The City of Hamilton unveiled its first public art piece of the year today.

A chair decorated with mosaic tiles, created by Nikki Murray-Mason, was installed on the western side of City Hall.

It was the first sculpture organised by the Vivid Public Art Initiative in their six years of operation.

Mrs Murray-Mason, who specialises in mosaic art, said she was inspired by the beauty of her garden and its summer flowers for the design of the chair.

She added: “I think tourists and locals like seeing large-scale pieces around Hamilton that they can enjoy and photograph.

“It is important that there are programmes like Vivid in place that showcase a variety of local art and provide artists with a large platform to display their talents.”

Ms Murray-Mason, the founder of Nikki Mosaics, has used her skills to create a variety of art pieces over the last 15 years.

She earlier created a mural of a summer garden that was painted at the entrance to Par-la-Ville Car Park through the Vivid Initiative.

Ms Murray-Mason was also commissioned to create the entrance to Alexandra Mosher Studio’s flagship jewellery store on Front Street.

She said: “I am always happy to work with the city to create and install art that contributes to making Hamilton more vibrant.

“I want to send a huge thank you to the City of Hamilton for providing me with the opportunity to create this sculpture and I encourage everyone to come by, look at it, sit in it, take photos and share them.”

Sideya Dill, the marketing co-ordinator for the City of Hamilton, admitted that they had hoped to install “at least two or three” art pieces by this time of the year, but the art drive was put on hold because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ms Dill said: “It was helpful that Nikki was able to create the sculpture at home.

“Our engineering team collected it and carefully placed it in front of City Hall, where we hope it becomes an attraction for our tourists and locals.”

Ms Dill said that the city planned to complete all of this year’s planned art installations and encouraged the public to be on the lookout for new work.