The Artsiest Halloween Party in Town
Hyperallergic’s spirited soirée, a bone to pick with “Costume Art” at The Met, and what’s a woman artist’s “prime” in the art world?
Wow…October came and went, didn’t it? Halloween and Día de Muertos are about to turn the corner, but they’re primers for the real fright night — November 3. Maybe we can sugarcoat our civic duty with a trip to the museum as a little treat. Mayor Mamdani cast his vote at The Met, which is one of a handful of cultural institutions serving as polling sites for the midterm elections.
🦇 Back to Halloween 🦇 I’ll be seeing quite a few of you tomorrow evening at Hyperallergic’s Halloween party! There’s going to be an arts-forward costume contest, an open bar, and some general debauchery, so don’t miss out. You can find party tickets to secure your entry below! For those who can’t attend, we’ll be sharing photos from the costume contest to assuage your FOMO.
Though he hasn’t RSVP’d to our spooky soirée, rapper Kid Cudi is putting on a costume as he’s set to star in JEAN, a forthcoming biopic on late iconic artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and his rise to fame during the ‘80s in New York City. Production is set to begin next year, but that’s all we really know for now. Also on the topic of costumes, contributor Natalie Haddad found that The Met’s Costume Art exhibition missed the mark both in theory and in practice.
Keeping things topical — Powerhouse Arts has partnered with artisans from the Mexico-based Mestiz Studio to bring an enormous ofrenda to the Flatiron’s North Plaza in Manhattan this week in observance of Día de Muertos. What a unique opportunity to remember and honor our ancestors and loved ones as we push forward and vote for the well-being of our future generations.
This week is also your last chance to catch The Prime of Your Life at Marc Straus Gallery in Tribeca before it closes on Saturday. Featuring 18 women artists ages 75 and up, the exhibition is both a manifestation and a contemplation of Marilyn Minter’s adage that the “art world loves young bad boys and old ladies.” Curator and contributor Leah Triplett Harrington digs into the exhibition in a review, questioning the identification of a woman artist’s “prime,” especially “when their work is most likely to be valorized by the market and museums only in their older age.”
Happy Halloween, everyone! And remember to floss :)
A Hyperallergic Halloween Party!
Join us on October 28 in Brooklyn, NY for an evening of spooky cocktails, devilish delights, an art-themed costume contest, and more.
Leah Triplett Harrington
The Prime of Your Life at Marc Straus Gallery
"With only their age assembling them, the works in this exhibition offer less of a generational statement and more a critical question of 21st-century feminist art history: What does “prime” mean for a woman artist, when their work is most likely to be valorized by the market and museums only in their older age?"
Lakshmi Rivera Amin
Savdie / Soutine at Norr Cohan
"If Chaïm Soutine hangs up carcasses to dry, Ilana Savdie dissects them with surgical precision...The two artists guide us through the chambers of our own minds and bodies here, as fragmented and estranged as the world around us, and offer glimpses of the freedom we might find in succumbing to their contradictions."
Read the full review
Eliza Swann
Conduits of the Unseen: Women Artists Imagine Other Worlds at Andrew Edlin Gallery
"Amid the growing popularity of occult-themed exhibitions, this [exhibition] stands out by asking what esoteric art can make possible, foregrounding its power to challenge entrenched social hierarchies.
...Conduits of the Unseen restores mediumistic work’s social responsibility, emphasizing its aim to serve something beyond the self."
Natalie Haddad
Costume Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
"For an exhibition with such a simple title, [this exhibition] is awfully confusing. It’s also fairly problematic, but let’s start with the confusing parts."
Dan Schindel
Suicide Note by Fred Camper
"There is a specific feeling, easy to recognize emotionally but hard to elucidate in words, about trying to power through the numbness of depression to simply live your everyday life. I’m writing these words amidst such a period.
Artist, filmmaker, and critic Fred Camper sought to capture that feeling with Suicide Note, which he describes as 'born out of an intense personal despair, and a desire to depict a failure of the self.'"
Martha Wilson
The Perfect Moment: God, Sex, Art, and the Birth of America’s Culture Wars (2026) by Isaac Butler
"Butler has done the research. I recommend this book without reservation because it is a thorough, accurate account of a fraught time in American history, when artists were motivated to take action to ensure that their freedom of expression is preserved — just like the present moment.'"
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News
- Several museums open their doors for early voters, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani cast his ballot.
- Designed by artisans from Mestiz Studio in Mexico, an enormous ofrenda titled “Twenty Petal Flower” begins to blossom in Manhattan, six days before the start of Día de Muertos.
- Kid Cudi announces his hand in writing, directing, and starring in the forthcoming project JEAN, a biopic of late contemporary artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.
- Multidisciplinary artist Turiya Adkins, artist and curator Timothy Yanick Hunter, and photographer and filmmaker Clifford Prince King have been selected as the Studio Museum’s yearlong artists-in-residence for 2026–27.
What Else Is Happening?
- The annual Canstruction design competition, in which architects, artists, and engineers team up to create monumental sculptures from unopened food cans before they’re donated to City Harvest, returns to Brookfield Place. The live build takes place on Thursday, but the sculptures will remain on display till November 9. (Thu, 10/29) [bfplny.org]
- Pigeon lovers, step aside — it’s the city rat’s turn for the limelight. In the spirit of the rat race, Rats in the City isn’t just a rodent appreciation event; it’s a costume competition. The event closes out the Data Vandals and Archtober collaboration at the newsstand on the downtown 6 train platform at East 51st Street and Lexington. Bring your own pizza. (Fri, Oct 30) [aiany.org]
- Socrates Sculpture Park is hosting its annual Halloween Harvest Festival with workshops led by local artists, a canine costume contest, a crash course on the city’s bat species, and a vegan food market. (Sat, Oct 31) [socratessculpturepark.org]
- Halloween? More like Meowloween … Catbaret is a feline-inclined variety show of comedy, live music, burlesque, related raffle prizes with proceeds benefiting Rescue NYC, and a free pair of cat ears for each guest. (Sat, Oct 31) [caveat.nyc]
- In anticipation of the midterm elections, the Button Boys and Indoor Recess are hosting a democracy-themed button-making event at A.MANO Brooklyn. Don’t worry, magnets are also an option. (Sun, Nov 1) [luma.com]
- Writer Allison C. Meier is leading a class on funerary art through deciphering cemetery symbols. Translate parting messages from generations of late New Yorkers resting in burial grounds across all five boroughs. (Sun, Nov 1) [eventbrite.com]
- Painter Eric Aho celebrates the publication of the first comprehensive monograph of his landscape works. Hyperallergic’s veteran critic John Yau joins Aho at Rizzoli Bookstore for a conversation on the new book, which covers four decades of the artist’s practice. (Mon, Nov 2) [eventbrite.com]
