> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # New York City Shows to See Right Now - URL: https://hyperallergic.com/new-york-city-shows-to-see-may-27-2025/ - Published: 2025-05-27T21:53:27.000Z - Updated: 2025-11-24T16:37:16.000Z - Description: Repurposed objects by Kiah Celeste and Yuji Agematsu and re-imagined architecture by feminist architect Phyllis Birkby are among our favorite artworks this week. - Author: Natalie Haddad - Tags: Guide, New York, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 09:41 (2025) Some of our favorite shows this week are all about giving new life to old things and looking at our environments from a different perspective: creative reuse, recycling and repurposing objects, and re-envisioning architecture as inviting and inclusive. While Kiah Celeste and Yuji Agematsu create art from utilitarian objects and refuse in vastly different ways, an exhibition on the legacy of feminist architect Phyllis Birkby offers alternatives to “hostile architecture.” As a complement to that show, make sure to check out Gordon Hall’s [*Hands and Knees*](https://thekitchen.org/on-view/hands-and-knees/?ref=hyperallergic.com) at The Kitchen, closing this weekend. And Xingzi Gu’s intimate, tender paintings are always hard to resist. —*Natalie Haddad, Reviews Editor* --- ### Kiah Celeste: To Be Held for a Long Time [**Swivel Gallery**](https://www.swivelgallery.com/kiahceleste?ref=hyperallergic.com), 555 Greenwich Street, Hudson Square, Manhattan Through June 1 ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2025/05/kc2.jpg) Installation view of *Kiah Celeste: To Be Held for a Long Time* at Swivel Gallery (photo Natalie Haddad/*Hyperallergic*) "Celeste focuses less on the concept of salvaging discarded things than on discovering alternative identities for industrial or utilitarian objects that would otherwise sit in garbage heaps." —*NH* Read the full review [here](https://hyperallergic.com/kiah-celeste-coaxes-life-from-objects-swivel-gallery/). --- ### Xingzi Gu: Fluffing the Foliage [**Clearing**](https://www.c-l-e-a-r-i-n-g.com/exhibitions/fluffing-the-foliage/?ref=hyperallergic.com), 260 Bowery, Nolita, Manhattan Through June 21 ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2025/05/xgu2504001-main-large-3.jpg) Xingzi Gu, "Light sleeper" (2025), oil and acrylic on canvas (image courtesy CLEARING, New York and Los Angeles) "There is a sadness to these paintings, which might be their truest subject." —*John Yau* Read the full review [here](https://hyperallergic.com/xingzi-gu-shows-the-vulnerability-of-youth/). --- ### Yuji Agematsu: 2023–2024 [**Judd Foundation**](https://juddfoundation.org/program/yuji-agematsu/?ref=hyperallergic.com), 101 Spring Street, Soho; and 229 Lenox Avenue, Harlem, Manhattan Through August 30 ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2025/05/01-25-2024_yujiagematsu.jpg) Detail of Yuji Agematsu, “Zip: 01-01-2024–12-31-2024" (2024), mixed media in cigarette pack cellophane wrapper (art © Yuji Agematsu; photo by Reggie Shiobara, image courtesy the artist) "With 366 objects in a room, I wondered if my attention would wane. But Agematsu’s compositions kept delivering distinctive jolts of unexpected convivence" —*Debra Brehmer* Read the full review [here](https://hyperallergic.com/yuji-agematsu-unexpected-beauty-of-detritus/). --- ### Fantasizing Design: Phyllis Birkby Builds Lesbian Feminist Architecture [**Center for Architecture**](https://www.centerforarchitecture.org/exhibitions/fantasizing-design-phyllis-birkby-builds-lesbian-feminist-architecture/?ref=hyperallergic.com), 536 LaGuardia Place, Greenwich Village, Manhattan Through September 2 ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2025/05/phyllisbirkby-installationview-rehearsing-youcantcriminalizeafantasybuiltbyhand-1.jpg) Rehearsing, “You Can’t Criminalize a Fantasy Built By Hand” in *Fantasizing Design: Phyllis Birkby Builds Lesbian Feminist Architecture* at the Center for Architecture (photo Alexis Clements/*Hyperallergic*) "I was struck by the emphasis on collectivity and support in these works by queer women and trans artists, on stripping away an architecture of isolation, singular use, and protectionism." —*Alexis Clements* Read the full review [here](https://hyperallergic.com/queer-artists-make-fantasy-architecture-a-reality-phyllis-birkby-gordon-hall/).