There’s nothing like springtime in New York City, blooming with color, people, and things to do. Museums, galleries, and public art come alive as locals and tourists mingle in plazas, on subways, and in the halls of the venerable institutions that make this place truly great.
As the city’s leading publication for visual art, we’re proud to compile this guide for those looking to explore and see things in new and different ways. Contemporary art is not for the timid; it jostles you into action, provokes you into reconsidering long-held beliefs, and pushes you to look outside your bubble toward other worlds — good art does, anyway.
Please read through these previews and challenge yourself. Explore a new venue you’ve never visited before, or enjoy the work of an artist whose name is unfamiliar to you. The beauty of New York that is there are too many museums, galleries, and nonprofit art spaces for any one person to see — but you can certainly try.
—Hrag Vartanian, Editor-in-Chief, Co-founder
The Ceremony Must be Found: Ritual as Artistic Practice
Drawing on feminist thinkers, this group show takes the intersection of ritual and art-making as its conceit. Curated by Anna Cahn, the show features work by manuel arturo abreu, Marielys Burgos Meléndez, Dana Davenport, Caroline Garcia, Catalina Ouyang, Vivek Shraya, and Qualeasha Wood.
The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Project Space (projectspace-efanyc.org)
323 West 39th Street, Midtown, Manhattan
Through March 2
Judy Chicago: Herstory
This survey offers a comprehensive look at the feminist artist’s career, expanding far beyond her most famous work, “The Dinner Party” (1974–79). The show also features the mini exhibition The City of Ladies, a selection of artworks chosen by Chicago by the likes of Artemisia Gentileschi, Hilma af Klint, and others.
New Museum (newmuseum.org)
235 Bowery, Bowery, Manhattan
Through March 3
Through Our Eyes: Youth Photography at the Bronx Documentary Center, 2013-2023
For the past decade, the Bronx Documentary Center’s Youth Photography program has offered free documentary photography and multimedia classes to South Bronx students. This exhibition highlights work from the program, which has mentored more than 400 middle and high school students.
Bronx Documentary Center (bronxdoc.org)
614 Courtlandt Avenue, Melrose, The Bronx
Through March 3
Alissa Eberle: Electric Caverns
Neon is an unmistakable symbol of 20th-century urban life. With Electric Caverns, Alissa Eberle takes a cue from artists like Dan Flavin, who turned to neon as a medium, and the landscape tradition in art. Eberle’s colorful neon installation combines the human-made and natural worlds to create a surprisingly charming landscape.
UrbanGlass (urbanglass.org)
647 Fulton Street, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Through March 8
The New Village: Ten Years of New York Fashion
New York has long been a locus for the mainstream fashion industry, dedicating an entire week to it each spring and hosting the glitzy Met Gala. But this exhibition takes a closer look at alternative undercurrents that have subverted commercialization and challenged the field over the past decade, including Bernadette Corporation, CFGNY, and Eckhaus Latta.
Pratt Manhattan Gallery (pratt.edu)
144 West 14th Street, West Village, Manhattan
Through March 16
Richard Mosse: Broken Spectre
The inaugural show of Jack Shainman Gallery’s new space in Tribeca features Richard Mosse’s “Broken Spectre,” an experimental video piece on a 60-foot screen accompanied by a roaring multichannel soundtrack composed by Ben Frost. Set in the Amazon and shot between 2018 and 2022, it engages three different types of film to visualize the scale of destruction precipitated by extractive processes in the region.
Jack Shainman Gallery (jackshainman.com)
46 Lafayette Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
Through March 16
Godzilla: Echoes From the 1990s Asian American Arts Network
Not since a canceled 2021 show at the Museum of Chinese in America, boycotted by its members over its endorsement of the construction of a new jail in Chinatown, has there been an opportunity to view such a robust collection of works by members of Godzilla Asian American Arts Network. While some of these artists are now household names — Rirkrit Tiravanija, Pacita Abad, and Martin Wong among them — this exhibition will also showcase works by lesser-known artists equally deserving of recognition, such as Charles Yuen and Nina Kuo.
