Latest Events in New York(July Updated)

Otobong Nkanga has changed the way we understand the Earth and our place in it. “Humans are only a small, minute part of the ecosystem,” the artist has said. “My works connect us to our shared histories, not just through land and geography, but through emotions shaped by events and encounters. These are the cadences of life.” Otobong Nkanga: Cadence presents a new commission by the artist: an all-encompassing environment of tapestry, sculpture, sound, and text that explores the turbulent rhythms of nature and society. Created specifically for MoMA’s Marron Family Atrium, the installation centers on a monumental, multi-paneled tapestry that suggests sprawling ecosystems and galaxies.

While the landscape genre has long been associated with picturesque vistas, Shifting Landscapes considers a more expansive interpretation of the category, exploring how evolving political, ecological, and social issues motivate artists as they attempt to represent the world around them. Drawn from the Whitney’s collection, the exhibition features works from the 1960s to the present and is organized according to distinct thematic sections. Some of these coalesce around material and conceptual affinities: sculptural assemblages formed from locally sourced objects, ecofeminist approaches to land art, and the legacies of documentary landscape photography. Others are tied to specific geographies, such as the frenzied cityscape of modern New York or the experimental filmmaking scene of 1970s Los Angeles. Still others show how artists invent fantastic new worlds where humans, animals, and the land become one. Whether depicting the effects of industrialization on the environment, grappling with the impact of geopolitical borders, or proposing imagined spaces as a way of destabilizing the concept of a “natural” world, the works gathered here bring ideas of land and place into focus, foregrounding how we shape and are shaped by the spaces around us.

Featuring 25 site-specific, newly commissioned installations, Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial explores design’s role in shaping the physical and emotional realities of home across the United States, US Territories, and Tribal Nations. The exhibition is the seventh offering in the museum’s Design Triennial series, which was established in 2000 to address the most urgent topics of the time through the lens of design.

Over the course of forty years, Lea R. Sneider (1925–2020) formed a significant collection of Korean art that challenged established norms. While appreciating literati art, she was particularly drawn to lively and colorful forms connected to everyday life, resulting in a diverse collection that illustrates Korea’s vibrant material culture. This exhibition features a substantial gift and loans from the Lea R. Sneider Collection, generously provided by her children. Through approximately 100 pieces from the fifth century to the present, Including paintings, ceramics, furniture, textiles, and funeral and ritual objects, the exhibition highlights the pervasiveness of auspicious symbolism and the unpretentious dynamism in Korean art. Sneider has said that the works reflect the vitality and warmth of the people who engaged with them, a sentiment that her collection, with its emphasis on cultural and everyday relevance, underscores.

Among the various mock combats fought by knights and noblemen in tournaments, the joust was one of the most spectacular. The joust of peace required highly specialized armor that was unsuited to any other use, and usually made by the greatest armorers due to the exceptional metalworking skills required. This special installation features an armor for the joust of peace of Philip I of Castile (1478–1506) on loan from the Imperial Armory, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. A rare example among surviving armors for its refined decoration, it is also remarkable in that it was intended for a teenager. Its owner Philip I became duke of Burgundy, count of Flanders, and the ruler of additional lands, although in name only, upon his birth. He began wearing armor when he was just six years old, and this one was made for training and participating in tournaments around the time that he turned 15, when he was declared ready to rule. Through marriage, Philip became king consort of Castile and the first member of the House of Habsburg to rule over Spanish territories. His jousting armors were key to shaping his public image of a capable leader.

Can a photographic portrait inspire political imagination? Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination examines how photographers and their sitters contributed to the proliferation of Pan-African solidarity during the mid-20th century. Embracing the international spirit of the time, the exhibition gathers striking pictures by photographers working in Central and West African cities. They created images of everyday citizens, dazzling music scenes, and potent manifestations of youth culture that reflected emerging political realities. Photographs by Jean Depara, Seydou Keïta, Malick Sidibé, and Sanlé Sory portray residents across Bamako, Bobo-Dioulasso, and Kinshasa at a time when the winds of decolonial change swept the African continent in tandem with the burgeoning US Civil Rights movement. The exhibition also spotlights James Barnor and Kwame Brathwaite—photographers living in Europe and North America who contributed to the construction of Africa as a political idea. Contemporary works by artists such as Samuel Fosso, Silvia Rosi, and Njideka Akunyili Crosby show the enduring relevance of these themes. Brimming with possibility, Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination embraces the creative potential of the photographic portrait and its political resonance across the globe.

