This month we celebrate Black History Month, the annual Queens Center for Progress ‘Evening of Fine Food’, Losar Family Day at Rubin Museum, new exhibitions, gallery walks and tours. Love is in the air in all five boroughs for Valentine’s Day, as we also have a Day of Remembrance for Japanese American Incarceration on its 81st anniversary. Entering February, here are a few suggestions.
Celebrating Black History Month ~ February
This year’s theme for Black History Month is “Black Resistance,” and will explore how African-Americans have fought repression from America’s earliest days, from escaping plantations, to the rise out of poverty and struggle for equal housing and education, and voting rights. Here are a few ways to celebrate the month.
‘Face to Face’ at International Center of Photography
The International Center of Photography (ICP) has opened its doors to the exhibition Face to Face: Portraits of Artists by Tacita Dean, Brigitte Lacombe and Catherine Opie. Organized by renowned writer and curator Helen Molesworth, the exhibition presents portraits of luminaries in the arts by three of the most prominent portraitists of our time. Face to Face will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue published by ICP and MACK, London, with essays by Molesworth and writer and curator Jarrett Earnest.
‘Nell Breyer: Where Lines Converge’ at the Historic Central Synagogue
As part of Central Synagogue’s ‘Get Inspired. Get Connected. Get Shabbat’ initiative, the Synagogue has opened its sanctuary to a new site-specific installation, Where Lines Converge, created by Brooklyn-based artist Nell Breyer. The temporary installation adds a new, visual dimension to a place of prayer, offering a unique opportunity for individual, communal, and spiritual reflection.
Winner of Times Square Love & Design Competition, Almost Studio to Unveil ‘Love’s h/Edge’ ~ February 1
…..and the winner of the 15th edition of the Love & Design Competition is ~ Brooklyn-based Almost Studio to realize Love’s h/Edge, an interactive sculpture, to be unveiled on February 1st.
As its name implies, Almost Studio’s design takes the form of a heart-shaped hedge row. The vertical bar symbol stationed between the letters h and E is a visual reference to the sculpture itself and realization of love’s boundless nature. The installation takes cues from the whimsical, otherworldly qualities of Alice in Wonderland, while also pulling from aspects of Surrealism and the theatricality of Times Square.
TAFA: The Echoes of Memories at Pictor Gallery ~ February 2
Pictor Gallery will open its doors to a solo exhibition by West African born, Harlem based artist TAFA entitled The Echoes of Memories.
Well known for his colorful abstract oil & acrylic paintings of musicians, sporting events, marches, and protests, his brush strokes take viewers on a literal moving adventure. Below, ‘Pele the Great’…… His paintings also bring to light social and political issues, such as the featured image on this post (above) Sarah Baartman…
Tania Pérez Córdova: Precipitation at Tina Kim Gallery ~ February 2
Precipitation features two new bodies of work—a series of sculptures developed using artificial leaves, and another of blown glass that relates to the notion of the human breath. The appearance of the lush, green leaves are disrupted by their punctured and torn surfaces, in patterns that resemble that of insect infestations, or botanic infections. Adorned with jewelry chains falling from the ceiling—evoking the impression of rain—these works evoke an affect that lies in between alluring and unnerving. Seen together, the works present an imaginary of a verdant landscape; yet, they simultaneously hint at an abstract, discomforting presence that is revealed upon close looking. Accompanying this body of work are a group of blown glass sculptures, which are interspersed throughout the gallery’s space. Inspired by the notion that different patterns of breathing can induce different psychological states, these sculptures are presented as containers for the human breath.
Stefan Bondell: Dark Marks at Vito Schnabel Gallery ~ February 2
Vito Schnabel Gallery is pleased to announce the exhibition Stefan Bondell: Dark Marks, opening at its West Chelsea location on February 2, 2023. This presentation will debut works from the New York poet and artist’s most recent series of paintings – a dramatic series of monumentally scaled works executed in an obsidian palette, with deep, compounded layers of classical and contemporary imagery used to explore the turbulent sociopolitical condition of the United States today. On view through March 18, 2023, Dark Marks is the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery.
‘C.C. Wang: Lines of Abstraction’ at Hunter College Art Galleries ~ February 2
Hunter College Art Galleries will open its doors to the exhibition C.C. Wang: Lines of Abstraction on February 2nd in the Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Gallery.
C. C. Wang is best known as a preeminent twentieth-century connoisseur and collector of pre-modern Chinese art, a reputation that often overshadows his own art. Held twenty years after the artist’s death, C. C. Wang: Lines of Abstraction recenters Wang’s extraordinary career on his own artistic practice to reveal an original quest for tradition and innovation in the global twentieth century. Spanning seven decades, the exhibition focuses on the artist’s distinctive synthesis of Chinese ink painting and American postwar abstraction.
