Featured Events in New York in April 2025 (June Updated)

New York’s age of graffiti began on the city streets in the early 1970s. This new movement, often consciously artistic despite its unsanctioned origins, came of age over the next 20 years. Above Ground centers on the many artists who transitioned from illegally writing on subway cars to creating paintings on canvas and exhibiting in galleries and museums. Their works embody an important transitional moment for the movement’s evolution, as it permeated into broader consciousness and significantly influenced global culture. The exhibition provides a window into a vibrant subculture of young creators and highlights previously unseen treasures from the Museum’s major collection of graffiti-based art. The collection, which was donated by the artist Martin Wong 30 years ago, comprises more than 300 canvases and works on paper. Among the highlights on view in this exhibition are works in aerosol, ink, and other mediums by seminal figures in the street art movement, including Rammellzee, Lee Quiñones, Lady Pink, and Futura 2000. Together, they capture the passions and ambitions of artists transitioning from the street to the walls of prominent galleries in New York and around the world.

Design is a fundamental element of life, an enzyme necessary to our evolution. It helps us cope with change and permeates our personal and social lives, embodying both our strengths and weaknesses. Many designers are intent on creating new behaviors, focusing on habits and circumstances most in need of change. Pirouette: Turning Points in Design features objects—from Post-Its to Spanx—that embodied experiments with new materials, technologies, and concepts; offered unconventional solutions to conventional problems; and had a deep impact both on design and the world at large.

Design is a fundamental element of life, an enzyme necessary to our evolution. It helps us cope with change and permeates our personal and social lives, embodying both our strengths and weaknesses. Many designers are intent on creating new behaviors, focusing on habits and circumstances most in need of change. Pirouette: Turning Points in Design features objects—from Post-Its to Spanx—that embodied experiments with new materials, technologies, and concepts; offered unconventional solutions to conventional problems; and had a deep impact both on design and the world at large.

The traditional East Asian lunar calendar consists of a repeating twelve-year cycle, with each year corresponding to one of the twelve animals in the Chinese zodiac. The association of these creatures with the Chinese calendar began in the third century BCE and became firmly established by the first century CE. The twelve animals are, in sequence: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. Each is believed to embody certain traits that are manifested in the personalities of people born in that year. January 29, 2025, marks the beginning of the Year of the Snake, a creature characterized as alert, calm, and smart.

In works full of sharp wit and incisive commentary, Christine Sun Kim (b. 1980, Orange County, California) engages sound and the complexities of communication in its various modes. Using musical notation, infographics, and language—both in her native American Sign Language (ASL) and written English—she has produced drawings, videos, sculptures, and installations that often explore non-auditory, political dimensions of sound. In many works, Kim draws directly on the spatial dynamism of ASL, translating it into graphic form. By emphasizing images, the body, and physical space, she upends the societal assumption that spoken languages are superior to those that are signed.

Oh, Mary! is a dark comedy starring Cole Escola as a miserable, suffocated Mary Todd Lincoln in the weeks leading up to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Unrequited yearning, alcoholism and suppressed desires abound in this one act play that finally examines the forgotten life and dreams of Mrs. Lincoln through the lens of an idiot (Cole Escola).

Discover a whole new world at Aladdin , the hit Broadway musical. From the producer of The Lion King comes the timeless story of Aladdin , a thrilling new production filled with unforgettable beauty, magic, comedy and breathtaking spectacle. It's an extraordinary theatrical event where one lamp and three wishes make the possibilities infinite. Directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Casey Nicholaw ( The Book of Mormon , Something Rotten! ), this "fabulous" and "extravagant" ( The New York Times ) new musical boasts an incomparable design team, with sets, costumes and lighting from Tony Award winners Bob Crowley ( Mary Poppins ), Gregg Barnes ( Kinky Boots ), and Natasha Katz ( An American in Paris ). See why audiences and critics agree, Aladdin is "Exactly what you wished for!"