Eric Firestone Gallery (ericfirestonegallery.com)
4 & 40 Great Jones Street, Noho, Manhattan
Through March 16
Cauleen Smith: The Wanda Coleman Songbook
This show follows Cauleen Smith’s previous homages to Black artists such as Noah Purifoy and Alice Coltrane, this time focusing on Wanda Coleman, often called Los Angeles’s unofficial poet laureate. An immersive video installation, it merges Coleman’s written poetry with Smith’s visual poetry.
52 Walker (52walker.com)
52 Walker Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
Through March 16
Marvels of My Own Inventiveness
Featuring five contemporary Black artists in the museum’s collection, Marvels of My Own Inventiveness looks at the artists’ practices through the lens of individual experience and creativity. Works by Leonard Daley, Claude Lawrence, J.B. Murray, Mary T. Smith, and Purvis Young illuminate the unique perspective and creative processes of each artist through aesthetic dialogues. While you’re at the museum, don’t miss the memorable concurrent exhibition Unnamed Figures: Black Presence and Absence in the Early American North.
American Folk Art Museum (folkartmuseum.org)
2 Lincoln Square, Upper West Side, Manhattan
Through March 24
Taylor Swift: Storyteller
From her tours to films and personal relationships, Taylor Swift has infiltrated nearly every pocket of American culture. This show at the Museum of Arts and Design explores her fashion choices, from casual flannel to head-to-toe crystals. Weekend tours are also available with the museum’s resident Swiftie.
Museum of Arts and Design (madmuseum.org)
2 Columbus Circle, Upper West Side, Manhattan
Through March 24
Cosmic Shelter: Hélio Oiticica and Neville D’Almeida’s Private Cosmococas
One of Brazil’s most celebrated artists, Hélio Oiticica’s influence goes far beyond his national borders. This exhibition presents two private Cosmococas — immersive environments, made in collaboration with Brazilian filmmaker Neville D’Almeida — exhibited for the first time in the United States. Accompanied by archival material, the show sheds light on the work of a pioneer of the Tropicália movement and Conceptual art.
Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Gallery at Hunter College (leubsdorfgallery.org)
132 East 68th Street, Upper East Side, Manhattan
Through March 30
Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines
For anyone who grew up in the 1980s or ’90s, especially in the cultural wastelands of American suburbia, zines were an indispensable means of accessing countercultures. They’re also a medium with a storied history. The Brooklyn Museum highlights that history with the first museum survey dedicated to the form, featuring over 1,000 zines and artworks, from little-known gems to cultural touchstones like Bikini Kill.
Brooklyn Museum (brooklynmuseum.org)
200 Eastern Parkway, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Through March 31
Marta Minujín: Arte! Arte! Arte!
A seminal figure in Argentina’s contemporary art history, Marta Minujín’s colorful and playful art is hard not to love. This survey follows the artist’s journey from her early mattress-based sculptures to later more explicitly political interventions. A dynamic personality with a global art presence, her life and work confirm her belief that “everything is art.”
The Jewish Museum (thejewishmuseum.org)
1109 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
Through April 1
Aki Sasamoto: Point Reflection
Something seems off in Aki Sasamoto’s world. The Japan-born, New York-based artist examines the strangeness in the everyday in performances and installations that bring unexpected elements into banal scenarios. By putting pressure on routine life, Sasamoto prompts viewers to reconsider the line between mundane and bizarre.
Queens Museum (queensmuseum.org)
Grand Central Parkway and Van Wyck Expressway, Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, Queens
Through April 7
And ever an edge: Studio Museum Artists in Residence 2022–23
For the Studio Museum’s fifth annual Artist-in-Residence exhibition at MoMA PS1, artists hone in on the politics of space. Working in a variety of mediums, artists Jeffrey Meris, Devin N. Morris, and Charisse Pearlina Weston examine how we move through space as well as the question of who claims it.