DUMBO First Thursday Gallery Walk ~ February 2
Art in DUMBO has announced that DUMBO’s First Thursday Gallery Walk will take place on February 2, 2023, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Highlights from December’s Gallery Walk include group exhibition Orderly Chaos at the New York Studio SchoolDUMBO Project Space; and Light Year digital projections from 7:30 to 10:00 p.m. on the Manhattan Bridge.
First Friday at Poster House with Free Admission ~ February 3
Join Poster House on the First Friday of every month for free admission and extended hours. Explore the museum’s exhibitions and attend a tour, workshop, performance, or activity throughout the day!
Chaim Gross in Studio with The National Arts Club ~ February 3
Rob Snyder, Manhattan Borough Historian, will present and moderate an illustrated program on artist Chaim Gross and his wife Renee. Their daughter, artist Mimi Gross, and Sasha Davis, the Director of the Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation, will join the discussion. Allen Ginsberg noted Gross’s “astonishing versatility and fecundity.” These panelists will take us inside his remarkable journey and artistic impact that was full of humanity and breadth. This is a Free, in-person event, with RSVP.
Gordon Matta-Clark & Pope.L: Impossible Failures at David Zwirner ~ February 3
52 Walker is pleased to announce its sixth exhibition, Impossible Failures, which will pair work by Gordon Matta-Clark (1943–1978) and Pope.L (b. 1955). Focusing on their shared fixation regarding the problematics of architecture, language, institutions, scale, and value, Impossible Failures will feature a selection of drawings as well as films by each artist. Pope.L will also debut a new site-specific installation, presented in collaboration with Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York.
Xiyadie: Queer Cut Utopias at The Drawing Center ~ February 3
In February 2023, The Drawing Center will present Xiyadie: Queer Cut Utopias, the first solo exhibition of work by Chinese artist Xiyadie in New York. The name Xiyadie, which translates to Siberian Butterfly, is one the artist chose for himself to describe his upbringing in Weinan, a city in the Shaanxi Province of Northwest China. A reflection of his personal and artistic evolution, the pseudonym also denotes Xiyadie’s enduring resilience despite the fact that he has never been able to freely show his work or live openly with regard to his sexual orientation. Occupying two floors at The Drawing Center, Queer Cut Utopias will feature more than thirty of Xiyadie’s intricate paper-cuts, dating from the early 1980s through today, each of which articulates his longing to fully express his queer desire.
The Yanomami Struggle at The Shed ~ February 3
Following acclaimed presentations at the Instituto Moreira Salles (São Paulo), the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain (Paris), and the Barbican Centre (London), among other venues, the exhibition is expanded at The Shed to include more than 80 drawings and paintings by Yanomami artists André Taniki, Ehuana Yaira, Joseca Mokahesi, Orlando Nakɨ uxima, Poraco Hɨko, Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe, and Vital Warasi. Visitors will also encounter new video works by contemporary Yanomami filmmakers Aida Harika, Edmar Tokorino, Morzaniel Ɨramari, and Roseane Yariana.
Craft Front & Center: Exploring the Permanent Collection at Museum of Arts & Design ~ February 4
An ongoing exhibition of the Museum’s growing permanent collection of over 3,500 objects, Craft Front & Center features a fresh installation of more than 60 historic works and new acquisitions dating from the golden age of the American Craft movement to the present day. Organized into themes of material transformation, dismantling heirarchies, contemplation, identity, and sustainability, the exhibition illuminates how the expansive field of craft has broadened definitions of art.
The National Arts Club Present ‘Black Architects’ a virtual Event ~ February 8
From Robert Robinson Taylor to Paul R. Williams, Black Architects have contributed significantly to architecture in the nineteenth century in all styles from Beaux Arts ranging through Art Deco and International Style. As minorities they achieved projects both nationally and internationally with great odds against them. King focuses on architects who were born Black in the 19th century and their contribution and achievements in the architectural profession. Robert Arthur King, FAIA, architect has taught at the New York School of Interior Design since 1988. He is a graduate of Columbia University and the Architectural Association Graduate School in London. In addition, he has published three books. His practice is focused in the restoration of historic buildings in New York City. This is a Free virtual Event with RSVP.
Join the Artists for Craft’s New Expressivity at MAD ~ February 9
Celebrate the opening of Craft Front & Center: Exploring the Permanent Collection with the artists! Join us Thursday, February 9, at 6 pm for a conversation with MAD Collection artists Beau McCall, Armarinhos Teixeira, and Sarah Zapata, whose recently acquired works are currently on view in the exhibition. Moderated by independent curator M. Rachael Arauz, the artists will discuss their personal explorations of craft—both as a material for experimentation and a visual language for self-expression.
