USA
SeenAug 2026
Meditating
under court order
Matt Johnson · Meditating Figure, 2026 · The Ranch, Montauk
Photo as published on Street Art Utopia; photographer not yet identified
Twelve retired shipping containers, stacked 60 feet high into a figure sitting cross-legged with its eyes closed, on a horse farm near the eastern tip of Long Island. The Town of East Hampton calls it a structure built without a permit on protected farmland and has sued to have it removed; at the end of July a judge froze it in place.
4 things to know
- Picked off the top of the stackJohnson wanted an international mix of colours and logos. At the Newark shipping yards a buyer has to take whichever container sits on top, so the team spent several days waiting in their cars for the ones he wanted to come up. Fabricator Mike O’Toole hid the contact points and put the reinforcements inside the boxes, so they look as if they were just dropped: “It’s all rigid. You can walk out on the edge of any of the containers.” The Ranch says the boxes had travelled an estimated 12 million miles between them. East Hampton Star · The Ranch
- The town: a structure on farmlandBefore going to court, the town brought four code-enforcement charges: violating a conservation easement, and failing to obtain a building permit, Architectural Review Board approval and a certificate of occupancy. On 7 July 2026 the Town Board voted 4–1 to authorize legal action, with Councilman Tom Flight the only no. “It’s not a matter of what is being displayed, it is a matter of how it is being displayed,” Town Attorney Jake Turner told the board. The complaint says the field was set aside “exclusively for agricultural production” and asks for the piece to be removed at the owner’s expense. 27east · Urgent Matter
- The Ranch: “blindsided”Owner Max Levai says he learned of the vote from a recording on YouTube: “So we were sort of blindsided by it.” He would have handed over the engineering sets, he says. His lawyer, Rick Whalen, accepts that a building permit should have been obtained but contests the farmland claim; he wants agreed rules for future shows and says the piece will be gone in November. Johnson says the code officer who came on the last day of installation told the crew to “just finish it”. Vanity Fair · 27east
- Frozen by a judgeOn 31 July 2026 Justice Carl J. Copertino signed a temporary restraining order: no construction, repair, removal or modification of the sculpture without the prior approval of the town building department, which is “not to be unreasonably withheld”. A hearing on keeping the order in place was set for early September. As of late September 2026 no ruling, adjournment or settlement has been publicly reported. If the order still stands when the show closes, taking the figure down will need the building department’s approval too. Urgent Matter · 27east
Check-in guide
- 📍
- The Field at The Ranch, 8 Old Montauk Highway, Montauk. A dirt driveway across from Deep Hollow Ranch leads to a wooden gate (East Hampton Star). The map pin marks the farm’s address point, so it is approximate for the sculpture.
- 🔒
- “The Ranch is a private operational horse farm that is not accessible to the public,” says The Ranch. Visits are by appointment request on its booking page.
- 🚗
- Driving west from Montauk Lighthouse, it rises into view on your left as you come downhill towards Deep Hollow Ranch (East Hampton Star). It stands less than three miles from the lighthouse (The Art Newspaper).
- 👀
- Which way it faces: towards the property, so the face and “arms” stay in view as you walk the field, says the East Hampton Star; towards Old Montauk Highway, so drivers can see it, says ARTnews.
Sightings
- 202618 Jun
Inspector sees about nine boxes
- 202622 Jun
Artist posts it, finished
- 202627 Jun
LA Monumental opens
- 20267 Jul
Town Board votes 4–1
- 202628 Jul
Town sues
- 202631 Jul
Judge freezes work and removal
- 202622 Aug
Seen at a Ranch opening
Every stamp links to the dated source.
On the record
27east7 July 2026
Shipping Container Art Prompts Town To Explore Court Intervention at Montauk’s ‘The Ranch’
“By definition, this is a structure. They’re welding large pieces of metal together.”
Town Attorney Jake Turner, at the Town Board work session before the vote.
27east4 August 2026
Town Sues ‘The Ranch’ in Montauk Over Shipping Container Art
“I don’t think artwork, per se, should be prohibited on development rights land, again, unless it’s interfering with the agricultural use of the property”
Rick Whalen, lawyer for The Ranch’s owner, Max Levai.
East Hampton Star6 August 2026
Town Goes After Ranch Sculpture
“Going after art on private land, even with the agricultural easement, is just not something I can get behind”
Councilman Tom Flight, the one no vote on the Town Board, in a text to the Star.
Vanity Fair7 August 2026
The Hamptons Go to War Against Art
“We were never given a stop-work order or never made aware that there was an issue…”
Max Levai, owner of The Ranch.
The Art Newspaper13 August 2026
Hamptons art centre sued over large shipping container sculpture
“Any and all structures in New York State require a building permit.”
Patrick Derenze, the Town of East Hampton’s public information officer.
