Featured Events in New York in May, 2024 (February Updated)

Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. From Tudor Queens to Pop Icons, the SIX wives of Henry VIII take the microphone to remix five hundred years of historical heartbreak into a Euphoric Celebration of 21st century girl power! This new original musical is the global sensation that everyone is losing their head over!

Lovingly ripped from the film classic, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Spamalot has everything that makes a great knight at the theatre, from flying cows to killer rabbits, British royalty to French taunters, dancing girls, rubbery shrubbery, and of course, the lady of the lake. Spamalot features well-known song titles such as “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” “The Song That Goes Like This,” “Find Your Grail” and more that have become beloved classics in the musical theatre canon.

Hamilton is the story of the unlikely Founding Father determined to make his mark on the new nation as hungry and ambitious as he is. From orphan to Washington's right-hand man, rebel to war hero, a loving husband caught in the country's first sex scandal, to the Treasury head who made an untrusting world believe in the American economy. George Washington, Eliza Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and Hamilton's lifelong friend/foil Aaron Burr all make their mark in this astonishing new musical exploration of a political mastermind.

What’s your fantasy? Ana knows that everybody has one—her especially, and she’d do anything to make it come true. And when she meets Jonah, a sweet and caring student at her boarding school, everything she’s ever wanted is finally falling into place. Except Jonah, like everything else in this moving world premiere play from Rachel Bonds, is not all that he seems. A singularly haunting and heart-racing coming-of-age tale that will keep you guessing until its final twisting moments, Jonah is about the true cost of survival, and the lengths some will travel to feel just a little less alone in the world. Danya Taymor directs.

Tosca is, ultimately, the story of a woman who wants to create beauty and to love, but who is swept up in the storm of history.

Kelli O’Hara and Brian d’Arcy James star in Days of Wine and Roses, a searing new musical about a couple falling in love in 1950s New York and struggling against themselves to build their family.

The Gazillion Bubble Show is a live, interactive performance that showcases the mesmerizing art of creating bubbles. The show features a variety of bubble-related acts, including creating bubbles within bubbles, giant bubbles that encapsulate audience members, and even bubble sculptures that float and dance around the stage. The performers use a range of props, including wands, hoops, and even their bare hands, to create an incredible variety of shapes and sizes of bubbles.

The show is a modern retelling of William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, but with a twist - it explores an alternative ending where Juliet doesn't die and instead sets out to discover her own identity and independence.

L'Elisir d'Amore is an Italian opera composed by Gaetano Donizetti. The opera tells the story of a young man named Nemorino who is in love with a beautiful and wealthy woman named Adina. In order to win Adina's heart, Nemorino buys a love potion from a traveling salesman named Dulcamara. The potion turns out to be fake, but Nemorino's belief in its power and the jealousy it inspires in Adina ultimately leads to their union. L'Elisir d'Amore is known for its beautiful arias and duets, as well as its lighthearted and humorous plot.

Hadestown intertwines two mythic tales—that of young dreamers Orpheus and Eurydice, and that of King Hades and his wife Persephone—as it invites you on a hell-raising journey to the underworld and back. Mitchell’s beguiling melodies and Chavkin’s poetic imagination pit industry against nature, doubt against faith, and fear against love. Performed by a vibrant ensemble of actors, dancers and singers, Hadestown is a haunting and hopeful theatrical experience that grabs you and never lets go.

Eminent American composer John Adams returns to the Met after a decade-long hiatus for the company premiere of his acclaimed opera-oratorio, which incorporates sacred and secular texts in English, Spanish, and Latin, from biblical times to the present day, in an extraordinarily dramatic retelling of the Nativity. El Niño brings together three of contemporary opera’s fiercest champions, all of whom make highly anticipated company debuts: Marin Alsop, one of the great conductors of our time, who has led more than 200 new-music premieres; soprano Julia Bullock, a leading voice on and off stage; and pathbreaking bass-baritone Davóne Tines. Radiant mezzo-sopranos J’Nai Bridges and Daniela Mack take turns completing the principal trio.

Kim is a bright and funny Jersey teen, who happens to look like a 72-year-old lady. And yet her aging disease may be the least of her problems. Forced to maneuver family secrets, borderline personalities, and possible felony charges, Kim is determined to find happiness in a world where not even time is on her side.