Based on the 1960 film by Roger Corman and featuring a book by Howard Ashman, music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Ashman, Little Shop follows meek plant store attendant Seymour, his co-worker crush Audrey, her sadistic dentist of a boyfriend and the man-eating plant that threatens them and the world as we know it.

The critically acclaimed bestselling novel Water for Elephants comes to vivid life on Broadway in a unique, spectacle-filled new musical. After losing what matters most, a young man jumps a moving train unsure of where the road will take him and finds a new home with the remarkable crew of a traveling circus, and a life—and love—beyond his wildest dreams. Seen through the eyes of his older self, his adventure becomes a poignant reminder that if you choose the ride, life can begin again at any age. Directed by Tony Award® nominee Jessica Stone (Kimberly Akimbo), with a book by three-time Tony nominee Rick Elice (Jersey Boys, Peter and the Starcatcher) adapted from Sara Gruen’s novel, and a soaring score by the acclaimed PigPen Theatre Co., Water for Elephants unites innovative stagecraft with the very best of Broadway talent in an authentic and deeply moving new musical that invites us all to give ourselves to the unknown.

Ganesha, the son of Shiva and Parvati, is a Brahmanical (Hindu) diety known to clear a path to the gods and remove obstacles in everyday life. He is loved by his devotees (bhakti) for his many traits, including his insatiable appetite for sweet cakes and his role as a dispenser of magic, surprise, and laughter. However, Ganesha is also the lord of ganas (nature deities) and can take on a fearsome aspect in this Guise. The seventh- to twenty-first-century works in this exhibition trace his depiction across the Indian subcontinent, the Himalayas, and Southeast Asia. Featuring 24 works across sculptures, paintings, musical instruments, ritual implements, and photography, the exhibition emphasizes the vitality and exuberance of Ganesha as the bringer of new beginnings.

Redwood is a transportive new musical about one woman’s journey into the precious and precarious world of the redwood forest. Jesse is a successful businesswoman, mother and wife who seems to have it all, but inside, her heart is broken. Finding herself at a turning point, Jesse leaves everyone and everything behind, gets in her car and drives... Thousands of miles later, she hits the majestic forests of Northern California, where a chance meeting and a leap of faith change her life forever. With its deeply personal story, refreshingly contemporary sound, and awe-inspiring design, Redwood explores the lengths –and heights– one travels to find strength, resilience and healing.

Enamel decoration is a significant element of Chinese decorative arts that has long been overlooked. This exhibition reveals the aesthetic, technical, and cultural achievement of Chinese enamel wares by demonstrating the transformative role of enamel during the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties. The first transformational moment occurred in the late 14th to 15th century, when the introduction of cloisonné enamel from the West, along with the development of porcelain with overglaze enamels, led to a shift away from a monochromatic palette to colorful works. The second transformation occurred in the late 17th to 18th century, when European enameling materials and techniques were brought to the Qing court and more subtle and varied color tones were developed on enamels applied over porcelain, metal, glass, and other mediums. In both moments, Chinese artists did not simply adopt or copy foreign techniques; they actively created new colors and styles that reflected their own taste. The more than 100 objects on view are drawn mainly from The Met collection.

In 1969, The Who created a rock opera that changed the course of music history. Some 25 years later,The Who’s TOMMYarrived on Broadway, winning 5 Tony Awards® and pushing the boundaries of what musical theatre can be. This March, the Amazing Journey arrives in a dazzling new production direct from a sold-out, record-breaking, award-winning Chicago premiere. “Broadway has nothing else like this wizardry going on, not this season and nothing I know of for next season. Visually and sonically overwhelming, it’s a prescient masterpiece of a rock opera.”Chris Jones,Chicago Tribune

More than a hundred remarkable objects from the Heber Bishop collection, including carvings of jade, the most esteemed stone in China, and many other hardstones, are on view in this focused presentation. The refined works represent the sophisticated art of Chinese gemstone carvers during the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) as well as the highly accomplished skills of Mogul Indian (1526–1857) craftsmen, which provided an exotic inspiration to their Chinese counterparts. Also on view are a set of Chinese stone-working tools and illustrations of jade workshops, which will introduce the traditional method of working jade.