Anastasia Bay: The Stumbler’s Parade at Venus Over Manhattan, Great Jones ~ February 9
Venus Over Manhattan will open its doors to Anastasia Bay: The Sumbler’s Parade, an exhibition of new work by the Brussels-based artist. Comprising a series of twelve paintings inspired by Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s masterpiece The Blind Leading the Blind (1568), the exhibition is Bay’s first in New York City, and her debut presentation with Venus Over Manhattan. On view February 9th.
The Art Students League Lunchtime Lecture, Dr. Wen-shing Chou: C.C. Wang’s Art of anesthetic Knowing ~ February 9
Save the Date for the Art Students League Lunchtime Lecture entitled C.C. Wang’s Art of Kinesthetic Knowing. Coinciding with Hunter College’s exhibition, C. C. Wang: Lines of Abstraction (February 2-April 29), the show and the talk re-center the extraordinary career of 20th century Chinese artist C. C. Wang. Professor of art history and co-curator of Lines of Abstraction, Dr. Wen-Shing Chou, will discuss Wang’s work and legacy, and cover the artist’s time as a League student. This is a Free Event with RSVP.
A Masterpiece in the Making: Joaquín Sorolla’s Gouaches for the Vision of Spain at The National Arts Club ~ February 9
The National Arts Club is proud to partner with the Hispanic Society Museum and Library in presenting this landmark exhibition commemorating the Valencian master Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida. The exhibition features the work of the Valencian master Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida—the preeminent artist in Spain at the turn of the 20th century—on the occasion of the centennial year of his death.
Anthony Amoako-Attah: What Do You See at Heller Gallery ~ February 10
Heller Gallery will open its doors to ‘What Do You See’, the gallery’s first exhibition of new work by Ghanaian artist Anthony Amoako-Attah. This is also Attah’s first exhibition in the United States.
‘Uncommon Denominator: Nina Katchadourian at the Morgan ~ February 10
The Morgan Library & Museum is pleased to present Uncommon Denominator, a sequence-based exhibition in which interdisciplinary artist Nina Katchadourian combines pieces from the Morgan’s collection with her own artworks and objects of familial significance. Opening February 10th and on view through May 28th, 2023, it is the third in an ongoing series of exhibitions the Morgan’s Photography Department has created in collaboration with a living artist.
Echo Box at LatchKey Gallery ~ February 10
LatchKey Gallery is proud to present ECHO BOX, a group exhibition of 12 emerging artists currently pursuing their MFA at the School of Visual Arts, New York. Over the course of this new year, artist, professor James O. Clark and founder, director of LKG, Amanda Uribe worked with the students to realize an exhibition while providing the business fundamentals for an artist navigating this art world.
ChrisRWK: PromiseMade.PromiseKept ~ February 11
Harman Projects is pleased to present Promise Made. Promise Kept, a solo exhibition by New York City-based artist ChrisRWK. This will be the artist’s first solo presentation with the gallery.
Reimagine Lefferts Historic House in Community Conversation ~ February 11
The Alliance will engage the public around this initiative with a Community Conversation on Saturday, February 11, 2023, from 1-4 pm, at the Prospect Park Boathouse. Learn more and RSVP for this free event at prospectpark.org/reimagine-
Valentines Day ~ February 14
Beginning in Times Square at Love’s h/Edge, Popping the Question, Taking or Renewing your Vows.
Ending in the Bronx Zoo to Name A Roach ~ a gift to remember.
Tenuous Threads Part II at Atlantic Gallery ~ February 14
Atlantic Gallery will open its doors to TENUOUS THREADS, a two-part exhibition showcasing works incorporating textiles, fibers, threads and mixed media. Tenuous Threads alludes to the delicate lines that bring us together and sets us apart; that join us yet repel us. All of life is connected through networks, systems, fibers and webs. Communication (visual, verbal, electrical, chemical, and kinetic) enables an exchange of information amongst all life forms. The exhibition, curated by Patricia Miranda, includes innovative artworks that utilize textiles, fibers, threads (natural and synthetic) in sculpture, collage, 3D and 2D mixed media that communicates the strength and fragility of what binds all life.
Book Launch: Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook | I Am An Artist (He Said) at The Sculpture Center ~ February 16
Join SculptureCenter for a book launch with Roger Nelson, Chanon Kenji Praepipatmongkol, Jeannine Tang, and Ruba Katrib celebrating I Am An Artist (He Said), a collection of writings by Thai artist Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook now appearing in translation for the first time.
RSVP here.
