New York City continues to be a global hub of culture, and nowhere is that energy and vitality as evident as in the city’s vibrant art scene, which includes dozens of museums, hundreds of art galleries, countless nonprofit spaces and temporary venues, and a cornucopia of public art.
Contemporary art is in the DNA of this city, and it is where Pop Art, Minimalism, graffiti, digital art, and so many other influential styles and movements got their start, eventually going on to have a major impact on global culture.
To understand the real beauty of New York, look no further than its inclusiveness. There is something for everyone in this great metropolis. My suggestion is to go out and see it all!
Why not take a stroll in Central Park and check out the beautiful fountains, bridges, and public art projects throughout, or visit the commercial art galleries of Chelsea, Tribeca, or the Lower East Side to see some work by emerging and established artists on display? Or better yet, check out the wealth of museums the city has to offer.
This guide is focused on the art institutions that help make this city great, and it highlights the breadth of venues throughout the boroughs, as well as a few beyond in the Greater New York region for those adventurous enough to go on a day trip. Art in New York is truly unlike anything else in the world.
— Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief
***
Now on View
Eros Rising: Visions of the Erotic in Latin American Art
Cosmic pastels by Argentine conceptualist David Lamelas inspired this exhibition devoted to representations of the erotic by Latin American artists. Feliciano Centurión, Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro, and Wynnie Mynerva are among the 10 artists included in this intergenerational grouping.
Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (islaa.org)
50 East 78th Street, Upper East Side, Manhattan
Through September 30
PLEASE SEND TO REAL LIFE: Ray Johnson Photographs
Best known for mail art and multimedia collages, this show focuses on Ray Johnson’s previously unseen photography, which he made from January 1992 through December 1994, the month prior to his death. A number of these pictures depict collages that Johnson referred to as “Movie Stars” and hoped to film one day.
The Morgan Library & Museum (themorgan.org)
225 Madison Avenue, Murray Hill, Manhattan
Through October 2
The Stettheimer Dollhouse: Up Close
From 1916 to 1935, Carrie Stettheimer, the sister of painter Florine Stettheimer, labored on an elaborate two-story dollhouse complete with a diminutive art gallery exhibiting miniature works by leading avant-garde artists, including a three-inch version of “Nude Descending a Staircase” by Marcel Duchamp. This longtime jewel of the Museum of the City of New York’s collection is on view alongside contextualizing materials.
Museum of the City of New York (mcny.org)
1220 Fifth Avenue, East Harlem, Manhattan
Through October 2
Black Melancholia
Featuring media-spanning work from the late 19th century to the present, this 28-artist exhibition at Bard College highlights African diasporic resilience through different expressions of grief, countering the misconception that melancholia is solely reserved for White cis subjects.
CCS Bard Galleries (ccs.bard.edu)
33 Garden Road, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
Through October 16
Eva Hesse: Expanded Expansion
A new exhibition leans into the sculptor’s flair for the absurd, which she often used to critique traditional formalism. Following extensive restoration, her well-known accordion piece “Expanded Expansion” (1969) will be displayed publicly for the first time in 35 years, presented alongside footage of the artist in her studio by Dorothy Beskind.
Guggenheim Museum (guggenheim.org)
1071 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
Through October 16
For the Birds
A meander through the Brooklyn Botanic Garden reveals upwards of 30 artist-made birdhouses, each devoted to a resident avian species. Diverse creations range from Sourabh Gupta’s burlap-and-husk construction for birds living communally to Pat McCarthy’s Lilliputian hotdog cart, fabricated with materials salvaged from his own food kiosk.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden (bbg.org)
990 Washington Avenue, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Through October 23
Elissa Blount-Moorhead and Bradford Young: Back and Song
Made in collaboration with archivists, this four-channel video installation brings together heterogeneous footage from the African diaspora to explore the role that Black healers have historically played in Western medical frameworks and investigates the many forms that healing can take.
The Arts Center at Governors Island (lmcc.net)
110 Andes Road, Governors Island, New York
Through October 30
Another Justice: US is Them
“Remember Me,” urges a sweeping neon by Hank Willis Thomas affixed to the Long Island museum’s exterior. The exhibition continues inside with work by artists involved with For Freedoms, a nonprofit co-founded by Thomas to foster civic engagement.