Playful, kinetic, and full of surprises, Songs of New York is an immersive interactive experience that introduces visitors to a full range of music from and about New York City, from the 1920s to the 2020s, showcasing everything from be-bop to K-pop, across genres, boroughs, and musical movements. Songs of New York will be installed in a dedicated gallery on the Museum’s second floor in February 2025. Featuring music from 100 artists, programmed with both sound and visuals, Songs of New York reflects on topics like the subway, apartments, nightlife, and neighborhoods, toggling through acts as diverse as Susanne Vega, Tito Puente, Merle Haggard, LCD Soundsystem, Yoko Ono, Lil’ Kim, and many, many others. The interactive experience will be paired with original photography from the MCNY collection, including works by notable photographers including Allan Tannenbaum, Joe Conzo, Fred W. McDarrah, and Janette Beckman, who captured images of NYC icons such as Blondie, LL Cool J, and the Velvet Underground that celebrate the city’s longstanding role as a place for music making and a source of inspiration for artists across the five boroughs.

Operation Mincemeat is the 2024 Olivier Award-winning New Musical. It’s London’s hit with 74 Five-Star reviews, making it the good reviewed show in West End history! It has been hailed by Peter Marks in The Washington Post as “the year’s funny musical.” The year is 1943 and we’re losing the war. Luckily, we’re about to gamble all our futures on a stolen corpse. Singin’ in the Rain meets Strangers on a Train, Operation Mincemeat is the fast-paced, hilarious and unbelievable true story of the twisted secret mission that won us World War II. Lauded by the UK’s Daily Mirror as “part Mel Brooks, part SIX, part Hamilton with a side order of One Man, Two Guvnors.”

Emmy® and Golden Globe Award® winner Darren Criss ( Little Shop of Horrors ) returns to Broadway alongside Helen J Shen in the new romantic musical comedy Maybe Happy Ending . Inside a one-room apartment on the outskirts of Seoul, Oliver lives a happily quiet life, listening to jazz records and caring for his favorite plant. But what else is there to do when you’re a Helperbot 3, a robot that has long been retired and considered obsolete? When his fellow Helperbot neighbor Claire asks to borrow his charger, what starts as an awkward encounter leads to a unique friendship, a surprising adventure, and maybe even…love? Winner of the Richard Rodgers Award, Maybe Happy Ending is the offbeat and captivating story of two outcasts near the end of their warranty who discover that even robots can be swept off their feet. Helmed by visionary director and Tony Award® winner Michael Arden ( Parade , Once on This Island ), with a dazzling scenic design by Dane Laffrey ( A Christmas Carol ) and book, music, and lyrics by the internationally acclaimed duo Will Aronson and Hue Park, Maybe Happy Ending is a fresh, original musical about the small things that make any life worth living. 100 minutes, no intermission

He is one of the greatest entertainers of all time. Now, Michael Jackson’s unique and unparalleled artistry has finally arrived on Broadway in a brand-new musical. Centered around the making of his 1992 Dangerous World Tour, and created by Tony Award®- winning Director / Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage, MJ goes beyond the singular moves and signature sound of the star, offering a rare look at the creative mind and collaborative spirit that catapulted Jackson into legendary status. Turn it up, Broadway — MJ is here! • MASKS OPTIONAL - All guests are strongly encouraged to wear a mask in the theatre to protect themselves and others, but it is no longer required.

Step into the heart of Cuba, beyond the glitz of the Tropicana, to a place where blazing trumpets and sizzling guitars set the dance floor on fire. Here, the real sound of Havana is born—and one woman discovers the music that will change her life forever. Inspired by true events, the new Broadway musical Buena Vista Social Club™ brings the Grammy® Award-winning album to thrilling life—and tells the story of the legends who lived it. A world-class Afro-Cuban band joins a sensational cast of musicians, actors, and dancers from around the world for an authentic experience unlike any you’ve seen or heard before. Don’t miss this unforgettable tale of big dreams, second chances, and the power of art to help us survive.