‘The Ripening’ at Pen + Brush ~ February 16
Pen + Brush is pleased to present its first exhibition of 2023, The Ripening curated by Parker Daley Garcia with Birdie Piccininni, opening February 16th and open to the public through April 15th. Loosely based on Édouard Glissant’s book of the same name, The Ripening puts forth a shared process, where trauma, fluidity, and choice intersect, as a way of exploring the state of identity, specifically, gendered (or lack thereof) identity today. Artists here explore various states of ‘otherhood’, pain, desire, and power as ways of self-actualizing identity.
The 2023 Orchid Show at New York Botanical Garden ~ February 18
Acclaimed artist Lily Kwong, the designer for The Orchid Show’s 20th year, presents a meditative and captivating design inspired by her ancestral connections to the natural world. Kwong’s vibrant and fantastical vision will envelop visitors in thousands of orchids, allowing them to reconnect to nature amidst picture perfect beauty.
Architecture Now: New York, New Publics at MoMA ~ February 19
The Museum of Modern Art announces Architecture Now: New York, New Publics, the inaugural installation of a new exhibition series that will serve as a platform to highlight emerging talent and foreground groundbreaking projects in contemporary architecture. On view February 19 through July 29, 2023, the first iteration of the series, New York, New Publics, will explore the ways in which New York City–based practices have been actively expanding the relationship of metropolitan architecture to different publics through 12 recently completed projects. In addition, each project will be accompanied by a new video by Brooklyn-based filmmaker Hudson Lines, produced on the occasion of the exhibition.
Flatiron NoMad Partnership Celebrates Presidents’ Day Weekend with Free Presidential Walking Tour ~ February 19
This Presidents’ Day weekend, on Sunday, February 19, the Flatiron NoMad Partnership will host a special walking tour exploring U.S. presidents’ connections with the dynamic district in the heart of New York City. Participants will learn about how presidents, including James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and Grover Cleveland, influenced the neighborhood’s rich history.
New York Day of Remembrance of Japanese American Incarceration ~ February 19
81 Years ago, on February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, allowing for the imprisonment of all people of Japanese ancestry living on or near the West Coast – all 120,000 citizens and legal residents were removed from their homes without due process ~ removed from their homes, bringing only what they could carry, and sent to relocation camps located throughout the western United States.
Hauser & Wirth in Collaboration with Fort Gansevoort Present ‘Winfred Rembert. All of Me’ ~ February 23
On 23 February, Hauser & Wirth will present ‘All of Me,’ its first exhibition of works by late American artist Winfred Rembert (1945-2021), in collaboration with Fort Gansevoort. Occupying all three floors of the gallery’s 69th Street location, this immersive tribute to Rembert’s life and artistry will include more than 40 works made in his signature medium of carved, tooled and painted leather, including several never before seen.
‘Entrance to the Mind: Drawings by George Condo’ at Morgan Library ~ February 24
In 2021, the Morgan acquired twenty-eight drawings by American artist George Condo (b. 1957) that offer an overview of his career over the last forty-five years. Ranging from early drawings made when he was a teenager to recent explorations into what he calls “psychological Cubism,” the exhibition, Entrance to the Mind: Drawings by George Condo will highlight Condo’s brilliant draftsmanship through a cast of characters in turn comic, monstrous, tragic, and endearing.
Black Arts Movement: Examined ~ Part IV: Music at Harlem Stage ~ February 24-25
World-renowned tap dance artist, Michela Marino Lerman and her ensemble, Love Movement, reimagine Max Roach’s Freedom Now! Suite. Roach was a key figure of the Black Arts Movement and Marino Lerman pays tribute to his groundbreaking 1960 album.
The 2023 Harlem Fine Arts Show at The Glass House ~ February 24-26
The Harlem Fine Arts Show (HFAS) is the largest traveling African Diasporic art show in the United States. Inspired by the Harlem Renaissance, HFAS provides a platform for African Diasporic artists and American visual artists to exhibit and sell their works. This three-day event serves as an economic platform for the multicultural, general market and arts communities to empower and increase market share in numerous regions throughout the United States. From February 24-26, the Harlem Fine Arts Show will return to New York City to celebrate its 15th Anniversary in a new location ~ The Glasshouse in Chelsea.
Losar Family Day at Rubin Museum of Art ~ February 26
The Rubin Museum of Art invites visitors to celebrate Losar, the Tibetan New Year, with an afternoon of art with your family and friends. Learn about traditional Losar celebrations and this year’s zodiac animal, the kind and sensitive Water Hare. Free admission to all of the galleries during visitor hours.
Queens Centers for Progress Presents ‘Evening of Fine Food’ ~ February 28
For one night only – Tuesday, February 28 – hundreds of people will come together for the hottest event during the coldest time of the year – theQueens Centers for Progress’ 27th annual “Evening of Fine Food” at Terrace on the Park in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens.