Parrish Art Museum (parrishart.org)
279 Montauk Highway, Water Mill, New York
Through November 6
Dior + Balenciaga: The Kings of Couture and Their Legacies
Dior and Balenciaga might be household names and subjects of pop culture reverie, but this exhibition takes a sharply focused look at the two iconic labels, examining the craftsmanship that made their first mid-century designs exceptional. Some 65 garments drawn from the museum’s permanent collection reveal the similarities and differences between Christian Dior’s and Cristóbal Balenciaga’s creations and their influence on other designers.
The Museum at FIT (fitnyc.edu)
227 West 27th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
Through November 6
Wangechi Mutu
The Nairobi-born artist renders otherworldly, hybridized feminine figures to forge new myths and usher in potential alternative futures. Eight large cast bronze sculptures, including a 15-foot-long canoe that functions as a water fountain, dot Storm King’s grounds, while an indoor presentation pairs sculpture with film.
Storm King Art Center (stormking.org)
1 Museum Road, New Windsor, New York
Through November 7
Leilah Babirye, Hugh Hayden, Dozie Kanu, Tau Lewis, and Kiyan Williams: Black Atlantic
In site-responsive sculptures along the Brooklyn waterfront, five artists explore multivalent visions of Blackness and diasporic identities linked to legacies of the transatlantic slave trade. Sculptor and co-curator Hugh Hayden displays a beached ship evoking a whale carcass, while Kiyan Williams offers a crumbling earthen monument.
Brooklyn Bridge Park (publicartfund.org)
Piers 1, 2, and 3, Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
Through November 27
Tomashi Jackson: SLOW JAMZ
Five immersive video collages, a knit object, and two photographs by the multimedia artist comprise SLOW JAMZ. Layered video projections address topics including the legislative history of school desegregation in the US and the experiences of Black, Shinnecock, and Latinx families on Long Island’s East End.
Neuberger Museum of Art (purchase.edu)
735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, New York
Through November 27
Stressed World
Jack Shainman’s Kinderhook outpost in Upstate New York, where the gallery often mounts ambitiously scaled projects, offers up a rich melange of work by 30 artists. A fabulous sequined tondo by Nick Cave, bold iris print landscapes by Gordon Parks, and a gleaming wall-hanging sculpture by El Anatsui infuse the space with vibrant hues.
The School (jackshainman.com)
35 Broad Street, Kinderhook, New York
Through December 3
Cristina Iglesias: Landscape and Memory
Two bodies of water once coursed underneath Madison Square Park. Spanish artist Cristina Iglesias engages with the layered, largely forgotten geographic history of this urban green space in a site-responsive installation of five subterranean bronze sculptures with elaborate bas-reliefs through which water flows.
Madison Square Park (madisonsquarepark.org)
11 Madison Avenue, Flatiron, Manhattan
Through December 4
maud cotter: a consequence of ~
The second exhibition in the Irish Arts Center’s new space presents work from 2015 to today by sculptor and landscape artist Maud Cotter. Inspired by Gerard Manley Hopkins’s sonnet “Pied Beauty,” this body of sculpture evinces a sense of play and open-ended curiosity about nature’s material logic.
Irish Arts Center (irishartscenter.org)
726 Eleventh Avenue, Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan
Through December 4
Saya Woolfalk: Field Notes From the Empathic Universe
Brooklyn-based artist Saya Woolfalk’s socially realistic fiction is a posthuman world where the Empathics, a special race of women, fuse diverse cultures to produce hybrid artifacts and relics. Also on display is Woolfalk’s first self-portrait, which critiques nationalism and belonging, placed next to the museum’s renowned collection of Hudson River School paintings.
Newark Museum of Art (newarkmuseumart.org)
49 Washington Street, Newark, New Jersey
Through December 31
Living with The Walking Dead
Twelve years after it premiered on Halloween of 2010, post-apocalyptic horror TV series The Walking Dead draws to a close this November. Based on a popular graphic novel by Robert Kirkman, it remained cable’s top-watched show for many years, pioneering pulpy gore as a distinctive vernacular for television. This exhibition explores the origin, production, and cultural impact of the iconic show, featuring original costumes and props, concept art, storyboards, and, of course, the prosthetic makeup used to transform cast members into spine-chilling zombies.