MoMA PS1 (momaps1.org)
22-25 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, Queens
Through April 8
Kay WalkingStick / Hudson River School
Paintings reframing the American landscape through the eyes of contemporary Cherokee artist Kay WalkingStick are displayed in dialogue with 19th-century works by the Hudson River School artistic fraternity in this joint showcase, highlighting the commonalities and differences between past and present art forms.
New-York Historical Society (nyhistory.org)
170 Central Park West, Upper West Side, Manhattan
Through April 14
Raven Chacon: A Worm’s Eye View From a Bird’s Beak
Diné artist Raven Chacon presents works spanning sound, video, performance, and sculpture from the past 25 years of his career in this major solo exhibition. Comprising past projects and newly commissioned installations, the show calls attention to Indigenous resilience and environmental issues in the context of colonial violence, and will run alongside public programming throughout its duration.
Swiss Institute (swissinstitute.net)
38 St. Marks Place, East Village, Manhattan
Through April 14
Ahmad Fuad Osman: Archipelagic Alchemy
Trade of territories by colonial powers and the making of empires are the subjects of Ahmad Fuad Osman’s ISCP exhibition. Through archival materials and a newly commissioned video, the artist addresses a 17th-century exchange of islands between the Dutch and English that resulted in England’s acquisition of Manhattan. Together, Osman’s speculative video and installation imagine a different future, one of global connection rather than fragmentation.
International Studio and Curatorial Program (iscp-nyc.org)
1040 Metropolitan Avenue, East Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Through April 26
Storywork: The Prints of Marie Watt
Seneca artist Marie Watt draws from Native traditions, Greek mythology, and pop culture in her work, most notably her Blanket Stories series. Her prints, however, are the star of this traveling
retrospective. She worked with master printers at Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts, Mullowney Printing Company, and Tamarind Institute to create these abstract, quilt-like works.
Print Center New York (printcenternewyork.org)
535 West 24th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
Through May 18
El Dorado: Myths of Gold
You could tell the history of the Americas through gold, from its sacred status in pre-colonization Colombia to the trappings of contemporary wealth. The mythical “El Dorado” — a rumored Indigenous kingdom whose abundance captivated the imagination of European colonizers — is the curatorial crux of this two-part group exhibition, which includes more than 60 artists spanning millennia.
Americas Society (as-coa.org)
680 Park Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
Through May 18
Harold Cohen: AARON
The Whitney takes us back to the foundations of AI image generation through late multidisciplinary artist Harold Cohen’s 40-year endeavor AARON (c. 1973), a series of computer programs that could draw and color based on variable instructions and limitations Cohen inputted. The museum presents decades’ worth of the program’s graphic, boldly colored image outputs, a live “drawing” process, and two versions of Cohen’s software.
Whitney Museum of American Art (whitney.org)
99 Gansevoort Street, Meatpacking District, Manhattan
Through May 19
Bronx Calling: The Sixth AIM Biennial
Split into two parts, this biennial showcases over 50 participants from the museum’s Artist in the Marketplace (AIM) Fellowship for artist development between 2020 and 2023. Featured works tackle themes of capitalism and colonialism, and propose speculative futures.
Bronx Museum of the Arts (bronxmuseum.org)
1040 Grand Concourse, Concourse, The Bronx
Through June 16
Delcy Morelos: El abrazo
Pulling from ancestral Andean and Amazonian cultural beliefs, two multisensory installations explore the revitalizing qualities of mud in conjunction with monthly public programming that further expands on the exhibition’s core concepts. The show is accompanied by a bilingual monograph focusing on Morelos’s earth-based art practice.