How do we make sense, or poetry, out of the system of images we face today? This is one of the questions taken up by CAMP, a collaborative artists’ studio in Mumbai, India, that draws on widely available technologies, including CCTV and cell phone cameras as well as the internet, “to think and to build what is possible, what is equitable, and what is interesting, for the future.” The group’s projects rethink our relationship with the technologies that constantly capture us. Founded in 2007 by Shaina Anand, Ashok Sukumaran, and Sanjay Bhangar, this shapeshifting group runs a rooftop cinema, cohosts online video archives, and uses moving images, radio broadcasts, lecture performances, and interventions in public spaces to examine the political and socioeconomic conditions of contemporary life. This exhibition includes three works that trace the arc of CAMP’s output over nearly two decades. Each redefines relationships between video’s producers, distributors, and spectators: a participatory television network in a dense New Delhi neighborhood; a film made from cell phone footage and music in collaboration with sailors navigating trade routes across the Indian Ocean; and a dramatic, multi-channel video panorama of Mumbai filmed by pushing a single surveillance camera to its limits. CAMP’s practice reorients communication devices, transport infrastructures, and surveillance equipment to transform entrenched systems into new opportunities for hope, longing, desire, and collective action.

Two days before the outbreak of World War II, a scientific paper was published explaining the theoretical process of nuclear fission in which the controlled splitting of an atomic nucleus releases a vast amount of energy. Over the next decade, scientists around the world would perfect the process of harnessing that energy, developing two of the most impactful inventions of the modern era: the nuclear bomb and the nuclear power station. This exhibition chronicles the global development of the nuclear industry, for peaceful and offensive means, examining posters that both promoted and protested its use throughout the second half of the 20th century. It features the entire General Dynamics series, long heralded as one of the finest examples of corporate propaganda ever created, as well as over 60 other posters criticizing the proliferation of nuclear technology. Tim Medland is an independent curator who focuses on the history of visual and material culture. He holds an MA in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester, with a concentration in socially engaged practice. His research interests include environmental activism and sustainability, and the histories of transport, propaganda, colonialism, and migration.

This artwork is featured on the building facade on Gansevoort Street across from the Whitney and the High Line. Four Ways of Being is a newly commissioned work by Amy Sherald (b. 1973, Columbus, Georgia; lives and works in the New York City area). The artwork is comprised of four portraits by the artist—some never before seen in New York—and explores the intersection of past, present, and future. Each painting captures a distinct way of existing in the world. Here, she reimagines her subjects from diverse backgrounds and generations coexisting in a shared moment, inviting the viewer to contemplate the fluidity of time and the complex ways our histories shape our understanding of ourselves.

The first US solo museum exhibition of New York City-based artist Julien Ceccaldi (French/Canadian, b. 1987) features a newly commissioned large-scale painting that transforms the first-floor MoMA PS1 galleries at an architectural scale, casting visitors into a distorted episode drawn from the experience of everyday digital subjugation and hyperconsumerism. Ceccaldi exploits techniques common to both the animation studio and the Italian Renaissance, including trompe l’oeil, overlay, and freeze frame.

This spring, MoMA PS1 presents a retrospective of artist, activist, and musician Alanis Obomsawin (Abenaki, b. 1932), one of Canada’s most renowned filmmakers. Opening March 27, the exhibition spans six decades of her multidisciplinary practice, bringing together a selection of films, sculptures, and sound, as well as rarely seen ephemera that sheds light on their production. Tracing her lasting contributions to social change, The Children Have to Hear Another Story brings Obomsawin’s innovative model of Indigenous cinema into focus.

“The full-of-riches new musical brings the classic record to life.” – The New York Times 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. “Give yourself over to Buena Vista Social Club .”

A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical is a stage show celebrating the life and music of the legendary singer-songwriter Neil Diamond. The musical takes the audience on a journey through Diamond's life, from his early days as a struggling songwriter to his rise to fame in the 1960s and beyond. Along the way, the show explores the stories behind some of Diamond's most beloved songs and the moments that inspired them.