From groundbreaking early acquisitions to striking new additions, the Brooklyn Museum’s collection has always championed artists and artworks that catalyze imaginative storytelling and brave conversations. As we ring in our 200th anniversary, Breaking the Mold: Brooklyn Museum at 200 celebrates this unique legacy. Comprising three chapters that boast both longtime favorites and brand-new standouts, the exhibition brings fresh narratives to the fore while exploring the collection’s rich history and future evolution.

The exhibition is co-hosted by the Shanghai Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA. It brings together more than 200 collections from important domestic and foreign institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the British Museum in the UK, the Cernuschi Museum in France, the Palace Museum, the Shanghai Museum, and the Liaoning Provincial Museum. This exhibition is a friendly exchange project between the two museums. After the closing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in September 2025, the exhibition will move to the East Hall of the Shanghai Museum.

Brazilian contemporary artist Beatriz Milhazes creates mural-like, abstract paintings through an innovative technique she calls “monotransfer.” She begins this process by painting her forms onto clear plastic sheets. Once dry, she layers and adheres the painted films onto the canvas, and then peels off the plastic sheets, revealing the forms in reverse. The resulting vibrant and dynamic compositions balance abstract forms, organic patterns, and geometric structures on densely textured and intricate surfaces.

SMASH, inspired by the hit TV show, is finally on Broadway! A hilarious behind-the-scenes rollercoaster ride about the making of a Marilyn Monroe musical called Bombshell, it’s got all the iconic songs, kick-ass choreography, and backstage pandemonium that make Broadway the beloved institution it is today. Our cast is stacked, because who better to play a bunch of wannabe Broadway big shots than actual Broadway big shots? Among them: Robyn Hurder, Brooks Ashmanskas, Krysta Rodriguez, Bella Coppola, Jacqueline Arnold, Caroline Bowman, John Behlmann, Kristine Nielsen and Casey Garvin to name just a few.

Lorenzo Homar was a pioneering printmaker, poster designer, calligrapher, painter, illustrator, caricaturist, and costume and theatrical set designer. Active from the 1950s through the 1990s, few equal his impact and influence as a teacher of poster design and printmaking in Latin America. This exhibition focuses on his poster output over a thirty year period during which time his work reflected the complex history of Puerto Rico, encompassing elements of Taíno, Spanish, and African cultures as well as the rising tensions between tradition and modernity under the Luis Muñoz Marín government. His influence is so extensive that today he is known as the father of the Puerto Rican poster. Alejandro Anreus is Emeritus Professor of Art History and Latin American Studies, William Paterson University. A former curator at the Jersey City Museum and Montclair Art Museum, he is the author of over sixty articles and catalogue essays, and six books on Latin American and Latinx Art.

In East Asian cultures, the arts of poetry, calligraphy, and painting are traditionally referred to as the “Three Perfections.” This exhibition presents over 160 rare and precious works—all created in Japan over the course of nearly a millennium—that showcase the power and complexity of the three forms of art. Examples include folding screens with poems brushed on sumptuous decorated papers, dynamic calligraphy by Zen monks of medieval Kyoto, hanging scrolls with paintings and inscriptions alluding to Chinese and Japanese literary classics, ceramics used for tea gatherings, and much more. The majority of the works are among the more than 250 examples of Japanese painting and calligraphy donated or promised to The Met by Mary and Cheney Cowles, whose collection is one of the finest and most comprehensive assemblages of Japanese art outside Japan.

The Museum of Modern Art announces Jack Whitten: The Messenger, the first comprehensive retrospective dedicated to the groundbreaking art of Jack Whitten (American, 1939–2018), on view from March 23 through August 2, 2025, in the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Center for Special Exhibitions. Presented solely at MoMA, the exhibition will explore the full range of Whitten’s innovative art over his nearly six-decade career, showing more than 175 works from the 1960s to the 2010s, including paintings, sculptures, rarely shown works on paper, and archival materials. Together, these works will reveal how Whitten overturned the tenets of modern art-making to become one of the most important artists of our time. Beginning his career during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, Whitten was under great pressure to create directly representational art as a form of activism, yet he dared to invent new forms of abstraction and, in the process, transformed the relationship between art, memory, and society.

