The Biggest Week of the Spring?
We weigh in on the new New Museum, plus a guide to spring’s art fairs, Asia Art Week, and a new take on the Whitney Biennial.
So, let me get this straight — the New Museum reopened, the Affordable Art Fair and Outsider Art Fair took place this past weekend, and now it's Asia Art Week? How's a person to stay on top of it all?
Good thing you've got us. Our editors attended the new New Museum press preview last week, and sat down to share our thoughts and feelings. (We had many, and yes, it got a little heated). Plus, Aaron Short's got an explainer on the nitty-gritty of the building, including coat checks, elevators, and staircases, not to mention exhibition spaces.
And now that we've all had a little bit of time to meditate on this year's Whitney Biennial, Editor-in-Chief Hakim Bishara offers his thoughts on that most crucial question: Does it meet the moment? Read his take below.
On top of that, we've got a guide to the art fairs ahead (don't worry, next one's not 'til April), and we paid a visit to both Affordable Art Fair and Outsider Art Fair, in case you missed them. Like the (old) New Museum, our issue's stacked (get it?).
New Museum
What Do We Really Think of the New New Museum?
Hyperallergic’s editors sat down for an earnest — and a little heated — conversation about the institution’s expanded building and inaugural exhibition.
What’s So New About the New Museum Building?
The Lower East Side institution’s OMA-designed, $82 million expansion debuted this week to mixed reviews. | Aaron Short
Pratt’s 2026 Fine Arts MFA Thesis Exhibitions, on View This Spring
Pratt Fine Arts is delighted to invite visitors to a two-part show curated by Alessandra Gómez at Dock 72 in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Art Fairs & Art Weeks
Your Go-To Guide to NYC’s Spring Art Fairs
From art-market darlings at Frieze to a show billed “The Art Fair Mamdani Would Love,” there’s something for everyone this season. | Isa Farfan & Rhea Nayyar
What to See During New York’s Asia Art Week
Across the city, exhibitions, auctions, and lectures converge to celebrate art history, material culture, and centuries-old traditions spanning from Persia to Japan. | Isa Farfan & Rhea Nayyar
What Can $500 Buy at the Affordable Art Fair?
And, more importantly, is the work on view worth the price? | Rhea Nayyar
New Ways of Seeing at the Outsider Art Fair
This year’s edition proves that the key to viewing work by so-called “autodidact” artists is recognizing its capacity and merit as equal to all other art forms. | Bryan Martin
Workers' Rights
I’m an NYU Contract Professor. This Is Why We Plan to Strike.
For years, NYU’s administrators have casualized the school’s teaching force, many of them artists, by creating a second tier of full-time contract faculty. | David Markus
The Museum at FIT Presents “Art X Fashion”
This exhibition explores the entangled and shifting relationship between fine art and fashion, tracing parallel aesthetics from 18th-century Rococo to postmodernism.
From Our Critics
Hakim Bishara
Whitney Biennial 2026 at the Whitney Museum of American Art
"This biennial is neither bad, nor 'safe,' nor 'weird.' It’s not even apolitical — it couldn’t be, even if it tried. It’s just frightened."
Aruna D'Souza
Zarina: Beyond the Stars at Luhring Augustine Tribeca
"Hers is an architecture as light as paper, one that travels — a poignant reminder of how so many of us carry our homes with us as we move around the world."
Natalie Haddad
Paul Klee: Other Possible Worlds at the Jewish Museum
"I can see Klee’s angels mourning the triumph of war and fascism in 1939 and judging the fate of its perpetrators, but mortality and humanity are in there too."
What Else Is Happening?
- Israel is reportedly considering banning NYC First Lady Rama Duwaji. Let me just say that again: The nation of Israel is considering banning an individual for her illustrations of individuals wearing keffiyehs and other "unrestrained" public comments and social media activity.
- The Williamsburg Biannual is screening films by Derrick Belcham, Daisy Jacobson, and more. (Wed Mar 25) [williamsburgbiannual.org]
- It's everyone's favorite time of the year — baseball season! (Well, at least, mine.) Ride vintage trains to the Mets home opener (or the Yankees, if that's your poison). (Thurs Mar 26) [nytransitmuseum.org]
- Nayland Blake and Aki Sasamoto will lead this iteration of the Segue Reading Series at Artists Space. (Sat Mar 28) [artistspace.org]
- FAR-NEAR Studio in Chinatown is hosting a screening of artist Alisa Berger's film "Three Borders," about her Korean and Ukrainian-Jewish lineage across three generations. (Sat Mar 28) [FAR-NEAR Studio]
- Friends of Pelham Bay Park is hosting a seal walk! Rangers will guide you to the best wildlife-viewing spots, and they'll have hot chocolate, too. (Sat Mar 28) [Pelham Bay Park]
- Come to Coney Island for the 41st annual Blessing of the Rides at Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park! First 106 guests ride free, in honor of the ride's birthday. (Sun Mar 29) [denoswonderwheel.com]
- There's an exhibition at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts on the golden age of magicians in NYC! (Through July 11) [nypl.org]
- The Vessel is free every Thursday for NYC residents. (Thursdays) [vesselnyc.com]
- Eat Your World's got a great guide to where to eat near Queens art museums. [Eat Your World]