Based on the award-winning HBO documentary, How to Dance in Ohio is a heart-filled new musical exploring the need to connect and the courage it takes to step out into the world.

Both series use vinyl and oil paint, incorporating the tone of the raw linen structure in the palette. Each painting employs sparseness by relationships of objects and in the utilization of unpainted linen. center on a lone manzanita tree surviving the elements, in beautiful yet harsh environment showing past trauma evident through signs of drought and fire. Richmond’s paintings reveal an aura of survival where new growth continues. , show a sparse mixture of items, ubiquitous today but had once originated from disparate locations. The central blossom features the bougainvillea, a plant originally from South America and carried around the world by Portuguese explorers and colonists – surrounded by mangoes and Sampaguita (Jasmine) that originate from Southeast Asia and China. The imagery of woodgrain is a nod to Richmond’s work with the late artist Richard Artschwager, whose influence on conceptual and pop art scenes migrated from New York City to the global art world. A migration of images, whether viewing the expansiveness of the terrain in the , or the details in the , the imagery in the large-scale paintings approach a place of contemplation.

features 53 emerging artists who have participated in The Bronx Museum’s flagship artist professional development program from years 2020 through 2023. Since 1980, The Bronx Museum has supported New York’s artist community through its Artist in the Marketplace (AIM) Fellowship, which has provided pivotal career support to a diverse roster of over 1,200 of New York’s most promising artists. Themes addressed in this two-part exhibition include contemporary and critical issues, such as capitalism and colonialism, as well as speculative futures.

Seen Together showcases over forty previously unexhibited works acquired by the Morgan’s Department of Photography since its founding in 2012. The pieces selected, and their thematic arrangements, reflect the department’s two highest priorities: first, to build a photography collection that converses with other collections at the Morgan, including drawings, printed books, and literary manuscripts; and second, to draw from widely varied historical contexts and traditions for photographs that collectively tell larger stories about the medium. One wall of the exhibition features eighteen photographs of prominent figures from many creative disciplines, notably visual art (Yayoi Kusama, Marcel Duchamp, Saul Steinberg), literature (Marianne Moore, Jack Kerouac), performance (Yoko Ono, Harlem Renaissance dancer Edna Guy), and music (Louis Hardin, aka Moondog). Visually inventive photography of artists—transcending “portraiture” in the familiar sense—forms a major ongoing focus for the department. It has grown out of two early initiatives: the 2007 acquisition of seventy-one photographs by Irving Penn and Diane Arbus portraying artists collected by the Morgan and the 2013 launch of the Peter Hujar Collection, which today numbers over 150 works. Other themes explored in Seen Together include kaleidoscopic and abstract camera imagery, the visual dynamic between (artistic) “landscapes” and (touristic) “views” in the nineteenth century, and the artist’s own body as subject. A unique and engaging group of thirty-one anonymously made snapshots, compiled by the collector Peter J. Cohen, finds the camera being used to document the work lives of everyday people. Two artists are seen in some depth: Irving Penn, with three photographs demonstrating his work for Vogue magazine in fashion, travel, and food; and Eleanor Antin, whose influential series of fifty-one postcards, 100 Boots, was mailed, card by card, to several dozen correspondents forty years ago and given, as a complete set, to the Morgan in 2022.

As artificial intelligence tools for image creation enter the mainstream with text-to-image software such as DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion, Harold Cohen: AARON examines the historical foundations of AI artmaking and provides a deep exploration of creativity, authorship, and collaboration in the context of AI. This exhibition centers on AARON, the earliest artificial intelligence software for artmaking and one of the longest-running contemporary art projects. Conceived in the late 1960s by Harold Cohen at the University of California San Diego, AARON was further developed until his death in 2016. AARON’s various manifestations include software that drives plotting and painting machines and software to display imagery on monitors or projectors. The first and only museum to collect versions of the AARON software from different time periods, the Whitney will showcase artworks produced by AARON and highlight its drawing process live in the galleries for the first time since the 1990s. Featuring the Museum’s collection of AARON’s paintings and drawings, along with two versions of the screen-based and drawing software, Harold Cohen: AARON offers a comprehensive view of AI’s foundations and its role in artmaking today.