Museum of the Moving Image (movingimage.us)
36-01 35th Avenue, Astoria, Queens
Through January 1, 2023
Camille Norment: Plexus
Site-specific sonic installations by Camille Norment occupy each of the two galleries at Dia’s Chelsea location. A brass sculpture intersperses amplified ambient noise with static from radio reporting on 1960s and ’70s social movements, while a rhizomatic wood installation transmits sounds of singing and grinding teeth.
Dia Chelsea (diaart.org)
537 West 22nd Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
Through January 7, 2023
52 Artists: A Feminist Milestone
The museum’s ambitious rendition of its 1971 exhibition Twenty Six Contemporary Women Artists, which was curated by Lucy Lippard, pairs art by the original cohort with work by a fantastic group of 26 young women, femme, and nonbinary artists, including Ilana Harris-Babou, LJ Roberts, Aliza Shvarts, and Tourmaline.
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum (thealdrich.org)
258 Main Street, Ridgefield, Connecticut
Through January 8, 2023
Chris Schanck: Off-World
Ornate furniture fit for extraterrestrials or mythological creatures is on view at the Detroit-based designer’s first New York solo show. Pieces produced using his “Alufoil” process, in which steel and foam insulation are burnished with aluminum foil covered with resin, can be found alongside examples made from cast bronze or found objects.
Museum of Arts and Design (madmuseum.org)
2 Columbus Circle, Upper West Side, Manhattan
Through January 8, 2023
New York: 1962–1964
The brainchild of late art historian Germano Celant, New York: 1962–1964 parses a critical moment of cultural production in New York City. Touching upon paradigm-shifting exhibitions from the period, this show runs the gamut with work by artists like Diane Arbus, Merce Cunningham, Faith Ringgold, and Jack Smith.
The Jewish Museum (thejewishmuseum.org)
1109 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
Through January 8, 2023
Gilardi: Tappeto-Natura
Turin-based artist Piero Gilardi, an integral figure in the Arte Povera movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, displays his Nature Carpets, which use synthetic and artificial materials like polyurethane foam and latex to portray idyllic natural vignettes: plump fruits scattering seed, for example, or seagulls gliding over waves.
Magazzino Italian Art (magazzino.art)
2700 Route 9, Cold Spring, New York
Through January 9, 2023
Maren Hassinger: Steel Bodies
Socrates Sculpture Park last exhibited work by Maren Hassinger in 1988 when it included the artist in the group show Sculptors Working. More than three decades later, Hassinger is back with a solo presentation of enormous open steel vessels — which stand up to 11 feet tall — and two steel bushes.
Socrates Sculpture Park (socratessculpturepark.org)
32-01 Vernon Boulevard, Long Island City, Queens
Through March 5, 2023
Chroma: Ancient Sculpture in Color
The Met’s latest exhibition on Greek and Roman art brings color back to whitewashed ancient sculptures by analyzing “polychromy,” or the rhetorical uses of color. Employing 3D imaging techniques, curators developed new restorative methods to simulate how ancient works appeared in their time, placing reproductions alongside originals to exemplify the aging process.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (metmuseum.org)
1000 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
Through March 26, 2023
Yes, And
Thirty-six artists consider what it means to be connected, both physically and culturally, to Staten Island. Through a variety of mediums, they reflect on the island’s changing landscapes and pay particular attention to its natural world. The show also highlights a wide range of communities and experiences, expanding the popular perceptions of daily life in the city’s oft-forgotten borough.
Staten Island Museum (statenislandmuseum.org)
1000 Richmond Terrace, Building A, New Brighton, Staten Island
Through March 26, 2023
Water Memories
This collection exhibition considers the role of the aquatic in the communal and individual lives of Native peoples and Nations in the United States. Untethered to a singular time or medium, the 41 objects on view are as varied as oil painting, children’s playthings, video art, and activists’ clothing.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (metmuseum.org)
1000 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
Through April 2, 2023
DEATH TO THE LIVING, Long Live Trash
Long fascinated by nautical history and imagery, Brooklyn artist Duke Riley presents short films about New York waterway remediation, alongside reinterpretations of scrimshaw and other maritime craft in which he incorporates debris choking our oceans, much of which is single-use plastic.
