Over the course of his long painting career, Bill Zehngut has witnessed a great deal of change. His recent works have borne witness to the new skyline emerging in Long Island City, New York. From 2017 to 2019, he rented a studio with a direct view of the Sunnyside trainyards, and the buildings rising to the west. He painted the frenzy of construction, focusing on cranes, the colorful sheathing of the emerging buildings, highlighting the scale of the various projects.

In 2017 the 7-train and Long Island Railroad trains dominate his cityscape compositions, carefully delineating the complex views. By 2019, the trains in the paintings become dwarfed and obscured by the rising glass and steel structures. In his style, influenced by German expressionism, the paintings track the girders and severe architectonic aspects of construction. The sky, charged with brushwork, acts as a complementary mass to the vertical buildings.

This body of work documents the metamorphosis of a neighborhood and the loss of intimacy once held in its low profile.