Monstrous Beauty: A Feminist Revision of Chinoiserie radically reimagines the story of European porcelain through a feminist lens. When porcelain arrived in early modern Europe from China, it led to the rise of chinoiserie, a decorative style that encompassed Europe’s fantasies of the East and fixations on the exotic, along with new ideas about women, sexuality, and race. This exhibition explores how this fragile material shaped both European women’s identities and racial and cultural stereotypes around Asian women. Shattering the illusion of chinoiserie as a neutral, harmless fantasy, Monstrous Beauty adopts a critical glance at the historical style and its afterlives, recasting negative terms through a lens of female empowerment. Bringing together nearly 200 historical and contemporary works spanning from 16th-century Europe to contemporary installations by Asian and Asian American women artists, Monstrous Beauty illuminates chinoiserie through a conceptual framework that brings the past into active dialog with the present. In demand during the 1700s as the embodiment of Europe’s fantasy of the East, porcelain accumulated strong associations with female taste over its complex history. Fragile, delicate, and sharp when broken, it became a resonant metaphor for women, who became the protagonists of new narratives around cultural exchange, consumption, and desire.

In her first solo museum exhibition, Whitney Claflin (American, b.1983) features a focused selection of works tracing her distinctive approach to painting and ongoing engagement with notions of infatuation, misrecognition, and waywardness. The exhibition includes over twenty new and recent paintings, which careen between subjects and styles ranging from lyrical abstractions and breezy sketches to snippets of text, renditions of logos, and scraps of mass-produced textiles. Following the associative logic of a mixtape or poem, they express transient states of intensity. References and subcultural symbols—such as nods to 1970s flower-power paraphernalia, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, beloved New York bars, and the late-90s DIY scene of her teens in Providence, Rhode Island—suffuse her work with varying degrees of legibility. In addition to paintings, the exhibition also includes drawing, photography, video, and sculptural interventions, highlighting Claflin’s multifaceted approach.

Ramin Karimloo, Jinkx Monsoon, and David Hyde Pierce lead the crew in Pirates! The Penzance Musical, this must-see Roundabout reimagining of The Pirates of Penzance. Scott Ellis (Doubt; Kiss Me, Kate) directs and Warren Carlyle (Harmony; Kiss Me, Kate) choreographs with a hilarious new adaptation by Rupert Holmes (The Mystery of Edwin Drood), musical direction by Joseph Joubert (Caroline, or Change), and orchestrations by Joubert and Daryl Waters (Memphis). Gilbert & Sullivan’s pirate ship docks in New Orleans in this jazzy-bluesy vision of the crowd-pleasing classic, in an outrageously clever romp sizzling with Caribbean rhythms and French Quarter flair. With the tongue-twisting Major-General, the rabble-rousing Pirate King, newly-imagined young lovers, daring daughters, footloose pirates and fleet-footed police, there's a shipload of musical comedy delights on board to dazzle first-timers and G&S aficionados alike.

The River is a Circle is a software-driven animation by Marina Zurkow (b. 1962, New York, NY) that presents a view of the Hudson River as a horizontal split between the world above and below the water. The dynamic composition of the animated elements is driven by algorithmic probability and reflects the current weather and season in New York. The work brings together a mix of river ecology, researched with the help of Hudson River Park Trust, and references to the history of the Meatpacking District, including its time as a trading post for the Lenape people, a hub for meat processing plants, a haven for queer night life, and a site for the sculptural works by Gordon Matta-Clark and David Hammons across from the Whitney. The River is a Circle extends the underwater environment to the terrace with maritime wreckage and oyster reef balls, structures used to provide a habitat for oysters. It speculates on circular systems and a potentially positive cyclical flow back to modest strategies of maintaining ecological networks.

Amy Sherald quickly came to the public eye with her portraits of former US President Barack Obama and his wife. She defined her portrait subjects as "Americans" to express that black people are also an integral part of American identity. The nearly 50 paintings on display continue her figurative representation of the black experience, placing the characters in historically typical and everyday environments, inviting the audience to participate in a more complex debate about the recognized concept of American identity.