Mary Heilmann (b. 1940; San Francisco) once said that "museums are places to hang out," and this exhibition embodies that spirit, inviting social connection and engagement with the Whitney's architecture, the Hudson River, and the surrounding cityscape. The immersive environment includes a hand-painted enlargement of Heilmann's 2020 painting Long Line, as well as a variety of sculptural chairs related to furniture she has displayed in galleries and homes. The influence of 1960s counterculture and geometric Minimalism are reflected in Heilmann's decades-long approach to abstraction, one centered on exuberant color and unorthodox form. Long Line was influenced by the artist's experience watching waves off the coasts of Long Island and California—here it creates a visual rhyme with the Hudson River

"I see New York City as a great big sculpture," Louise Nevelson once remarked. Born in Pereiaslav, Ukraine, Nevelson (1899–1988) lived and worked in Manhattan from the 1920s through the 1980s. Known for her bold monochrome assemblages of stacked and composed found objects, Nevelson was captivated by the city's ever-changing skyline and saw creative potential in discarded materials that she scavenged throughout its streets at night. By painting these sculptures a single color (black), she cloaked the specific, identifying details of disparate objects such as duck decoys, lettuce crates, and pieces of rebar, transforming them into abstract shapes. Collection View: Louise Nevelson reimagines the relationship between Nevelson's work and New York, highlighting the dynamic interplay she sought to suggest in her work between motion and stillness, light and shadow, dawn and dusk.

A dazzling showcase of more than 60 jewelry creations that celebrates our enduring fascination with the cosmos. For millennia, people have been moved by the grandeur of space to explore the workings of our universe—and to create captivating works of art. From the early astronomical observations of Galileo to iconic space missions such as Apollo 11, along with new findings made possible by cutting-edge tools like the James Webb Space Telescope, discoveries about the universe have influenced and inspired artistic expression. A stunning assemblage of astronomically inspired jewelry is the focus of the new exhibition Cosmic Splendor: Jewelry from the Collections of Van Cleef & Arpels.

Gagosian presents Willem de Kooning: Endless Painting, organized with the support of The Willem de Kooning Foundation and curated by Cecilia Alemani, director and chief curator of High Line Art. It comprises paintings dating from 1944 through 1986 and two sculptures: Clamdigger (1972), and the monumental Standing Figure (1969–84). This is the first presentation at the newly renovated Chelsea gallery and follows Willem de Kooning and Italy, a significant presentation of paintings, sculptures, and drawings at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice last summer.

Anita Shapolsky Gallery, renowned for its dedication to Abstract Expressionism, presents “A Dialogue Between Ernest Briggs and Peter Bonner.” This exhibition brings together two generations of abstraction, juxtaposing the bold, gestural work of Ernest Briggs with the introspective, process-driven paintings of Peter Bonner. A key figure in the second generation of Abstract Expressionism, Briggs embodied the movement’s raw energy and spontaneity, using vigorous brushwork to express emotion and the rugged intensity of human nature. In contrast, Bonner explores perception, identity, and memory through layered compositions that invite contemplation beyond the surface.

The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) opened New York City’s original underground subway line in October 1904. While the city was one of the most diverse in the country, before the introduction of the subway, most New Yorkers were not in regular contact with people outside their own neighborhoods. Initially extending from the Bronx to Lower Manhattan (with service to Brooklyn beginning in 1908) and forming part of the wider transit system, the convenient and affordable IRT encouraged riders to travel beyond their communities for both work and leisure. In order to entice people to regularly use the subway, the IRT printed two in-car poster campaigns, The Elevated Express and The Subway Sun, that highlighted each borough’s unique attractions. Of these, The Subway Sun was especially successful.

The Brooklyn Nets, established in 1967 and based in Brooklyn, New York, USA, play their home games at Barclays Center. The Nets have reached the NBA Finals twice but have not won a championship. Current key players include Cam Thomas and Cameron Johnson. The Toronto Raptors, established in 1995 and based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, play their home games at Scotiabank Arena. The Raptors won the NBA Championship in 2019. Current key players include RJ Barrett and Scottie Barnes.

Don't miss the opportunity to witness the electrifying CHARLI XCX - BRAT 2025 - ARENA TOUR in Brooklyn at the renowned Barclays Center. The event is scheduled to take place on April 30, 2025, at 620 Atlantic Ave, NY, 11217. Immerse yourself in a night of unforgettable music and entertainment at this iconic venue. Get ready to experience an incredible performance by CHARLI XCX in the heart of the city that never sleeps. Mark your calendars for this must-see event that promises to be a highlight of the year.