Over the course of sixty years, British artist Howard Hodgkin (British, London 1932–2017 London) formed a collection of Indian paintings and drawings that is recognized as one of the finest of its kind. A highly regarded painter and printmaker, Hodgkin collected works from the Mughal, Deccani, Rajput, and Pahari courts dating from the 16th to the 19th centuries that reflect his personal passion for Indian art. This exhibition presents over 120 of these works, many of which The Met recently acquired, alongside loans from The Howard Hodgkin Indian Collection Trust. The works on view include stunning portraits, beautifully detailed text illustrations, studies of the natural world, and devotional subjects. The exhibition will also display a painting by Hodgkin, Small Indian Sky, which alludes to the subtle relationship between his own work, India, and his collection. The exhibition is made possible by the Florence and Herbert Irving Fund for Asian Art Exhibitions and the Friends of Islamic Art.

Candace Hill-Montgomery (b. 1945) is a Queens-born artist now based in Bridgehampton, Long Island, whose decades-long career has spanned a wide array of media and approach: painting, photography, installation art, public interventions, video, poetry, performance, and fugitive combinations thereof. Over the last ten years, Hill-Montgomery has largely worked with weavings made on homemade looms, cunningly fusing an assemblage of techniques and materials including sheep’s wool, mohair, linen, paper yarn, and other fabrics, often augmented by found objects. The pieces are typically exquisitely layered in both composition and subject matter, bursting at the seams with color and movement, mirroring her iterative and free-associative poetry practice and variously drawing from pop-cultural and religious iconography, vernacular textile craft, art-historical and literary references, and delirious, free-wheeling wordplay. “Pretty Birds Peer Speak Sow Peculiar,” the artist’s first show in the five boroughs since the 1980s, comprises a spread of weaves produced between 2016 and 2023 that demonstrate Hill-Montgomery’s wry sensibilities, variously invoking the entrepreneurial power couple Jay-Z and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, the producer and rapper formerly known as Kanye West, the Machiavellian fifteenth century monarch Richard III, and the surreptitious visit by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to Afghanistan in 2019. Two new works for re-stretched canvas, appropriating materials from more than forty years ago, grace the entryway, and other woven textiles become shawls for a pair of antique ceramic birds. The arc of Hill-Montgomery’s artistic career is as winding and manifold as her visual work. Raised in suburban east Queens, she grew up with the pre-fame Ronettes and babysat Count Basie’s daughter. From her late teens to early twenties, she did runway and print modeling for designers such as Jacques Tiffeau, Bill Blass, and Oscar de la Renta, before enrolling in the studio art program at Fordham University. In 1979, she was in residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem and presented an artwork interrogating public space, dually installed at Artists Space and a tenement on Frederick Douglass Boulevard. She soon intermingled with the bustling downtown arts scene of the ’80s, presenting a work responding to the FBI raid against Fred Hampton at Colab’s “The Times Square Show,” staging a performance at Franklin Furnace, exhibiting at the New Museum in a 1982 solo show, producing a number of artists’ books, and collaborating closely with figures such as Ntozake Shange, providing sets (“built-poems”) for theatrical performances, and Lucy R. Lippard, with whom she co-curated the 1983 exhibition “Working Women/Working Artists/Working Together,” at Gallery 1199, operated by a local of the Service Employees International Union representing hospital workers. For roughly three decades, Hill-Montgomery worked as a high school art and journalism educator. Since her retirement in 2011, she has lived full-time in Long Island. Hill-Montgomery continues to produce artwork and poetry prolifically; her latest publications include the collection Muss Sill (Distance No Object, in 2020) and Short Leash Kept On (Materials, 2022), a long poem inspired by detective fiction and the writing of Lloyd Addison and Russell Atkins.