Dia Chelsea (diaart.org)
537 West 22nd Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
Through July 20
An Atlas of Es Devlin
Beyoncé fans might recognize Es Devlin’s memorable centerpiece for the musician’s 2016 Formation World Tour: a 60-foot-tall revolving LED cube whose screens played music video snippets and live footage. Now, the British artist and stage designer herself gets the spotlight in a monographic survey of sculptures, sketches, architectural models, and more spanning 30 years of her practice, many of them not seen publicly until this exhibition.
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian (si.edu)
Design Museum 2 East 91st Street, Upper East Side, Manhattan
Through Aug. 11
The Buried Brook
This interactive sonic exhibition by Kamala Sankaram takes audiences on a self-guided walking tour through Van Cortlandt Park and the surrounding neighborhood to trace the historic path of Tibbetts Brook — a natural stream that ran from Yonkers to East Harlem until the early 20th century when it was rerouted beneath Broadway via sewer tunnels. The show is part of the Rescuing Tibbetts Brook initiative, which aims to restore the buried water channel. To download the app, visit cityaslivinglab.org.
Van Cortlandt Park, The Bronx (cityaslivinglab.org)
Through Sept. 27
Byzantine Bembé: New York by Manny Vega
The work of Bronx-born artist Manny Vega is a common sight in East Harlem, also known as El Barrio. His murals adorn building facades, and his vibrant mosaics line the walls of the 110th Street subway station. This show includes stories from the places he knows well: the Bronx, Spanish Harlem, and the Brazilian state of Bahia.
Museum of the City of New York (mcny.org)
1120 Fifth Avenue, East Harlem, Manhattan
Through December 8
Taking Care: The Black Angels of Sea View Hospital
In 1951, Staten Island’s Sea View Hospital made history by finding a treatment for tuberculosis. The “Black Angels” were the hospital’s nurses who broke racial and scientific barriers as they cared for patients. Taking Care centers the lives and work of these pioneering women, accompanied by “Back and Song,” an immersive installation by Elissa Blount Moorhead and Bradford Young.
Staten Island Museum at Snug Harbor (statenislandmuseum.org)
1000 Richmond Terrace, Building A, New Brighton, Staten Island
Through Dec. 31
Opens in February
Angela Su: Melencolia
A nod to Albrecht Dürer’s “Melencolia I” (1514), the Hong Kong artist’s exhibition illustrates fantastical cyber realities that traverse both otherworldly dimensions and interior universes, encouraging reflection on the meaning of self-autonomy in communal quests for liberation.
Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University, Lenfest Center for the Arts (wallach.columbia.edu)
615 West 129th Street, Sixth Floor, Harlem, Manhattan
Feb. 2–March 10
Auriea Harvey: My Veins Are the Wires, My Body Is Your Keyboard
Interactive net-based works, video games, and computer-generated sculptures are among 40 works presented in this first major survey of the artist’s work. Chronicling nearly four decades, the exhibition assesses Harvey’s career in the context of the late-20th-century digital revolution, highlighting her pioneering practice at the intersection of the computerized and the corporeal.
Museum of the Moving Image (movingimage.org)
36-01 35th Avenue, Astoria, Queens
Through July 7
The Faraway Nearby
Goddesses + Emaciation
ACRYLICS: Hidden Sculptural Art
The trailblazing feminist gallery AIR will present three concurrent shows: ACRYLICS: Hidden Sculptural Art, a surrealist show by multidisciplinary creator Icecold; Sylvia Netzer’s wall-mounted ceramics, reminiscent of early goddess figures; and The Faraway Nearby, rotating work by eight Asian women artists in pairs in a collective experiment exploring themes such as vulnerability, identity, and belonging.
AIR Gallery (airgallery.org)
155 Plymouth Street, Dumbo, Brooklyn
Feb. 10–March 10
Journey Illustrated
In this group comics exhibition, works by seven artists including June Kim, Jesse Lambert, and Ronald Wimberly elevate the ordinary to the heroic.
The Art Gallery at Pace University (pace.edu)
41 Park Row, First Floor, Financial District, Manhattan
Feb. 13–March 16
COAL + ICE
From diminishing glaciers to rising sea levels, COAL + ICE explores the global environmental and human costs of climate change through an immersive video and photography display spanning the work of more than 35 artists.