Brooklyn Museum (brooklynmuseum.org)
200 Eastern Parkway, Prospect Park, Brooklyn
Through April 23, 2023
Noguchi Subscapes
Around 40 of Isamu Noguchi’s frequently low-lying sculptures and designs are assembled around the theme of the “subscape,” a term equally applicable to furniture’s unconsidered zones, root systems, and the underworld. Highlights include a large ceramic shrine to centipedes and recreations of the artist’s set designs for George Balanchine’s Orpheus.
The Noguchi Museum (noguchi.org)
9-01 33rd Road, Astoria, Queens
Through May 7, 2023
Various Exhibitions
One of the stand-out collections on display contains objects made by incarcerated people in US prisons, including some they were forced to manufacture for companies through the system of prison labor. It’s an eye-opening experience.
Mmuseumm (mmuseumm.com)
4 Cortlandt Alley, Tribeca, Manhattan
Ongoing
Long Life Deities from the Collection
Not many New Yorkers know that there’s a Tibetan museum on Staten Island. Long Life Deities draws from the collection of Jacques Marchais, who was one of the earliest collectors of Tibetan art in the United States, though she never actually visited Tibet or the Himalayas. Marchais also oversaw the design of the monastic complex where the museum houses its collection, located next to where she and her husband once lived.
Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art (tibetanmuseum.org)
338 Lighthouse Avenue, Lighthouse Hill, Staten Island
Ongoing
***
Opening in September
Martine Gutierrez: Supremacy
Harnessing the slick visual language of advertising in subversive photo-performances that challenge the commodification of bodies, artist and activist Martine Gutierrez questions normativity and supremacy in their many guises.
Whitney Museum of American Art (whitney.org)
99 Gansevoort Street, Meatpacking District, Manhattan
September–March 2023
Collective Yearning: Black Women Artists from the Zimmerli Art Museum
Rutgers University’s museum took a look at its holdings of Black women artists and assembled this exhibition featuring Emma Amos, Kara Walker, Nona Faustine, Atisha Fordyce, and Daonne Huff. While you’re there, be sure to check out Stand Up! 10 Mighty Women Who Made a Change, which features 10 revolutionary Black women who changed the world, including Ruby Bridges, Rosa Parks, Bree Newsome, and others.
Focus Gallery, Zimmerli Art Museum (zimmerli.rutgers.edu)
71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, New Jersey
Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series Galleries, Douglass Library
8 Chapel Drive, New Brunswick, New Jersey
September 6–December 14
LaJuné McMillian: The Black Movement Library
Inspired by Katherine Dunham’s Movement Library, LaJuné McMillian’s Black Movement Library compiles motion data from Black performers, who are typically underrepresented in online databases, and transforms their actions and gestures into live performances as well as into virtual and augmented reality projects.
Recess
46 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn Navy Yard, Brooklyn
September 6–October 30
Tropical Is Political: Caribbean Art Under the Visitor Economy Regime
An often thinly veiled extractive visitor economy is at the forefront of video, painting, installation, and photography probing the neocolonial undercurrents of tourism in the Caribbean. Featuring 19 contemporary artists, the exhibition will travel to San Juan’s Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico after its run in New York City.
Americas Society (as-coa.org)
680 Park Avenue, Lenox Hill, Manhattan
September 7–December 17
Masked Vigilantes on Silent Motorbikes
Posters, from corporate advertisements to local flyers, are one of our city’s most visible art forms, but our passing glances necessitate that they convey information quickly and clearly. This group exhibition has one common theme: Each artist (a list that includes figures ranging from David Wojnarowicz to KAWS) has reconfigured old posters, transforming the original messaging into social commentary.
Poster House (posterhouse.org)
119 West 23rd Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
September 9–February 12, 2023
Umber Majeed: Made in Trans-Pakistan
In the latest iteration of Umber Majeed’s Trans-Pakistan Zindabad (Long Live Trans-Pakistan) project, which explores nostalgia, gentrification, and urbanization in South Asia, the artist incorporates her own family history. This display zooms in on a peculiar real estate development in Lahore, Pakistan, that integrates replicas of European landmarks.
Pioneer Works (pioneerworks.org)
159 Pioneer Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn
September 9–December 11
Archeology of a Studio
For her 14th solo show at the US’s first artist cooperative gallery run by and for women artists, Ann Pachner’s studio is examined through the lens of excavation. A selection of works, from carved pine sculptures to prints and sketches, offer a glimpse into five decades of creation and a meditation on past and present.