Anh Duong (b. 1960, Bordeaux, France) was born and raised in France to a Spanish father and Vietnamese mother. Duong’s mother had, herself, trained as an artist, but gave up painting when her children were born. Duong studied ballet in Paris until age twenty-three, training with the Nora Kiss Academy of Classical Dance and Tessa Beaumont, complementing her ballet studies with an erudition in architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. American architect-turned-photographer David Seidner launched Duong into the fashion world when he executed a set of photographs of Duong in 1985. This prompted Duong’s modeling career, working with Christian Lacroix and Isaac Mizrahi, and a coeval career in Hollywood, where Duong acted as a glamorous gangster’s moll in (1992), an immigrant tailoress in (1992), and a Louise Brooks character in (1993). By 1988, Duong had left Paris and relocated to New York where she met and moved in with Julian Schnabel, who regularly painted Duong’s slender, Modigliani-like visage and encouraged her painting practice. Three years later, Sperone Westwater Gallery showed Duong’s first painting show in New York; Duong’s inaugural self-portrait, (1988), was included in a 1997 show at the PMMK Museum of Modern Art in Ostend, Belgium. Soon, in 1999, the Galerie Jerome de Noirmont in Paris exhibited Duong’s first solo show of self-portraits. Notably, in 2006, she was commissioned by Barry Diller to execute a nine-foot stainless steel sculpture of Diane von Fürstenberg. Since then, Duong has had numerous one-woman shows of her work at venerable institutions, including Sonnabend Gallery (New York, 2011), Robilant + Voena (London, 2014), and Galerie Gmurzynska, where she has been regularly exhibiting since 2021. Duong’s work belongs to public collections including the National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.) and the Statue of Liberty Museum, New York, which commissioned Duong’s 50 sculpted stars for the new museum entrance in 2019. Duong’s work also belongs to illustrious private collections, including filmmakers, artists, architects and designers ranging from Dennis Hopper to Bruno Bischofberger, Spyros Niarchos, Simon de Pury, Patrick Painter, and Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana. Duong has gained widespread acclaim for her singular portraits, painting the likeness of Vincent Gallo, Susan Sarandon, Anjelica Huston, Karen Elson, Christian Louboutin. A number of these portraits are on display in Galerie Gmurzynska’s new show, which spans the breadth of Duong’s portraiture. There is a characteristic fleshiness to Duong's portraits—a crisp fleshiness, distinct from the Neo- Expressionist thickets of Jenny Saville’s brushwork and the flat roseate nudes of Maureen Dougherty’s sprightly . Duong’s paintings are executed in veristic style and uncompromisingly theatrical in substance; they are tethered to an elliptical world striped with narratives that we only catch glimpses at. There is a cinematic quality to Duong’s use of light and her composition, her splinter-scenes rife with narratives attested to by her titles (e.g., 2006; , 2022; , 2022). More often than not, Duong’s subjects are women. Though they might flaunt the vaudeville garb of an 18th century empresses donned in russet-curled wigs and half-sheeted in knight’s armor, as in (2022), Duong’s women are palpably real and contemporary. They are real in their playful attire, dressing for themselves alone, and they are real in how lamplight or the sun’s rays bounce between the furrows of their skin, revealing pocks and ridges. Duong’s likeness is thoroughgoing, the artist’s most consistent motif amidst changes in proportion, setting, and age. Such is the confessional nature of Duong’s oeuvre, which oscillates between portraiture, self-portraiture, and still lifes of resplendent plants, bejeweled pumps, and shriveled paint tubes, their contents exhausted.

Gordon Parks. Jean-Michel Basquiat. Lorna Simpson. Kehinde Wiley. Nina Chanel Abney. These names loom large in the past and present of art—as do many others in the collection of musical and cultural icons Swizz Beatz (Kasseem Dean) and Alicia Keys. Giants is the first major exhibition devoted to the couple’s world-class holdings of works by multigenerational Black diasporic artists. The Deans, both born and raised in New York, champion a philosophy of “Black artists supporting Black artists.” As Swizz Beatz told Cultured magazine, “The collection started not just because we’re art lovers, but also because there’s not enough people of color collecting artists of color.” “Giants” refers to several aspects of their collection: the renown of legendary artists, the impact of canon-expanding contemporary artists, and the monumental works by such creators as Derrick Adams, Arthur Jafa, and Meleko Mokgosi. Immense pieces—including the largest ever by Mokgosi—are paired with standouts such as Parks’s seminal photographs, Wiley’s revolutionary portraits, and Esther Mahlangu’s globe-bridging canvases. The term also evokes the strength of the bonds between the Deans and the artists they support, and among the artists themselves. Along with examining these links and legacies, the exhibition will encourage “giant conversations” inspired by the works on view—critiquing society and celebrating Blackness.