Still on View:
Nari Ward: Home of the Brave at The Vilcek Foundation on view to February 3, 2023
The Vilcek Foundation is pleased to present Nari Ward: Home of the Brave, Ward’s first solo exhibition with the foundation. The exhibition, curated by Vilcek Foundation President Rick Kinsel, will be on view from May 31, 2022, to February 3, 2023.
Lucio Fontana: Sculpture at Hauser & Wirth on view to February 4, 2023
Hauser & Wirth New York will stage the second part of a trilogy of exhibitions curated by Luca Massimo Barbero, in collaboration with the Fondazione Lucio Fontana. Dedicated to Fontana’s extraordinary experimentation in sculpture, this tailor-made presentation will take place at the gallery’s uptown location on November 3, 2022, the very same building where in 1961 Fontana’s first solo shows in the United States were held concurrently at the Martha Jackson and David Anderson galleries.
Theaster Gates: Young Lords and Their Traces at The New Museum on view to February 5, 2023
The New Museum will present the first American museum survey exhibition devoted to Theaster Gates, encompassing the full range of the artist’s practice across a variety of media creating communal spaces for preservation, remembrance, and exchange. This landmark exhibition will be accompanied by a presentation of newly commissioned works by Vivian CaccuriandMiles Greenberg exploring the relationship between bodies and sound waves.
Josh Dorman: Idyll at Ryan Lee Gallery on view to February 11, 2023
RYAN LEE is pleased to announce Josh Dorman: Idyll ~ Idol a solo exhibition of recent works which are an investigation of the artist’s longstanding interest in creating multi-layered and self-contained universes of antique collage material, acrylic and resin. Dorman’s two new bodies of work, the Being series and the Wallpaper series, take a new approach to the allegorical world building for which he is known.
Judy Ledgerwood: Sunny at Denny Dimin Gallery on view to February 11, 2023
Judy Ledgerwood is a renowned painter whose work has featured in numerous international exhibitions and is included in prominent public collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, IL, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, the Milwaukee Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Hammer Museum Los Angeles and the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen Switzerland, among others.
Just Above Midtown at MoMA on view through February 18, 2023
They say if you remember the 60s & 70s in NYC, you weren’t really there. With that it mind, The Museum of Modern Art will refresh our memories with the exhibition, Just Above Midtown: 1974 to the Present, on view from October 9, 2022, through February 18, 2023.
Victoria Sambunaris: High and Dry at Yancey Richardson Gallery on view through February 18, 2023
High and Dry, an exhibition of new photographs by Victoria Sambunaris, documents the inexorable evidence of human activity on the desert landscape from the literal to the geological. The work will be on view at Yancey Richardson from January 5 through February 18, 2023, and will feature seven new large-scale photographs traversing the intersection of the natural open terrain and the interventions shaped by climate change, resource depletion, and environmental degradation.
Queer Maximalism x Machine Dazzle at Museum of Arts and Design on view through February 19, 2023
On view from September 10, 2022 through February 19, 2023, the exhibition brings together more than 80 of the artist’s creations for stage, spectacles, and street theater, alongside a variety of environments, ephemera, material samples, photography, and video.
Suanjaya Kencut: Social Circle at GR Gallery on view to February 24, 2023
GR gallery is pleased to announce ‘Social Circle’, the first solo exhibition of Suanjaya Kencut with the gallery and in New York. The show will feature a total of 19 artworks revealing a new suite titled ‘Connection Series’, among this, a special recognition is merited by five shaped canvases that challenged the artist with a new media and opens up innumerable future possibilities.
Dan Flavin: Kornblee Gallery 1967 at David Zwirner on view to February 25, 2023
David Zwirner is pleased to announce an exhibition of works by Dan Flavin at the gallery’s 34 East 69th Street location in New York. Presented in adjacent rooms of the Upper East Side townhouse, the works on view recreate two groundbreaking exhibitions that Flavin mounted in 1967 at New York’s Kornblee Gallery, then located at the nearby and architecturally similar 58 East 79th Street. The exhibition will offer viewers a rare opportunity to experience the artist’s early installations as he would have presented them.
The Eveillard Gift at Frick Madison through February 26, 2023
Brush and brown wash on cream laid paper 8 1/16 x 5 5/8 inches
Promised Gift from the Collection of Elizabeth and Jean-Marie Eveillard
Photo: Joseph Coscia Jr.
The major fall exhibition at Frick Madison (the temporary home of The Frick Collection during renovation of its historic buildings) presents the largest and most significant promised gift of drawings and pastels in the institution’s history. Assembled by Elizabeth “Betty” and Jean-Marie Eveillard, avid collectors of drawings and pastels, the exhibition includes European works ranging in date from the end of the fifteenth century to the twentieth century and representing artists working in France, Britain, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands.