A.I.R. Gallery (airgallery.org)
155 Plymouth Street, Dumbo, Brooklyn
September 10–October 9
Selections from Australia’s Western Desert: From the Collection of Steve Martin and Anne Stringfield
The renovated National Arts Club has a fabled history in New York, hinted at by its location by Gramercy Park, one of the city’s last private parks. Since it reopened it has organized exhibitions worth noting, and this show of work by Indigenous artists in Australia looks like a potential winner, not to mention that it’s often fun to see what celebrities collect — if you didn’t know, actor Steve Martin has been a well-known modern and contemporary art collector for decades.
National Arts Club (nationalartsclub.org)
15 Gramercy Park South, Gramercy Park, Manhattan
September 12–October 27
Karen Lamassonne: Ruido / Noise
Perhaps best known for her Baños (Bathrooms) series (1978–1981) of watercolor portraits that were censored in Colombia when they were first shown, the Swiss Institute looks back at six decades of work by the Colombian-American painter, video artist, and theatrical designer, much of which engages with feminine identity and sexual intimacy.
Swiss Institute (swissinstitute.net)
38 Saint Marks Place, East Village, Manhattan
September 14–January 8, 2023
SIREN (some poetics)
Curated by writer Quinn Latimer, this exhibition at an East Williamsburg art complex considers the vocal Siren, surveying manifestations that range from mythological to ecological to technological. As it perforates divisions between different forms of meaning-making, the show asserts that “poetry is politics, always.”
Amant Foundation (amant.org)
315 Maujer Street, East Williamsburg, Brooklyn
September 15–March 5, 2023
Indecencia
Over two dozen diasporic artists of Latin American descent wield props, cameras, and “indecency” as tools for collective self-determination at one of the city’s first institutions dedicated to LGBTQ+ artists. Rooted in decolonial theology, the show’s focus on performance invites an exploration of queerness, religion, and Latinx identity in all its confines and possibilities.
Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art (leslielohman.org)
26 Wooster St, Soho, Manhattan
September 16–January 15, 2023
Landscape and Hierarchies
This solo exhibition by Alexandre Arrechea, curated by Elsa Mora, features work by one of the founding members of Los Carpinteros, a Cuban collective that grappled with issues of history, memory, and political power. In his solo work, Arrechea has probed the rising tide of state surveillance and the playful nature of urban space. A strong modernist sensibility is evident throughout his work, grounded in powerful colors.
ArtYard (artyard.org)
13 Front Street, Frenchtown, New Jersey
September 17–January 22, 2023
Earth & Iron: Archival Visions of Land and Struggle
Sophia-Yemisi Adeyemo-Ross created new visions of the future by cutting, pasting, and restructuring early 20th-century colonial photographs taken in West Africa and the Caribbean, to highlight and reimagine Black and Indigenous relationships to land and labor. The artworks are full of wonder and beauty. While you’re there, make sure to stop by the Gallery at BRIC House to see Rodrigo Valenzuela: New Works for a Post Worker’s World.
Project Room at BRIC (bricartsmedia.org)
647 Fulton Street, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
September 22–December 23
Ntiense Eno-Amooquaye
In her first United States solo show, the British artist and poet characteristically operates at the intersection of the visual and the textual, projecting a filmed performance of a poem onto a velvet screen and silk wall hangings alongside paintings incorporating handwritten text.
White Columns (whitecolumns.org)
91 Horatio Street, Meatpacking District, Manhattan
September 23–October 29
Henrike Naumann: Re-Education
For her first US solo show, Berlin-based installation artist Henrike Naumann scrutinizes the ways in which political ideologies are embedded in American interior design and furniture, parsing the role that domestic taste plays in propagating Western, capitalist ideas of the “good life.”
SculptureCenter (sculpture-center.org)
44-19 Purves Street, Long Island City, Queens
September 22–February 27, 2023
Morris Hirshfield Rediscovered
Polish-born Brooklynite Morris Hirshfield, a former shoemaker, began to paint at the age of 65 and was soon lauded by Surrealists for laborious depictions of animals and women evincing a horror vacui. His first full-career retrospective features upwards of 40 paintings and 14 boudoir slippers fabricated in his patented designs.
