13 NYC Art Exhibitions To Get Lost In This Autumn and Beyond
As autumn descends upon New York City and the daylight hours become shorter, it’s a good time to retreat back into the world of visual wonders. To make your weekend planning easier in a city with no shortage of things to do, Culture Trip has curated a must-see exhibition list that’s sure to keep you busy until the end of 2018 and well into the new year.
The Met Breuer – Everything Is Connected; Art and Conspiracy
Art Gallery, Museum
On view through January 6, 2019 Seventy artworks by 30 artists examine the hidden and often sinister mechanisms of power. Highlighting the years between 1969 and 2016, the exhibition explores themes of paranoia, truth and power with artworks by Mark Lombardi, Alessandro Balteo-Yazbeck, Jenny Holzer and Peter Saul, among others. Collectively, the postwar artworks present an archaeology of troubled Western democracies, revealing uncomfortable truths in the present age of anxiety.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Ave – Delacroix
Museum, Park, Shop, Church, Building, Theater, Art Gallery
On view through January 6, 2019 This is the first comprehensive retrospective ever held in North America for 19th-century French Romantic artist Eugène Delacroix. Often described as the father of Modernism, Delacroix used passionate and emotive brushstrokes and vivid colors – attributes highlighted in the show, which includes over 150 paintings, manuscripts, prints and drawings. Famous works on display include Liberty Leading the People (1830) and Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi (1826).
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) – Toward a Concrete Utopia
Museum
On view through January 13, 2019 In the first major US exhibition to survey Yugoslavia’s unique range of architectural forms, Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture of Yugoslavia, 1948-1980 explores the former country’s Brutalist buildings and International Style skyscrapers. The exhibit includes more than 400 drawings, photographs and scale models as well as newly commissioned photography by Valentin Jeck that chronicles 42 years of Yugoslavia’s built environment.
New Museum of Contemporary Art – SARAH LUCAS: AU NATUREL
Art Gallery
On view until January 20, 2019 In the first American survey of Sarah Lucas, Sarah Lucas: Au Naturel highlights the British artist’s subversive use of everyday objects to question social norms surrounding sexuality, gender and identity. Since the 1980s, Lucas’s confrontational, sculptural furniture and often erotic installations have not only challenged the patriarchy but also subverted and reflected the male gaze by humorously sexualizing domestic objects like stockings, vegetables and cigarettes. Highlights from the show include Lucas’s stuffed-stocking Bunnies (1997-ongoing) and NUDS (2009-ongoing), as well as selections from her work that was featured at the Freud Museum in London (2000) and the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2015).
The Met – Celebrating Tintoretto: Portrait Paintings and Studio Drawings
Museum, Park, Shop, Church, Building, Theater, Art Gallery
On view through January 27, 2019 Celebrating Tintoretto: Portrait Paintings and Studio Drawings is dedicated to the 500th anniversary of the Venetian artist’s birth. Tintoretto was known for his prestezza, or rapid brushstrokes; 21 of his small-scale, informal portraits are presented together here for the first time.
Brooklyn Museum – Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power
Museum
On view through February 3, 2019 This exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, known for its promotion of female and minority artists, presents over 150 artworks created between 1963 and 1983 depicting one of the most politically charged periods in American history. The exhibition, organized by Tate Modern, highlights the wide-ranging scope of the Black artistic practice, while also addressing the unjust social conditions facing Black Americans today. Featured artworks include Carolyn Lawrence’s Black Children Keep Your Spirits Free (1972), Faith Ringgold’s The Flag Is Bleeding (1967), Betye Saar’s The Liberation of Aunt Jemima (1972) and photographs by Roy DeCarava, among others.
The Museum of Modern Art – Constantin Brancusi Sculpture
Art Gallery, Building, Museum, Opera House
On view through February 18, 2019 MoMA presents 11 sculptures by 20th-century Romanian artist Constantin Brancusi (known as the ‘patriarch of model sculpture’), shown together for the very first time. The exhibition also includes never-before-seen archival materials, films and photographs that illuminate the Modernist sculptor’s intimate life and reveal his mastery of stone, wood and bronze. Brancusi’s Bird in Space (1928), a world-famous sculpture depicting the notion of flight with its streamlined, abstract form, will also be on display.