This major exhibition of Gustav Klimt's (1862–1918) idyllic depictions in the landscape genre will feature significant paintings made while the artist was on his Sommerfrische (summer holiday) in the Austrian countryside. "Klimt Landscapes" will present highlights from Neue Galerie New York's holdings, such as Park at Kammer Castle (1909) and Forester’s House in Weissenbach II (Garden) (1914), alongside important loans from museums and private collections in Europe and the United States, including works from the Harvard Art Museums, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Wien Museum. For the last twenty years of his career, Klimt devoted considerable energy to painting landscapes during his summer vacations on the Attersee in the Salzkammergut region of Austria, known for its tranquil lakes. Created purely for his own pleasure, these bucolic scenes became among his most sought-after pictures and were highly coveted by collectors. Most were made in a square format—a reflection of his fascination with photography. This special exhibition will examine Klimt’s landscapes within the context of his larger oeuvre and trace the evolution of his style from one informed by historicism and the academic tradition, to an embrace of Symbolist tendencies. After the founding of the Vienna Secession in 1897, Klimt became a leading proponent of the modern movement. He spent a decade exploring the ideal of the Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) and his approach evolved during this period to become more decorative and ornate, culminating in his Golden Style. Thereafter, he shifted to a more painterly manner of working in pure color and one influenced by French artists, in particular. Klimt’s landscapes will be situated alongside the rare print portfolio, Das Werk Gustav Klimts, as well as photography, fashion, and the decorative arts of the Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshops). The exhibition will also consider Klimt’s relationship with his sister-in-law, fashion designer Emilie Flöge, who was a lifelong friend and trusted confidante; his deep engagement with the Viennese avant-garde; and the techniques he employed to achieve mesmerizing, harmonious works that literally shimmer with color and light. Neue Galerie New York is renowned for its resplendent Klimt Gallery, which permanently features works from all periods of the artist's career, including his 1907 Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer I, a masterpiece of Klimt’s Golden Style. Few paintings have captured the public's imagination as thoroughly as the so-called “Woman in Gold,” and for this reason Klimt is most admired for his sensual portraits of women. Klimt was a central figure in the cultural life of Vienna at the fin de siècle, and this major show will situate his work in an interdisciplinary context to help yield new insights and understanding about his considerable artistic achievements and contributions. This exhibition is curated by Janis Staggs, Director of Curatorial and Manager of Publications at Neue Galerie New York. At the Neue Galerie, Staggs has previously organized or co-organized "Ernst Ludwig Kirchner," "Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele: 1918 Centenary," "Wiener Werkstätte, 1903-1932: The Luxury of Beauty," "Gustav Klimt and Adele Bloch-Bauer: The Woman in Gold," "Gustav Klimt: 150th Anniversary Celebration," and "Wiener Werkstätte Jewelry," among many others.

For his first public art exhibition, King photographed the people and places he encountered during travels in the summer of 2023. An extension of his autobiographical practice, as a photo diary of King’s time in artist residencies at BOFFO on Fire Island, Light Work in Syracuse, and Eigth House in Vermont, as well as travels throughout São Paulo and the Cayman Islands. During this period of transience, King sought to capture his sources of comfort, companionship, and love. The resulting series explores nature, intimacy, the act of claiming space, and the significance of creating a home. “ marks a nomadic period in the artist’s life when the people that surrounded him temporarily became his home. The series serves as a visual journey tracing King’s summer travels, cumulatively revealing a meditative self-portrait,” said Public Art Fund Adjunct Curator Katerina Stathopoulou. “Presented larger-than-life on hundreds of JCDecaux bus shelters and newsstands, King’s arresting portraits gaze directly at the viewer, diminishing the space between audience and subject.” Based in New York, Clifford Prince King is a self-taught photographer who documents his relationships and experiences as a queer Black man, recording his life and the ways it is shaped by the people that surround him. Growing up in Arizona, King seldom saw his own identity reflected in images or popular films. A desire for representation led him to begin creating deeply personal images that extend an invitation to diverse audiences similarly seeking a sense of belonging, community, and safety. “This series of works came about during a time in my life when the people, places, and pieces organically fell together to form a new sense of home. Displayed on public bus shelters and newsstands throughout the winter time, these photographs will offer a breath of fresh air, surrender, and release, providing diverse audience members with warmth, tenderness, and an encouragement to embrace and heal from the past,” said King. King’s photographs capture poignant moments of desire, closeness, and self-realization unfolding in lush natural environments and interior domestic spaces. At once ambiguous and narrative, the photographs take on a cinematic quality, evoking questions of what took place leading up to the image and what will come to pass. Using a 35mm film camera to lend the work a timeless, grainy quality, King bathes his subjects in the warm natural light of summer, capturing them in gentle poses of vulnerability, affection, and contemplation. Among the images unfurling the drama and warmth of relationships are a capoeira dancer caught mid-handstand on a rooftop in São Paolo, a couple standing closely together by the waterfront in the rain, and two lovers kissing while handcuffed off the side of a road, illuminated by car headlights. The series title, , evokes layers of meaning surrounding experiences of affection and shelter. The phrase is an expression of care and concern for loved ones within spaces where safety isn’t guaranteed for members of LGTBQ+ and BIPOC communities. Additionally, it alludes to the exhibition’s presentation on bus shelters, sites for people commuting to and from their residences. Finally, the title also expresses the journey and desire to find a sense of belonging during transient and unmoored life stages. Exploring companionship and selfhood, King’s six-foot portraits stand as pillars of LGTBQ+ and BIPOC communities, in scenes rich with poetry, release, and contemplation. With this new body of work, King strives to carve out space for people like himself in the city streets, making his subjects unapologetically visible. is curated by Public Art Fund Adjunct Curator Katerina Stathopoulou. is on view on 300 JCDecaux bus shelters and 30 newsstands throughout New York City, Chicago, and Boston. The exhibition can be explored anytime, anywhere, on the .