The Zoo by artist Idriss B On Park Avenue in Murray Hill on view through February 2023
If you are waking up in Murray Hill today, you will be delighted to find whimsical creatures along the Park Avenue medium between 34th and 38th Streets. Patrons of Park Avenue (POPA) invited French artist Idriss B to create a one-of-a-kind urban jungle as an inaugural installation.
At the Dawn of a New Age: Early Twentieth-Century Modernism at The Whitney on view to March, 2023
The Whitney Museum of American Art presents At the Dawn of a New Age: Early Twentieth-Century American Modernism, an exhibition of over sixty works by more than forty-five artists that highlights the complexity of American art produced between 1900 and 1930. The exhibition showcases how American artists responded to the realities of a rapidly modernizing period through an array of abstract styles and media. At the Dawn of a New Age features artworks drawn primarily from the Whitney’s collection, including new acquisitions and works that have not been on view at the Museum for decades.
Edward Hopper’s New York at The Whitney on view through March 5, 2023
Edward Hopper’s New York, on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art from October 19, 2022, through March 5, 2023, offers an unprecedented examination of Hopper’s life and work in the city that he called home for nearly six decades (1908–67). The exhibition charts the artist’s enduring fascination with the city through more than 200 paintings, watercolors, prints, and drawings from the Whitney’s preeminent collection of Hopper’s work, loans from public and private collections, and archival materials including printed ephemera, correspondence, photographs, and notebooks. From early sketches to paintings from his late in his career, Edward Hopper’s New York reveals a vision of the metropolis that is as much a manifestation of Hopper himself as it is a record of a changing city, whose perpetual and sometimes tense reinvention feels particularly relevant today.
Myrlande Constant: Drapo at Fort Gansevoort on view to March 11, 2023
Beginning January 12, 2023, Fort Gansevoort will present Drapo, its first solo exhibition with Haitian artist Myrlande Constant, who has attracted international attention for dazzling hand-beaded and sequin-embroidered textile works in which heritage techniques are used to mingle contemporary and traditional themes. The evolution of Constant’s personal aesthetic and mastery of her medium will be evident in monumental new pieces juxtaposed with examples from earlier in the artist’s career.
Adebunmi Gbadebo: Remains at Claire Oliver Gallery on view to March 11, 2023
Claire Oliver Gallery is pleased to announce the solo exhibition Remains by artist Adebunmi Gbadebo. On view January 13 – March 11, 2023, the exhibition continues Gbadebo’s years-long exploration of her ancestral origins centered on the plantation on which her forbearers were enslaved and currently buried, called True Blue in Fort Motte, South Carolina. Gbadebo’s interrogation of this lineage through her work encompasses her signature multi-media paper works crafted from indigo, rice paper, cotton, and human hair, and new ceramic works fabricated from the soil in which her enslaved ancestors were buried. These will be displayed alongside historical artifacts salvaged from antebellum architectural fragments from sites built on the labor of her forebears. The multi-media exhibition will debut at Claire Oliver Gallery before traveling to the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis throughout 2023-24.
Reynier Leyva Novo: Methuselah at El Museo del Barrio on view to March 26, 2023
El Museo del Barrio is pleased to present Reynier Leyva Novo: Methuselah, from October 27, 2022 to March 26, 2023. Conceived by the Cuban-born and Houston based artist Reynier Levya Novo, the digital artwork virtually reproduces the 5000-kilometer transnational migratory journey of a single monarch butterfly, tracking its travel from southern Canada across the United States to Mexico. Embodied through the life of a virtual avatar, the epic journey is hosted and reproduced in real time on a specially designed, open-access, dedicated website. Commissioned by El Museo del Barrio with the support of VIA Art Fund, the in-person mixed-reality presentation at El Museo debuts in conjunction with the upcoming Fall exhibition, Juan Francisco Elso: Por América.
New York City Fire Museum Presents: Firehouse ~ Photography of Jill Freeedman on view through April 2, 2023
The New York City Fire Museum is presenting an exhibition showcasing award-winning photographer Jill Freedman’s moving collection of photographs documenting New York City firefighters on the job in the ‘70s. Firehouse: The Photography of Jill Freedman is open now through April 2, 2023.
