Long ago, what we now term "public art" -- art commissioned by the local temporal authority as an adjunct to large construction projects -- produced masterworks: Bernini's Roman fountains, for example.  Today, when public works projects ostentatiously devote some minim of their budget to art, the results are generally bleak: works that "pay tribute to" or "acknowledge" something or other that We Surely All Agree is Good, works that strive not to offend anyone with a pulse, works that aim for the cute, the kitschy or the clever-clever.  Most of the art incorporated as part of the Los Angeles Metro Rail subway system is no exception.

In contrast: 

No, it's not Bernini, it's not even Great Art, but it shows vastly more personality, imagination and oomph than American transit bureaucrats could ever compass.  This fern-filled grotto, and the cave-dwelling moose up above, both come from an extensive series of photos of stations in the Stockholm subway system -- the Tunnelbana -- posted at Ueba.net.   Click through and enjoy: it gets more eccentric from here. 

I suspect Alice's white rabbit was on the design committee: he knew a bit about decorating burrows.

[Stockholm subway links via Wired and Andrew Sullivan.]