Creator of unforgettable animal characters like Peter Rabbit, Mr. Jeremy Fisher, and Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, the beloved children’s book author and illustrator Beatrix Potter (1866–1943) rooted her fiction in the natural world. Childhood summers spent in Scotland and the English Lake District nourished Potter’s love of nature, while her famous menagerie of pets inspired her picture letters and published tales. Her study of botany and mycology established an abiding interest in the life sciences, a passion she would bring to rural life at Hill Top Farm in Cumbria, England. There, she enjoyed a second act as a sheep breeder and land conservationist, ultimately bequeathing four thousand acres of farmland to the National Trust. Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature brings together artwork, books, manuscripts, and artifacts from several institutions in the United Kingdom, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Trust, and the Armitt Museum and Library. Paired with the Morgan’s exceptional collection of her picture letters, these objects trace how Potter’s innovative blend of scientific observation and imaginative storytelling shaped some of the world’s most popular children’s books.

Little begins each composition by scouring artist monographs and stacks of weathered spreads in fashion magazines from the 1970s and 1980s. With a reverence for reference, his scenes infuse late-twentieth century advertising aesthetics with lush art-historical motifs, such as in Untitled (Bedroom), 2021, in which decorative flourishes—reminiscent of the late British designer Terence Conran—furnish a mantle beneath a couple depicted in the stiffened style of Etruscan funerary art. Little’s palette radiates warmth, and yet, his exacting handiwork and needlelike ornamentations are also coolly imperceptible, pristine, and smooth. In Little’s world not a hair is out of place; each refined figure is a custodian of the quietly immaculate interiors and exteriors they inhabit. Layering the aesthetics and ideals of Western advertising culture and art history, Little’s out-of-time characters are positioned with an air of remove. Born out of commercial photography, the men and women inhabiting these uncanny scenes are meant to be looked at and are conscious of it—participants in their own objectification. In Untitled (Ballroom), 2013, a young woman in a backless midnight-blue gown, matching opera gloves, and architectural gold jewelry feigns surprise as if someone has just walked in the room; her attentive gaze causes the viewer to contemplate their own. In offering idealized portrayals of a privileged lifestyle, the artist hints at the fragility of yearning for luxury when none is for sale. The intimate scale of Little’s work further reinforces its conceptual foundations; as if peering through the window of a miniature model, viewers are encouraged to physically lean in and absorb the nuance of each detail. Despite their physicality, the ambiguous contexts of his subjects inspire endless curiosity: What is the man in the wine-colored robe and slippers reading while he sips his morning coffee? Who is the woman in an elaborate white and red-hearted apron—which matches her tablecloth and starched napkins—entertaining for tea? How did the mangy fox die? Little’s compositions are keepers of their secrets, endlessly flexible to viewers’ imaginations.