Asia Society and Museum (asiasociety.org)
725 Park Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
Feb. 13–Aug. 11
Textures of Feminist Perseverance
Referencing the inequalities faced by women despite perennial cycles of feminist activism, an exhibition text for this show asks: “How many waves will it take?” Taking urban space as a point of departure for reflections on improving women’s lives, labor, and safety, James Gallery brings together 17 artists pondering these possibilities through diverse media including zines, archival research, and needlepoint.
James Gallery at the Graduate Center, CUNY (centerforthehumanities.org)
365 Fifth Avenue, First Floor, Midtown, Manhattan
Feb. 15–May 10
Cuchifritos Gallery and Project Space (artistsallianceinc.org)
88 Essex Street, Essex Market, Lower East Side, Manhattan
March 1–April 15
Reality Reframed: Recent Works by Todd Gray
Todd Gray’s distinctive assemblages of framed images disrupt the centrality of photography, daring us to extract meaning from multiple seemingly unconnected scenes rather than a single picture. This solo show presents new works by the artist based on his four-decade photography archive, exploring themes of coloniality and the hegemony of Western ideals.
The 8th Floor (the8thfloor.org)
17 West 17th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
Feb. 22–April 13
Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature
Dive into blueprint manuscripts, artwork, and other items documenting the creation of beloved characters like Peter Rabbit and Mr. Jeremy Fisher at this retrospective on English children’s book author and illustrator Beatrix Potter. Featuring the author’s original picture letters, Drawn to Nature highlights how Potter drew inspiration from natural sciences to create her celebrated storybooks.
The Morgan Library and Museum (themorgan.org)
225 Madison Avenue, Murray Hill, Manhattan
Feb. 23–June 9
Sonia Delaunay: Living Art
Nearly 200 objects and works by the intrepid 20th-century artist Sonia Delaunay are on view at Bard Graduate Center, ranging from the 1910s to 1970s. They include paintings and collages, as well as a pale orange silk-chiffon dress she designed and a painted toy box.
Bard Graduate Center Gallery (bgc.bard.edu)
18 West 86th Street, Upper West Side, Manhattan
Feb. 23–July 7
The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism
The Met is exhibiting the first New York City museum survey focused on the Harlem Renaissance and the Great Migration since 1987. Featuring around 160 works ranging from paintings to sculptures to ephemera, the show delves into Black artists’ depictions of modern life, while also contrasting the work of creators including Charles Alston and Aaron Douglas with that of contemporaneous European artists such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (metmuseum.org)
1000 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
Feb. 25–July 28
Opens in March
Americans in Paris: Artists Working in Postwar France, 1946–1962
This international loan exhibition chronicles the post-World War II expatriate artist community that emerged in Paris as a result of the GI Bill of 1944. Spanning a 17-year period, this expansive show is divided into two sections that showcase more than 130 works by approximately 70 artists, including Ellsworth Kelly, Norman Bluhm, Joan Mitchell, Sam Francis, and Shinkichi Tajiri.
Grey Art Museum (greyartgallery.nyu.edu)
18 Cooper Square, Noho, Manhattan
March 2–July 20
Weaving Abstraction in Ancient and Modern Art
Comprised of over 50 works, this exhibition juxtaposes woven art spanning the 1st millennium BCE with 16th-century Andean textiles, marrying the ancient with the modern through various weavings by Anni Albers, Sheila Hicks, Lenore Tawney, and Olga de Amaral.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (metmuseum.org)
1000 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
March 5–June 16
Joan Jonas: Animal, Vegetable, Mineral
Joan Jonas takes over the Drawing Center in its entirety with her first major drawing survey, which includes over 300 individual works dating from the 1960s to the present day. A multidisciplinary survey of Jonas’s work, titled Good Night Good Morning, also runs from March 17 to July 6 at the Museum of Modern Art.