American Folk Art Museum (folkartmuseum.org)
2 Lincoln Square, Upper West Side, Manhattan
September 23–January 29, 2023
Close Enough: New Perspectives from 12 Women Photographers of Magnum
This exhibition of 150 works by 12 women photographers ranges from Bieke Depoorter’s documentation of a Parisian club performer to Alessandra Sanguinetti’s collaboration with two cousins in rural Argentina, Guille and Belinda. Keep an eye out for insights from the artists, each of whom belongs to member-owned photojournalism agency Magnum Photos.
International Center of Photography (icp.org)
79 Essex Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
September 30–January 9, 2023
***
Opening in October
Indisposable: Tactics for Care and Mourning
This exhibition comes at the heels of the gallery’s three-year, eight-part event series that examined the question of whose lives were deemed “disposable” in American society. In this iteration, more than 30 artists and art collectives explore how to “care and mourn” for marginalized communities and how to fight for their “indisposability.”
Ford Foundation Gallery
320 East 43rd Street, Midtown East, Manhattan
October 1–December 10
Ecce Homo: The Drawings of General Idea
Founded in Toronto in the late 1960s by AA Bronson, Felix Partz, and Jorge Zontal, General Idea was a collective guided by a radical queer politics and a performative orientation. Drawings executed in the spirit of mass reproduction between 1985 and 1993 spotlight motifs like poodles, stilettos, and masks.
The Drawing Center (drawingcenter.org)
35 Wooster Street, Soho, Manhattan
October 7–January 15, 2023
Ibrahim El-Salahi: Pain Relief Drawings
92-year-old Sudanese-born artist Ibrahim El-Salahi, a founding member of the Khartoum School, presents 100 recent pen and ink drawings on the theme of pain, which he regularly experiences as a nonagenarian. Rendered on medicine packets and envelope backs, the Pain Relief works function as a record and respite.
The Drawing Center (drawingcenter.org)
35 Wooster Street, Soho, Manhattan
October 7–January 15, 2023
Visual Record: The Materiality of Sound in Print
Print Center New York (formerly the International Print Center New York) will inaugurate its new Chelsea space with an exhibition teasing out the resonances between sound-recording and printmaking. Curated by Elleree Erdos, the show will feature work by artists including Terry Adkins, Jason Moran, and John Cage.
Print Center New York (ipcny.org)
535 West 24th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
October 8–January 21, 2023
Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces
In 1974, Linda Goode Bryant founded Just Above Midtown (JAM), an alternative art space devoted to centering diverse work by Black artists and artists of color. The influential gallery and the now-iconic artists it supported — among them David Hammons and Lorraine O’Grady — are the subjects of this exhibition.
MoMA (moma.org)
11 West 53rd Street, Midtown West, Manhattan
October 9–February 18, 2023
Gowanus Open Studios
For one weekend, hundreds of artist studios and spaces will welcome visitors to the 26th edition of Gowanus Open Studios. There’s nothing like the industrial charm of the neighborhood’s old factories and warehouses, still home to a diverse community of artists despite rising rents. For updates, visit artsgowanus.org.
Artist studios
Gowanus, Brooklyn
October 15–16
Edward Hopper’s New York
Edward Hopper lived in New York for almost 60 years and died in his studio near Washington Square Park. However, he is not thought of as a New York artist in the same way that some of his contemporaries were — perhaps because many of his most famous paintings iconized bucolic New England or otherwise anonymized urban isolation. The Whitney’s new show on Hopper and New York focalizes the artist’s relationship to his longtime home city.
Whitney Museum of American Art (whitney.org)
99 Gansevoort Street, Meatpacking District, Manhattan
October 19–March 5, 2023
EFA Open Studios
Each year, the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (EFA) opens its doors to the public so that anyone — including fellow artists, curators, and general art appreciators — can see works by resident artists and learn about their process. Currently, over 75 artists are affiliated with the EFA Studio Program. Guests will also be able to tour and demo the Project Space and the Robert Blackburn Print Making Workshop. For updates, visit studios-efanyc.org.
Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (studios-efanyc.org)
323 West 39th Street, Midtown West, Manhattan
October 20–22
Sin Autorización: Contemporary Cuban Art
In recent years, fluctuating domestic policies and foreign relations have galvanized Cuba’s independent art scene. Sin Autorización: Contemporary Cuban Art charts the scene’s evolution through its political and intellectual context. Artworks in varied mediums convey everyday life and histories in Cuba outside of official discourse. Despite governmental suppression, Cuban artists, from established figures like Tania Bruguera to younger generations, continue to push boundaries and champion collaboration and political action.
Wallach Art Gallery (wallach.columbia.edu)
615 West 129th Street, Manhattanville, Manhattan
October 21–January 15, 2023
Domesticanx
Drawing on the concept of “domesticana” coined by artist, scholar, and critic Amalia Mesa-Bains, Domesticanx considers Mesa-Bains’s Chicana and feminist theory, and Latinx intersectionality, through the private sphere. The intergenerational show features artists who focus on healing, spirituality, and home, while refuting one-dimensional categories.
El Museo del Barrio (elmuseo.org)
1230 Fifth Avenue, East Harlem, Manhattan
October 27–March 26, 2023
Meret Oppenheim: My Exhibition
Previously on view at Kunstmuseum Bern and the Menil Collection in Houston, this five-decade overview of the Swiss artist’s surreal, shape-shifting oeuvre encompasses paintings, sculptures, uncanny objects, accessories, and works on paper — including drawings of an imagined exhibition of her life’s work.
MoMA (moma.org)
11 West 53rd Street, Midtown West, Manhattan
October 30–March 4, 2023
***
Opening in November
Developing Stories: Native Photographers in the Field
For Developing Stories: Native Photographers in the Field three Native photojournalists — Donovan Quintero, Tailyr Irvine, and Russel Albert Daniels — present photo essays on issues that affect the artists and their communities. From the impact of COVID-19 on the Navajo Nation to egregious US government regulations to one community’s genesis through tragedy, the photographs highlight aspects of Native life rarely acknowledged in broader US society. The gravity of the subject matter is matched only by the breathtaking beauty of the images.
National Museum of the American Indian (americanindian.si.edu)
1 Bowling Green, Financial District, Manhattan
November 3–March 12, 2023
rod jones ii: this must be the place to be
Encompassing an elaborate braided tapestry, a series of fabric dolls, and multimedia found object sculptures, rod jones’s heterogeneous mixed-media installation will reference the artist’s mother’s hair salon as well as the liberatory and intimate potential of such spaces.
Cue Art Foundation (cueartfoundation.org)
137 West 25th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
November 3–January 7, 2023
Flora Fantastic: Eco-Critical Contemporary Botanical Art
How do plants relate to phenomena like entrenched power structures, economic asymmetries, representational blind spots, collective memory, and public space? Co-curated by Corina Apostol and Tashima Thomas, this fertile group show puts the botanical under a postcolonial microscope.
apexart (apexart.org)
291 Church Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
November 4–December 23
Euphoria
Featuring music from the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and jazz drummers, Julian Rosefeldt’s immersive multi-channel film installation dives headfirst into the breakneck absurdity of capitalism as performers in bizarro sites of consumption deliver quotes from figures like Ayn Rand, Warren Buffett, and Snoop Dogg.
Park Avenue Armory (armoryonpark.org)
643 Park Avenue, Lenox Hill, Manhattan
November 29–January 8, 2023
Theaster Gates: Young Lords and Their Traces
Titled after a revolutionary activist group, Gates’s first New York museum survey spans two decades of tar paintings, architectural installations, archival collections, and more as he draws upon his background in urban planning to create social sculptures and interdisciplinary performances that reinvest in Black cultural spaces.
New Museum (newmuseum.org)
235 Bowery, Lower East Side, Manhattan
November 10–February 5, 2023
Jack Whitten
When: November 18–July 10, 2023
Where: Dia Beacon (3 Beekman Street, Beacon, New York)
The artist’s achromatic Greek Alphabet series (1975–78), in which he experimentally dragged “processors” or “developers” — rakes, saws, and combs — over painted canvases laid over strings or wire, marked an important moment in his move away from gestural painting. Forty examples will be on view at Dia Beacon. Also catch exhibitions of work by Jo Baer and Melvin Edwards on long-term view.
Source: Hyperallergic.com