Lives of the Gods: Divinity in Maya Art at the Met through April 2, 2023
In Maya art—one of the greatest artistic traditions of the ancient Americas—the gods are depicted in all stages of life: as infants, as adults at the peak of their maturity and influence, and finally, as they age. The gods could perish, and some were born anew, providing a model of regeneration and resilience. Opening November 21, 2022, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the exhibition Lives of the Gods: Divinity in Maya Art will bring together nearly 100 rarely seen masterpieces and recent discoveries in diverse media—from the monumental to the miniature—that depict episodes in the life cycle of the gods, from the moment of their birth to resplendent transformations as blossoming flowers or fearsome creatures of the night.
no existe un mundo poshuracán: Puerto Rican Art in the Wake of Hurricane Maria at The Whitney on view through April 23, 2023
no existe un mundo poshuracán: Puerto Rican Art in the Wake of Hurricane Maria is organized to coincide with the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Maria—a category 5 storm that hit Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017. The exhibition explores how artists have responded to the transformative years since that event by bringing together more than fifty artworks made over the last five years by an intergenerational group of more than fifteen artists from Puerto Rico and the diaspora. no existe un mundo poshuracán—a verse borrowed from Puerto Rican poet Raquel Salas Rivera—is the first scholarly exhibition focused on Puerto Rican art to be organized by a large U.S. museum in nearly half a century.
Hip-Hop: Conscious, Unconscious at Fotografiska New York on view to May 21, 2023
Fotografiska New York is pleased to present a new exhibition that traces hip-hop’s origins—starting in the Bronx in 1973, as a social movement by-and-for the local community of African, Latino, and Caribbean Americans—to the worldwide phenomenon it has become 50 years later. Hip Hop: Conscious, Unconscious amplifies the individual creatives involved in the movement while surveying interwoven focus areas such as the set of women who trail blazed amid hip-hop’s male dominated environment; hip-hop’s regional and stylistic diversification; and the turning point when hip-hop became a billion-dollar industry that continues to mint global household names.
Hew Locke: Gilt is The Met Facade on view through May 22, 2023
The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that Guyanese-British artist Hew Locke has been selected to create new works for The Met Fifth Avenue’s facade niches, the third in a new series of site-specific commissions for the exterior of the Museum. The Facade Commission: Hew Locke, Gilt will be on view September 16, 2022 through May 22, 2023.
Deconstructing Power: W.E.B. DuBois at the 1900 World’s Fair at Cooper Hewitt on view through May 29, 2023
At the Paris World Fair of 1900, W.E.B. Du Bois used groundbreaking statistical graphics to document the accomplishments of Black Americans and life inside “the Veil” of systemic oppression. The Library of Congress will lend a selection of these rare data visualizations to Cooper Hewitt’s Recharting Modern Designexhibition, allowing visitors to see them in person for the first time in 120 years. The data graphics of W.E.B. Du Bois will appear in dialogue with decorative objects from the fair, connecting Du Bois’s “color line” to the “whiplash line” of Art Nouveau.
Merriem Bennani, Windy on view on The High Line to May 31, 2023
Windy is a spinning sculpture in the shape of a tornado made from black foam. The work plays with various traditions and ambiguities of public sculpture. In many cases, the public is asked to walk around public sculpture, taking in its grandeur from a safe distance. Bennani’s sculpture spins itself, and at a speed that makes the details of the work almost impossible to grasp—both visually and physically. In her conceptualization of the work, Bennani was inspired by the dynamism and constant movement on the High Line, wishing to make a sculpture that could capture and work within this urban energy. On view to May 31, 2023.
MAGENTAVERSE will be on view at ARTECHOUSE through May, 2023
ARTECHOUSE, the leader in innovative, technology-driven experiential art, is pleased to announce its latest collaboration with Pantone, the global color authority and provider of professional color language standards for the design community, on bringing to life Pantone’s Color of the Year 2023 PANTONE 18-1740 Viva Magenta through an immersive experience MAGENTAVERSE.
Charles Gaines: Moving Chains (Chapter Two, Governors Island on view to June 2023
Presented as the second chapter of The American Manifest, sited at the base of Outlook Hill on Governors Island with views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and Lower Manhattan, Moving Chains — a 100 foot-long immersive, kinetic sculpture — evokes the hull of a ship reverberating with the low rumble of nine chains churning overhead, while visitors pass through below. Eight of the chains move along at the pace of New York Harbor’s currents, while a central ninth chain moves noticeably faster, at the speed of the ships and barges that have traveled the city’s waterways over centuries. Moving Chains illuminates the exchange of people, capital, and goods cycling between the north and south that made up the slave trade, while calling attention to the political, judicial, and economic operations established in this country’s foundational financial system.
Gateway to Himalayan Art at Rubin Museum on view through June 4, 2023
Gateway to Himalayan Art, on view at Rubin Museum of Art through June 4, 2023, introduces viewers to the main forms, concepts, meanings, and traditions of Himalayan art represented in the Rubin Museum collection.