Aspects of Appearance: Portraits from the Collection in Context features thirty-one works in a range of media by twenty-seven artists. The artworks in this exhibition span more than a century, from William Auerbach-Levy’s (b. Brest-Litovsk, Russian Empire, now Brest, Belarus, 1889–d. Ossining, New York, 1964) rigorously naturalistic depictions of types encountered on New York’s Lower East Side to Maryna Bilak’s (b. Rakhiv, Ukraine, 1984) hauntingly beautiful, contemporary portrait of her aging mother-in-law. From strangers to intimate portraits of family members, the artists included here reveal the character of their subjects, while at the same time positioning them in wider social and cultural contexts. A portrait, at its essence, is a matter of identity and identification. Yet they also may be great works of imagination—opportunities for artists to explore their own memories and fantasies—as exemplified by Romare Bearden’s (b. Charlotte, North Carolina, 1911–d. New York, New York, 1988) mythic vision of a royal figure related to African American culture. Hyman Bloom (b. Riga, Latvia, 1913–d. Nashua, New Hampshire, 2009) depicts a rabbi, whose personal identity is less important than the enduring traditions of the religion he represents. Similarly, Max Weber (b. Bialystok, Russian Empire, now Poland, 1881–d. Great Neck, New York, 1961) focuses on expressing the spiritual solemnity of Judaism in a portrait of an unknown sitter. Like Auerbach-Levy, both David Levine (b. Brooklyn, New York, 1926–d. New York, New York, 2009) and Abraham Walkowitz (b. Tyumen, Russian Empire, now Russia, 1878–d. New York, New York, 1965) focus on types—the ordinary people they might observe on New York City streets, though during two very different eras. Portraits typically represent a unique individual, their character, inner life, and place in society. Artists such as Milton Avery (b. Altmar, New York, 1885–d. Bronx, New York, 1965), Ilarion Golitsyn (b. Moscow, Russian SFSR, now Russia, 1928–d. Moscow, Russia, 2007), Gerta Nemenova (b. Berlin, Germany, 1905–d. Leningrad, Russian SFSR, now Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1986), Georgy Vereisky (b. Proskurov, Russian Empire, now Khmelnitsky, Ukraine, 1886–d. Leningrad, Russian SFSR, now Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1962), Andy Warhol (b. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1928–d. New York, New York, 1987), and Shai Zurim (b. Israel, 1972) portray their friends, members of their artistic circles, and cultural icons. Others focus on self-identity, like Menashe Kadishman (b. Tel Aviv-Yafo, Mandatory Palestine, now Israel, 1932–d. Ramat Gan, Israel, 2015) and Bill Sullivan (b. New Haven, Connecticut, 1942–d. Hudson, New York, 2010). Still others, for example, Rifka Angel (b. Kalvarija, Russian Empire, now Lithuania, 1899–d. New York, New York, 1988), Alex Katz (b. Brooklyn, New York, 1927), and Joan Linder (b. Ossining, New York, 1970), explore the nuances of family relationships. Some, like Raphael Soyer (b. Borisoglebsk, Russian Empire, now Russia, 1899–d. New York, New York, 1987) and Benjamin Levy (b. Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine, now Israel, 1940)—both from immigrant families—are inspired by old family photographs, while Till Freiwald (b. Lima, Peru, 1963) bases his paintings directly on his own photographs of other people. Portraiture also provides a lens onto politics and history, for example in Chaim Gross’s (b. Ökörmező, Hungary, now Mizhhirya, Ukraine, 1904–d. New York, New York, 1991) commemorative print of Martin Luther King, Jr., following his death in 1968, and Oskar Kokoschka’s (b. Pöchlarn, Austria, 1886–d. Montreux, Switzerland, 1980) portrait of Golda Meir. Other works demonstrate modernism’s impact on portraiture, from expressionistic and semi-abstract paintings and prints by Harold Baumbach (b. New York, New York, 1904–d. San Francisco, California, 2001), Moïse Kisling (b. Kraków, Austria-Hungary, now Poland, 1891–d. Sanary-sur-Mer, France, 1953), and Pablo Picasso (b. Málaga, Spain, 1881–d. Mougins, France, 1973) to conceptual examples by Dan Witz (b. Chicago, Illinois, 1957). This exhibition gives viewers an opportunity to consider the varied ways in which portrait subjects are represented. As artists fashion resemblance, they also construct meaning and connect viewers with aspects of their own identities.