The facts
- Artist
- Matt Johnson, born 1978 in New York; lives and works in Malibu, California; studied at UCLA under Chris Burden and Nancy Rubins Checked
- Title
- Meditating Figure (2026): a figure “seated in the lotus position”, in The Ranch’s words Checked
- Medium
- Twelve decommissioned steel shipping containers, assembled on site by crane Checked
- Size
- About 60 ft (18 m) tall; The Ranch gives “sixty feet in height and width”. Some containers are as long as 30 feet (Air Mail) Checked
- Show
- Made for LA Monumental, The Field, 27 June – 15 November 2026, with Nancy Rubins’s Friends of Pluto (2026) and Paul McCarthy’s Sisters (2013) Checked
- Land
- The Ranch, a working horse farm and art space. Max Levai bought 8 Old Montauk Highway and two lots, 24 acres, on 24 July 2020 for $8.2 million (recorded deed); reports give the property as 26 acres Checked
- Development rights
- Sold to the town in 1983, according to the town’s complaint; the agreement was recorded on 1 September 1983 (Urgent Matter) and covers just under 18 of the 26 acres (27east). 27east (7 July, and again at the end of its 4 August report) and Urgent Matter (13 July) say the early 2000s. Conflicting
- Court case
- Brought by the Town of East Hampton in New York State Supreme Court, Suffolk County, on 28 July 2026 against Ranch MTK LLC, Max Levai and Matt Johnson; Johnson was dropped days later Checked
- Hearing
- 9 September 2026 in the judge’s order, per the court file (Urgent Matter); 10 September per Vanity Fair and artnet. Conflicting
Help us finish this file
- Who took the photo at the top of this page? It ran on Street Art Utopia without a credit; its file data points to a Facebook post.
- What happened at the September hearing: was the order kept, changed, or overtaken by a settlement?
- What became of the four code-enforcement charges?
- Is the figure still standing, and when will it come down? A dated photo from September or later would help.
- When did the town buy the development rights: 1983, as its complaint says, or the early 2000s?
Know one of these, or have a dated photo? Leave a comment below.
Related
- On Street Art Utopia: When Sculptures Come Alive (9 Photos) (2026), where the photo above appeared.
- Also on Street Art Utopia: Amazing New Street Art! (20 Photos, Vol. 12) (July 2026), which featured the work.
- The predecessor: Johnson’s Sleeping Figure (2023), also twelve containers, lying down. It was shown at Desert X and is now in Marfa, Texas. The Ranch · Marfa Invitational video
- Before the opening: Cultured, “Watch Out Montauk, Some California-Sized Art Is Coming Your Way This Summer” (25 June 2026), with photos by Ollin Culbert.
- The Town Board work session of 7 July 2026, as livestreamed by LTV East Hampton: video on YouTube. The vote on The Ranch is one item in a long meeting.
All sources (23)
Official and artist
- The Ranch: “LA Monumental – Press Release”, 2026. Medium, the twelve containers, size, the 12 million miles, credits, artist biography.
- The Ranch: “LA Monumental – Works”, 2026. Title and year. Archived copy, 11 July 2026.
- The Ranch: “On View”. Show dates; still listed on 29 September 2026.
- The Ranch: “Booking”. Address; private farm, visits by appointment request.
- The Ranch: “Matt Johnson: 19 Sculptures – Press Release”, 2023. Sleeping Figure.
- Matt Johnson on Instagram (@mtatjhnoson): post of 22 June 2026 presenting the finished work.
Local press
- East Hampton Star: “Recorded Deeds 09.10.20”, 10 September 2020. Levai’s purchase.
- 27east / East Hampton Press: “Shipping Container Art Prompts Town To Explore Court Intervention at Montauk’s ‘The Ranch’”, 7 July 2026, by Jack Motz. The vote, the four charges, Turner and Flight.
- East Hampton Star: “Monumentality in Montauk”, 9 July 2026, by Mark Segal. Newark yards, O’Toole, the directions, which way the face turns.
- 27east / East Hampton Press: “Go Big”, 15 July 2026. Editorial calling the legal action “frivolous”; opinion.
- 27east / East Hampton Press: “Town Sues ‘The Ranch’ in Montauk Over Shipping Container Art”, 4 August 2026, by Jack Motz. The suit, the order, Whalen’s position.
- East Hampton Star: “Town Goes After Ranch Sculpture”, 6 August 2026, by Christopher Gangemi. The complaint, Flight and Whalen by text.
Art press and court reporting
- Cultured: “Watch Out Montauk, Some California-Sized Art Is Coming Your Way This Summer”, 25 June 2026, by Karly Quadros.
- ARTnews: “Giant Shipping Container Sculpture at Montauk Art Space The Ranch Draws Municipal Fire”, 13 July 2026, by Daniel Cassady. Johnson declined, in July, to enter the dispute; the figure faces the road.
- Urgent Matter: “East Hampton authorizes legal action against The Ranch over shipping container sculpture”, 13 July 2026, by Adam Schrader. Account of the 7 July meeting.
- Air Mail: “Battle of the Boxes”, 25 July 2026, by Andrew Zucker. Container lengths; paywalled after the opening.
- Urgent Matter: “East Hampton sues The Ranch, and a judge bars any work on its 60-foot sculpture”, 3 August 2026, by Adam Schrader. The order, the complaint, the 1983 agreement, the 18 June inspection.
- Urgent Matter: “Court Documents: East Hampton’s suit to tear down The Ranch’s Montauk sculpture”, 3 August 2026. The court file; full documents for subscribers.
- Vanity Fair: “The Hamptons Go to War Against Art”, 7 August 2026, by Nate Freeman. Levai and Johnson on the dispute.
- The Art Newspaper: “Hamptons art centre sued over large shipping container sculpture”, 13 August 2026, by Carlie Porterfield. The town spokesman on the charges; its 2021 purchase date is contradicted by the deed.
- Artnet News: “Wet Paint in Montauk! Everybody’s at the Ranch, Lucien Smith’s Secret Painting Session, and More Juicy Art-World Gossip”, 28 August 2026, by Gabi Vidal-Irizarry. At The Ranch on 22 August.
Video
- LTV East Hampton: “East Hampton Town Board Work Session 7/7/26”, YouTube livestream of 7 July 2026. The vote.
- Marfa Invitational: “Matt Johnson | Sleeping Figure | Desert X | Marfa Invitational”, YouTube. The earlier work, not this one.
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