Drawing Center (drawingcenter.org)
35 Wooster Street, Soho, Manhattan
March 6–June 2
Shan Shui Reboot: Re-Envisioning Landscape for a Changing World
Shan shui, or Chinese landscape painting, has a millennia-long history. At China Institute, however, it’s seven contemporary artists who take on the tradition. Works ranging from immersive digital experiences and paper installations address nature, literally and metaphorically, in the 21st century.
China Institute (chinainstitute.org)
40 Rector Street, Financial District, Manhattan
March 7–July 7
Nona Faustine: White Shoes
Forty-two self-portraits taken at sites across New York City interrogate the region’s embedded history of enslavement in this Brooklyn-born artist’s first solo museum exhibition. Posed in a pair of stark white heels, Faustine is depicted as either nude, partially covered, or alongside prop objects in this photographic series, at once emphasizing her individual vulnerability and sovereignty.
Brooklyn Museum (brooklynmuseum.org)
200 Eastern Parkway, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
March 8–July 7
The Awe of the Arctic: A Visual History
The New York Public Library looks back at 500 years of archival imagery from the Arctic Circle to make sense of the visuals that influenced and informed societal perceptions of the North Pole. Visitors can explore the remote icy terrain up close in this exhibition via an assortment of woodcuts, lithographs, photographic prints, and engravings spanning the 16th century to contemporary times.
New York Public Library, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (nypl.org)
476 Fifth Avenue, Midtown, Manhattan
March 15–July 13
The Plural of He
Five artists come together to commemorate the life, text, and work of Colin Robinson, the Trinidadian-American writer and major advocate for HIV/AIDS awareness and the sexual liberation movement across New York, the Caribbean, and beyond. The commissioned works respond to Robinson’s personal history and are displayed alongside related archival objects, celebrating an underrecognized but critically important activist.
Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art (leslielohman.org)
26 Wooster Street, Soho, Manhattan
March 15–July 21
Reimagine: Himalayan Art Now
More than 30 artists from the Himalayas and its diaspora, as well as those influenced by its culture, come together in a show across a range of media in celebration of the Rubin’s 20th anniversary. Sitespecific commissions are in conversation with the museum space, while contemporary works draw their themes from the institution’s extensive collection of Himalayan art.
Rubin Museum of Art (rubinmuseum.org)
150 West 17th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
March 15–October 6
By Way Of: Material and Motion in the Guggenheim Collection
Delving into its permanent collections, the Guggenheim presents major players from Italy’s Arte Povera movement, such as Jannis Kounellis and Mario Merz, in conjunction with current artists. The show examines the act of pushing material boundaries beyond the studio amid social and historical contexts following World War II.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (guggenheim.org)
1071 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
March 15–Jan. 12, 2025
The Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing
The Whitney Biennial, a major survey of contemporary American art, is back for its 81st edition, organized by lead curators Chrissie Iles and Meg Onli. This time, the exhibition will also include film and performance programs, selected by five curators. At its best, the biennial is a reflection of the major conversations in American society, as seen by a diverse group of artists from across the country.
Whitney Museum of American Art (whitney.org)
99 Gansevoort Street, Meatpacking District, Manhattan
Opens March 20
Toshiko Takaezu: Worlds Within
A tribute to the centennial of Toshiko Takaezu’s birth, Worlds Within gathers roughly 200 objects from public and private collections to map the Hawai’i-born American artist’s 70-year practice. Featuring ceramic sculptures with hidden sound elements, acrylic paintings, weavings, and select pieces from the artist’s celebrated Star Series, the exhibition will also include a concert program and video installation by co-curator and composer Leilehua Lanzilotti.
Noguchi Museum (noguchi.org)
9-01 33rd Road, Astoria, Queens
March 20–July 28
If Shadows Could Shine
Using a variety of mediums, the three artists in this group exhibition address capitalist and colonialist displacement through the common thread of shadows as a visual metaphor.