The Jewish Museum – Martha Rosler: Irrespective
Art Gallery, Museum
On view through March 3, 2019 Emphasizing women’s experiences, the built environment and the impact of war on domesticity, American artist Martha Rosler’s five-decade-long career is presented in a new survey exhibition at The Jewish Museum. The show highlights Rosler’s feminist photomontages from the 1960s and 1970s, including selections from the series Body Beautiful, or Beauty Knows No Pain; House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home; and a rarely seen 1975 video titled Still From Semiotics of the Kitchen.
The Whitney Museum – Andy Warhol – From A to B and Back Again
Building, Museum, Art Gallery
On view through March 31, 2019 In the first Warhol retrospective organized by a US museum since the late ’80s, Andy Warhol – From A to B and Back Again spans Warhol’s complex experimentation, starting with his career as a commercial illustrator in the 1950s and ending with his abstract works in the 1980s. Containing over 350 works of art, the monographic exhibition illuminates the range of Warhol’s creative production, revealing a new understanding of his collective body of work and impact on pop culture. Aretha Franklin, created for the late singer’s 1986 album cover and Warhol’s final work before his death, will also be on view.
Brooklyn Museum – Half the Picture: A Feminist Look at the Collection
Museum, Ruins, School
On view through March 31, 2019 The Elizabeth A Sackler Center for Feminist Art presents Half the Picture: A Feminist Look at the Collection at the Brooklyn Museum. Featuring over 100 works created over the past 100 years, the exhibition uses an intersectional feminist framework to “combat stereotypes and dominant narratives” while addressing the acutely unique and complex political and social issues facing female artists and artists of color. Featured artists include Renee Cox, An-My Lê, Betty Tompkins, Andy Warhol and Käthe Kollwitz, among others.
The Solomon R Guggenheim Museum – Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future
Art Gallery, Building, Museum, School
On view until April 23, 2019 Experience Hilma af Klint’s breathtaking, spiritually charged abstract work in this first-ever solo exhibition in the US. The early-20th-century Stockholm artist rarely exhibited her works, stipulating they should not be shown until 20 years after her death. Embodying a mysterious, ethereal tone whose form is at once bold and cryptic, her paintings engage with esoteric truths that relate to her work as a mystic and medium. The Paintings for Temple will be on view, Klint’s first central oeuvre, which comprises 193 works created between the years 1906 and 1915.
Rubin Museum of Art – The Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room
Museum, Shrine
On view until September 16, 2019 Featuring a wide range of furniture, religious artefacts, tapestries and copper sculptures, The Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room at the Rubin Museum depicts a traditional shrine glittering with ritual objects. Curated by Elena Pakhoutova, the immersive installation inspired by an affluent household includes singing bowls and paintings ranging from the 17th century to modern times.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Epic Abstraction
Museum, Park, Shop, Church, Building, Theater, Art Gallery
On view beginning December 17, 2018 Opening in December at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Epic Abstraction: Pollock to Herrera will feature a small series of large-scale abstract artworks, ranging from Jackson Pollock’s well-known drip-style painting Autumn Rhythm (1950) to Mark Rothko’s No. 13 (White, Red on Yellow) (1958) and Louise Nevelson’s dystopian Mrs. N’s Palace (1964-77).
About the author
Amber was born in Washington, D.C. and relocated to NYC in 2007. She received an M.A. degree in Liberal Studies: Women's Studies, Gender, and Sexuality from CUNY's Graduate Center and University, and an honors B.A. in English from The City College of New York. Before coming to Culture Trip, she was the executive editor for Metropolitan Magazine, a boutique luxury lifestyle and arts publication, as well as the editor for ResidencyNY Magazine. In 2015, she also started her own company, ACS Media Services, and has over 8+ years experience as a writer/editor in the NYC area. As one of the original employees in Culture Trip’s New York City office, Amber focuses on three verticals: Design, Architecture, and Home and Interiors, exploring how creativity and design influences our contemporary social landscape. She lives in Brooklyn with her typewriter.
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