In February 2024, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present the groundbreaking exhibition The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism. Through some 160 works of painting, sculpture, photography, film, and ephemera, it will explore the comprehensive and far-reaching ways in which Black artists portrayed everyday modern life in the new Black cities that took shape in the 1920s–40s in New York City’s Harlem and nationwide in the early decades of the Great Migration when millions of African Americans began to move away from the segregated rural South. The first art museum survey of the subject in New York City since 1987, the exhibition will establish the Harlem Renaissance and its radically new development of the modern Black subject as central to the development of international modern art. Featured artists include Charles Alston, Aaron Douglas, Meta Warrick Fuller, William H. Johnson, Archibald Motley, Winold Reiss, Augusta Savage, James Van Der Zee, and Laura Wheeler Waring. These artists will be shown in direct juxtapostion with portrayals of international African diasporan subjects by European counterparts ranging from Henri Matisse, Edvard Munch, and Pablo Picasso to Germaine Casse, Jacob Epstein, and Ronald Moody. A significant percentage of the paintings, sculpture, and works on paper on view in the exhibition come from the extensive collections of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), including Clark Atlanta University Art Museum, Fisk University Galleries, Hampton University Art Museum, and Howard University Gallery of Art. Other major lenders include the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, with pending loans from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The exhibition will include loans from significant private collections and major European lenders. The exhibition is made possible by the Ford Foundation, the Barrie A. and Deedee Wigmore Foundation, and Denise Littlefield Sobel.

Beginning with her abstract calligraphy of 1962, this exhibition traces the radical processes and evolution of Zazeela's graphic work, presenting seminal and formative drawings that became foundational in the development of her light works, many of which are being publicly displayed for the first time.

Linda Stein is a feminist artist, activist, educator, and writer, based in New York City. Stein says, For six decades, Linda Stein’s art has tackled themes of persecution and protection, emphasizing social justice and anti-bullying. In her early years, Stein grappled with her sexual identity, a theme poignantly captured in her Profiles series. Her diaries from the 1960s, interspersed with sketches and text, chronicle her inner turmoil during an era when homosexuality was harshly stigmatized. Her work, deeply impacted by 9/11, transformed from abstract to figurative, adopting an armor-like quality. The androgynous, sentinel-like figures (Knights of Protection) are emblems of defense, symbolizing vigilant protectors. Integrating aspects of pop-culture and mythical icons (Wonder Woman, Princess Mononoke, Lisbeth Salander, Lady Gaga, Storm, and Nausicaa), Stein’s work engages with themes of power and vulnerability. Stein’s influential work has been recognized through various grants, residencies, and public art commissions. Internationally, her sculptures and artworks are featured in esteemed collections. In the U.S., her pieces are permanently housed at Crystal Bridges Museum, Smith College, Rutgers University's Zimmerli Art Museum, and in numerous private collections. Stein’s editorial voice has been highlighted in her book Holocaust Heroes: Fierce Females with a foreword by Gloria Steinem. She is the Founding President of the non-profit “Have Art: Will Travel! Inc” (HAWT) for Courageous Kindness, addressing bullying and diversity, and has appeared on multiple television and radio programs. The women showcased in Gallery 2 represent female artists from the first and second generation of abstract expressionism. Throughout their careers, they endured significant inequalities and forms of bullying, facing barriers of acceptance and recognition that their male counterparts rarely encountered. Despite these challenges, they persisted, forging paths that would later be followed by others, including the courageous Stein. Since its inception in Soho, New York, in 1982, the Anita Shapolsky Gallery has been an unwavering advocate for these remarkable artists, dedicating itself to elevating their work and stories to deserved prominence. The gallery continues to honor their legacies, ensuring that their contributions to the arts are celebrated and remembered.

will be the first major drawing retrospective of Joan Jonas, one of the most experimental and significant voices in American art of the postwar period. Although Jonas’s work has received critical attention and acclaim over the past few decades, her voluminous drawing oeuvre, which constitutes the backbone of her video, performance, and sculpture practices, has never been surveyed. This exhibition will be a definitive look at the integral place of drawing in the career of this pioneering feminist artist. will occupy the entirety of The Drawing Center's gallery spaces and will feature more than three hundred individual drawings dating from the 1960s to the present as well as a recent drawing environment that will be presented in the United States for the first time.