Apexart (apexart.org)
291 Church Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
March 22–May 18
Opens in April
the artist and Madison Square Park Conservancy)
Rose B. Simpson: Seed
Rose B. Simpson imprints her memories, ancestry, and connection to the land in clay, metal, and other media that she engages in a deeply personal material practice. In Manhattan’s Madison Square Park, the artist debuts a group of large-scale sculptures modeled after the towering figure of the sentinel. Two life-size bronzes will grace Inwood Hill Park, a site inhabited by the Lenape through the 17th century before Dutch colonial governor Peter Minuit negotiated the acquisition of Manhattan Island in what is widely recognized today as an act of displacement.
Madison Square Park Conservancy (madisonsquarepark.org)
Madison Square Park, Flatiron, Manhattan
Inwood Hill Park, Inwood, Manhattan
April 11–Sept. 22
Walton Ford: Birds and Beasts of the Studio
Detailed naturalist illustrations, compositional sketches, and small-scale watercolors are just a few selected works in this retrospective of Walton Ford’s animal paintings. Provoking conversations relating to the adverse effects of human behavior like climate change and colonialism, this exhibition also features drawings by earlier artists from the Morgan’s collection, such as Peter Paul Rubens, Dorothea Maria Gsell, John James Audubon, and Eugène Delacroix.
The Morgan Library and Museum (themorgan.org)
225 Madison Avenue, Murray Hill, Manhattan
April 12–Oct. 6
Perfect Trouble: Queering Natureculture
The shifting, kaleidoscopic nature of gender identity is at the heart of this group exhibition exploring the beauty and complexity of queerness and sexuality. Works such as Seba Calfuqueo’s video performance piece “Kowkülen (Liquid Being)” (2020), which centers bodies of water as poetic allegories of the body and its fluidity, challenge the constraints of binaries and rigid definitions, recognizing the yielding and elastic reality of human connection.
Wave Hill Public Garden & Cultural Center (wavehill.org)
4900 Independence Avenue, Riverdale, The Bronx
April 20–Aug. 11
No Escape: The Legacy of Attica Lives!
Poster House delves into the legacy of the 1971 Attica Prison Uprising in New York, during which 39 people were killed. The show explores the visual means employed by artists and activists to draw attention to the massacre. The Chelsea museum will also fittingly exhibit a concurrent show of international solidarity posters from around the world.
Poster House (posterhouse.org)
119 West 23rd Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
April 25–Nov. 3
Huma Bhabha
Pakistani-American artist Huma Bhabha unveils four new sculptures in Brooklyn Bridge Park for Public Art Fund’s 2024 exhibition program. Her monumental figures, born at the intersections of sci-fi, horror, and abstraction, contemplate war, the natural world, and civilization across time through themes of humor and the grotesque.
Public Art Fund (publicartfund.org)
Brooklyn Bridge Park, Brooklyn Heights, New York
Opens April 30
Opens in May
Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion
The Met explores themes of ephemerality and renewal with a deep dive into more than 250 garments and fashion from its collection. Spanning four centuries, the works share motifs related to the natural world. Interactive displays bring viewers closer to the smells and textures of these special items.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (metmuseum.org)
1000 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
May 10–Sept. 2
Frazier; courtesy the artist and Gladstone gallery)
LaToya Ruby Frazier: Monuments of Solidarity
This survey of LaToya Ruby Frazier’s practice features her “monuments for workers’ thoughts,” tackling issues including harmful industrialization, healthcare inequity, and water pollution. The show is a tribute to Ruby Frazier and a celebration of social solidarity and mutual support.
