Spring for Art: 10 New York Museum Exhibitions
As the weather finally warms and longer days allow for more to do and see in New York, the city fills with new art shows everywhere we look. Below are a selection of 10 must-see museum exhibitions to visit: from historic to contemporary, from a reconsideration of a subject in a renown. portrait to the unexpected and humorous in ceramics, and female artists are getting their rightful attention. We hope you will see these and other exciting exhibitions at New York museums that we didn’t have room to list.
The Roof Garden Commission: Lauren Halsey At the met
Lauren Halsey, that fuss wuz us, (2018)
The Met’s Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden introduces a new commission by the LA based artist, community activist Lauren Halsey titled the eastside of south central los angeles hieroglyph prototype architecture (I). Halsey uses the space to create an immersive experience for the viewer to explore the work’s connections to ancient Egyptian symbolism, 1960s utopian architecture, and contemporary visual expressions such as tagging in order to suggest the ways people make public spaces their own. The Roof Garden at The Met creates a truly unique experience for the visitor highlighting New York’s skyline as the backdrop for the installation.
From April 18th to October 22nd
Alake Shilling, “Baby Bear Loves Alake,” (2021)
This month, Museum of Arts and Design is featuring a humor-filled, whimsical and witty show that features 50 ceramic sculptures that take inspiration from the Funk Art generation. Funk Ceramics emerged from a group of artists who challenged the expectations of what was considered “good art.” This exhibit continues the Funk Art legacy through its sculptures that add humor to serious social and political issues of our day. Visit Funk You Too! for a good laugh and a fun-filled art experience.
Through August 27th, 2023
Pablo Picasso, Le Moulin de la Galette, Paris, ca. November 1900
The Guggenheim Museum will be showing an intimate exhibition of Pablo Picasso’s paintings and drawings from his early life in Paris. The show will highlight this formative period of Picasso’s artisan journey and fascination with unconventional aspects of modern life. Do not miss this unique opportunity to see Picasso’s more intimate and early period body of work.
May 12 - August 6, 2023
Left: Nicolas Party, Portrait with Flowers, (2018) Courtesy of Hauser and Wirth
Right: Rosalba Carriera (1673–1757), Portrait of a Man in Pilgrim's Costume, ca. 1730
Renowned and sought-after contemporary artist Nicolas Party’s site specific mural inspired by Rosalba Carriera’s Portrait of a Man in Pilgrim’s Costume will be presented at Frick Madison this summer. The inspiration behind the mural is an Eighteenth century pastel portrait of a wealthy Venetian merchant or nobleman created between 1720-1730. Party is known for his impressive skills working with pastel for his colorful and whimsical works. His response to Carriera’s pastel painting will surely be dynamic and fascinating to see. The installation will include Party’s mural project and two new related works also executed by him, which will be at Frick Madison until next winter.
June 1st - February 2024
Judy Pfaff, Quartet 5, (2018)
The Jewish Museum’s impressive show features contemporary artists from The Barnett and Annalee Newman Foundation collection. Works by some of the most important artists of the 20th and 21st centuries are on view. After “The Wild” explores the evolution of contemporary art in the decades following the Abstract Expressionist movement. It features a wide range of styles, media, and techniques including painting, sculpture, video, and installation art. Make sure to visit the exhibit’s compelling exploration of the ongoing impact of Abstract Expressionism on contemporary art and a celebration of the Newman Foundation Collection’s continuing commitment to promoting and preserving the legacy of this important movement.
From March 24 - October 1, 2023
Georgia O’Keeffe: To See takes Time at MoMA
Georgia O’Keeffe. Evening Star No. III. 1917
This month MoMA will feature a series of works by Georgia O’Keeffe in an exhibition titled To see takes time. O’Keeffe is best known for her depictions of flowers, animal skulls, and landscape of New Mexico. As a major contributor to American Modernism, this exhibition at MoMA highlights mainly unique and rare drawings coupled with a few paintings that display a wide range of different works she developed over time. Her bold, profoundly poetic yet simplified paintings with their heightened realism are endlessly captivating and hypnotic.
Through August 12, 2023
Sarah Sze, Things Caused to Happen (Oculus), (2023)
Another show on your must-see list is at the Guggenheim Museum by the New York artist Sarah Sze, titled Timelapse. Sze is a contemporary artist who works with a wide range of materials to blur the boundaries between various mediums such as painting, sculpture, sound, print, drawing, video and architecture. Sze’s solo exhibition is a series of site-specific installations on display throughout the museum. Sze plays with the unique architecture of the Guggenheim, in and outside of the building in order to present her work as it unfolds as a timeline from 1998-2016 a “contemplation on how we mark time and how time marks us.”
March 31 - September 10, 2023
Cecily Brown, Maid in a Landscape, (2021)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has opened Death and the Maid, an exhibit by Cecily Brown. Brown is a British contemporary painter whose dynamic work embraces abstract and representational elements. The Met has put together a group of around fifty paintings, drawings, and sketchbooks that represent her practice and process over time. The show focuses on the symbols of human life and vanity through her complex narratives and colorful, expressive brushstrokes. The viewer is challenged to partake in the action on the canvas, to decipher the story. Brown explores themes of mortality, sexuality, and the human condition through her provocative and powerful works of art.
April 4 - December 3, 2023
Velázquez (Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez) (Spanish, Seville 1599–1660 Madrid)
An unparalleled exhibit of the life and artistic development of the 17th century painter, Juan de Pareja is a much needed re-evaluation of Diego Velazquez’s famous portrait of his enslaved apprentice. Pareja was born in Antequera, Spain in 1608 and was a slave for the influential artist. The Afro-Hispanic painter was also the subject of one of Velázquez’s most iconic portraits which is part of the Met’s collection. The exhibition offers a lens into social conditions of the 17th century under which both Velazquez and Pareja operated and presents a different perspective of Velázquez’s studio. It features rarely seen paintings of Pareja himself, which are a testament to his talent and his perseverance in the face of adversity.
April 3rd - July 16th, 2023
“The Storm," 2012, on the wall, a collage on linoleum. The sculpture on the left is “Sentinel I” (2018) and on the right, the Surrealistic odalisque “Outstretched” (2019)
Wangechi Mutu’s works explore issues of race, gender, colonialism, and identity. Her current extraordinary exhibition at the New Museum will continue to grapple with these contemporary cultural realities through the lens of different mediums. Mutu's Works are often surreal and challenge the human form with hybrid elements of human, animal, and machine aspects. Works seem to transform and morph right in front of us. This exceptional solo exhibition “intertwines” both Mutu’s past and present developments in her practice of creating art by including mediums of collage and video installations. This powerful and thought-provoking exhibition highlights Mutu’s critical engagement with contemporary issues.
On view until June 4th 2023.
Newsletter written by Annabelle Schlesinger.
E-mail ArtMuse’s founder Natasha Schlesinger, ns@artmuseny.com to learn more about art tours, art guidance and art curation.
If you have questions about our newsletter or would like to share events with us, please email Annabelle Schlesinger: Annabelleschlesinger@gmail.com.