Shahzia Sikander: Havah…to breathe, air, life in Madison Square Park + New York State Appellate Division Courthouse rooftop on view through June 4, 2023
This winter, significant new works on the theme of justice by artist Shahzia Sikander will be featured in a major multimedia exhibition at Madison Square Park. Presented simultaneously in the park and at the adjacent Courthouse of the Appellate Division, First Department of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, the exhibition Havah…to breathe, air, life features two new large-scale sculptures—one within the park that can be transformed through augmented reality and another atop the Courthouse rooftop, the first female figure to adorn one of its ten plinths. Additionally, a recent video animation by Sikander will be on view in the park, visually intertwining the distinct elements. The exhibition is a culmination of Sikander’s exploration of female representation in monuments and marks her first major, site-specific outdoor exhibition in sculptural form.
Fred Wilson: Mind Forged Manacles/Manacle Forged Minds on view at Columbus Park through June 27, 2023
More Art unveiled Mind Forged Manacles/Manacle Forged Minds, Fred Wilson’s first ever large-scale public sculpture, opening at the plaza in Columbus Park, Brooklyn on Tuesday June 28, 2022 and closing a year later, in June 2023. The installation features a 10-foot-tall sculpture, composed of layers of decorative ironwork, fencing and statues of African figures. This project is funded in part through the Downtown Brooklyn + Dumbo Art Fund, under New York State’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI), and is exhibited through NYC Parks’ Art in the Parks program.
Bharti Khêr: Ancestor on the Doris C. Freedman Plaza through August 27, 2023
Photo: Nicholas Knight, Courtesy of Public Art Fund, NY
Depicting a universal mother figure linking our cultural and personal pasts and futures, Ancestor is Kher’s most ambitious work to date. The sculpture stems from the artist’s ongoing “Intermediaries” series in which Kher reassembles small, broken clay figurines of humans, animals, and mythical beings into hybrid figures that defy a fixed identity. Brought to life at a monumental scale, Ancestorembodies the complexity and potential of the “Intermediaries”, and of Indic and global traditions of creator deities that challenge identities by bringing together male and female into a single philosophical form. Ancestor, however, is a resolutely feminine figure. Adorned with the heads of her 23 children that extend from her body, she embodies multiculturalism, pluralism, and interconnectedness. They manifest a sense of belonging and celebrate the mother as a keeper of wisdom and the eternal source of creation and refuge.
Richard Avedon: MURALS at The MET on view to October 1, 2023
To celebrate the centennial of Richard Avedon’s birth in 1923, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present a selection of the photographer’s most innovative group portraits in the exhibition Richard Avedon: MURALS, opening January 19, 2023. Although Avedon first earned his reputation as a fashion photographer in the late 1940s, his greatest achievement was his stunning reinvention of the photographic portrait.
Fanny Allié: Shadows in Bella Abzug Park on view through October 2023
The Hudson Yards Hell’s Kitchen Alliance (HYHK) today announces Shadows, an installation of ten new site-specific sculptures created by mixed-media artist Fanny Allié for Bella Abzug Park (542 W 36th St., New York, NY 10018) and inspired by the workers who maintain it. Shadows invites people to experience the park—a picturesque public green space surrounded by urban bustle—in a new way, as a place for compelling, free art.
The Girl Puzzle, Roosevelt Island on view ~ To Be Announced
The Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) has selected Amanda Matthews/Prometheus Art to construct the Nellie Bly Monument on the northern end of Roosevelt Island at Lighthouse Park. The sculptural installation will be known as “The Girl Puzzle” and invites the viewer to experience many facets of Nellie Bly’s talent, conviction and compassion. The ground-breaking journalist and women’s rights advocate exposed the horrors of the Blackwell Island Insane Asylum in 1887 on Roosevelt Island.
The Met’s Great Hall will Display Ancient Maya Stone Monuments from Republic of Guatemala until 2024
The two massive stelae—both significant long-term loans from the Republic of Guatemala—feature life-sized representations of influential Indigenous American rulers: a king, K’inich Yo’nal Ahk II (ca. A.D. 664–729), and queen, Ix Wak Jalam Chan (Lady Six Sky) (ca. A.D. 670s–741), one of the most powerful women known by name from the ancient Americas. The installation heralds the upcoming exhibition Lives of the Gods: Divinity in Maya Art, which is scheduled to open in fall 2022 and will highlight Maya visual narratives featuring a cast of gods: sacred beings that are personified elements of the cosmos, nature, and agriculture. The Great Hall display is also the first in a series of special exhibitions and installations that will present art of the ancient Americas, sub-Saharan Africa, and Oceania throughout The Met’s galleries while the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing is closed for a renovation project that will reenvision these collections for a new generation of visitors.
See you in March!