Museum of Modern Art (moma.org)
11 West 53rd Street, Midtown, Manhattan
May 12–Sept. 7
Jenny Holzer: Light Line
Anchored by an updated expansion of Jenny Holzer’s site-specific 1989 installation at the museum, the Guggenheim presents the artist’s work on a continuous digital text scroll that incorporates some of Holzer’s early lesser-known truisms, along with her recent explorations into AI generative outputs.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (guggenheim.org)
1071 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
May 17–Sept. 29
Outside the City
Charlotte Schulz: A Constellation of Small Events
Charlotte Schulz uses her fingertips to blend charcoal vignettes on torn paper, piecing them together to create compositions of surreal spaces grounded by the inclusion of recognizable objects and solitary animals. Schulz’s dreamscapes expose the interconnections of the mind’s eye with one’s surroundings
ArtYard (artyard.org)
13 Front Street, Frenchtown, New Jersey
Feb. 17–June 2
Jeff Barnett-Winsby: Nothing Ever Happens
Artist and community organizer Jeff Barnett-Winsby, co-founder of the Wassaic Project, presents what he dubs a “visual diary” of his family. Time moves like memory across these photographs. One captures his daughters face-down on a sandy dune, the sun blaring fiercely and seemingly eternally, though, in retrospect, it was just the briefest snapshot in a life.
Wassaic Project (wassaicproject.org)
37 Furnace Bank Road, Amenia, New York
Through July 7
Siona Benjamin: Lilith in the New World
Raised in a historically Jewish community in Mumbai and based in New Jersey, Siona Benjamin’s graphic works blend all three influences. At Montclair Art Museum, the artist created a 30-foot banner that highlights the stories of censured women in Hebrew literature, positioning Lilith, the oft-demonized wife of Adam, as a feminist icon.
Montclair Art Museum (montclairartmuseum.org)
3 South Mountain Avenue, Montclair, New Jersey
Through Aug. 4
Loie Hollowell: Space Between, A Survey of Ten Years
Loie Hollowell’s first museum survey tracks a decade of the artist’s life, transmuted into her art. With her body as a catalyst, Hollowell observed, documented, and abstracted her own form and feelings through periods of conception, birth, and post-partum, rendered in media ranging from pastel to cast resin and CNC-milled high-density foam.
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum (thealdrich.org)
258 Main Street, Ridgefield, Connecticut
Through Aug. 11
Arlene Shechet: Girl Group
For this exhibition, Arlene Shechet created six large-scale abstract sculptures paired with indoor works made of wood, steel, and ceramic. The vibrantly colored structures mark a new chapter in the artist’s practice as she moves from ceramics to more industrial materials.
Storm King Art Center (stormking.org)
1 Museum Road, New Windsor, New York
May 4–Nov. 10
The Making of a Museum: 50 Years
The Neuberger Museum is launching a thorough investigation of its history through four ambitious projects with staggered openings throughout the spring. The nearly year-long show explores museum namesake Roy R. Neuberger’s collection practices and founding gift, delves into artist Cleve Gray’s inaugural site-specific painting, and closes with a recap of how the museum has changed in the 50 years since it officially opened to the public.
Neuberger Museum of Art (purchase.edu)
735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, New York
Through Dec. 31
Hockney/Origins: Early Works from the Roy B. and Edith J. Simpson Collection
This exhibition highlights themes and techniques from David Hockney’s early work, many of which would prevail throughout his decades-long career. The 16 works on view at the Bruce Museum include swimming pools on pressed paper pulp, paintings of buildings, and portraits of colleagues and friends.
The Bruce Museum (brucemuseum.org)
1 Museum Drive, Greenwich, Connecticut
Ongoing
Arte Povera
1960s Italy was rocked by industrialization, student protests, and economic decline. Artists of the era gave visual voice to this mounting dissatisfaction through Arte Povera, or “impoverished art,” made largely of everyday materials. Maggazzino’s sleek campus, designed specifically to house its core collection of postwar Italian art, features 76 artworks by 12 artists across manifold media, including Giovanni Anselmo’s industrial sculpture and Alighiero Boetti’s conceptual works.
Magazzino Italian Art (magazzino.art)
2700 US-9, Cold Spring, New York
Ongoing