Don't miss the electrifying performance by CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso at Bowery Ballroom in New York City. The event is scheduled for April 22, 2025, at 6 Delancey St., NY, 10002. Immerse yourself in the duo's unique blend of music and experience a night to remember. Get ready to be captivated by their soulful melodies and dynamic stage presence. Book your tickets now for an unforgettable evening of live music in the heart of the Big Apple.

The world-renowned concert pianist Lang Lang personally selects every two years a limited number of exceptionally talented young pianists from around the world, offering them mentorship, tutelage, and unique opportunities for performance as “Scholars” of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation. Two of these amazing young pianists, Anna Kesselman (17 years old) and Alexander Liu (13 years old), will be featured in a program of masterpieces and virtuoso piano music. Entry to this event is not guaranteed with Eventbrite reservation. Please arrive no more than 10-15 minutes before the event start time. Seating is first-come, first-served. Please cancel your reservation if you are unable to attend. NAC members need not RSVP. Information Source: The National Arts Club | eventbrite

VIP Access to ArtExpo New York – Support Artists & Celebrate Creativity only at EastWest Artistry NYC! Eastwest Artistry NYC is thrilled to partner with Path to Art Project Organization at ArtExpo New York, Booth 602! As part of our commitment to empowering artists and giving back to the community, we are offering free VIP Opening Night Tickets to our supporters who sign up through our platform, We will send tickets via email! or visit their website for event details: https://www.instagram.com/pathtoart_ny/ Join us for an exclusive experience at one of the world’s largest international art fairs, where you can explore breathtaking exhibitions, connect with artists, and immerse yourself in the vibrant art scene. This is a fantastic opportunity for creatives, collectors, and art lovers to network and celebrate artistic expression. 🔹 Date: April 3rd- 6th 🔹 Location: ArtExpo New York, pier 36 NYC. 🔹 Exclusive Perk: VIP/ Entrance to Opening Night 🎟 Sign up now to claim your VIP/Entrance ticket and be part of this inspiring event! Let’s continue to support artists, foster creativity, and build a thriving art community together! Information Source: EastWest Artistry NYC | eventbrite

Witness the captivating performance of Kenshi Yonezu on his highly anticipated 2025 World Tour, featuring his latest album "JUNK". The event will take place in the bustling city of New York at the iconic Radio City Music Hall on April 4, 2025. Don't miss this opportunity to experience the musical genius of Kenshi Yonezu live on stage at this prestigious venue located at 1260 6th Avenue, NY, 10020. Join us for an unforgettable night filled with incredible music and unforgettable memories.

Experience the glamour and excitement of the Roaring 20's at the upcoming party in New York City. Hosted at the iconic Bowery Ballroom located at 6 Delancey St., NY, 10002, this event is set to take place on April 11, 2025. Step back in time to the era of flappers, jazz music, and prohibition as you dance the night away in this historic venue. Don your best 1920's-inspired attire and get ready for a night filled with nostalgia and fun. Don't miss out on this unique opportunity to immerse yourself in the culture of the Roaring 20's.

The Brooklyn Nets, established in 1967 and based in Brooklyn, New York, USA, play their home games at Barclays Center. The Nets have reached the NBA Finals twice but have not won a championship. Current key players include Cam Thomas and Cameron Johnson. The New York Knicks, established in 1946 and based in New York City, New York, USA, play their home games at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks have won the NBA Championship twice, in 1970 and 1973. Current key players include Jalen Brunson.

Please join us for a casual evening of joy, music, inclusion, and community as we celebrate together as a theatre industry. This family-friendly evening is designed to give members of the theatrical industry an opportunity to come together to celebrate Passover on a night when most shows do not otherwise have performances. Regardless of your background, this event is designed to be a celebration of culture and joy. This special evening is an opportunity for members of the theatre community to not only celebrate the Passover holiday, but to gather together and embrace our community! For theatre industry professional rate tickets, please reach out to broadwayseder@gmail.com. The Seder will be a family-style dinner served with communal general admission seating at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan at West 76th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. Full Seder meal with wine and soda included. All tickets are heavily subsidized by the generous contributions of our donors! If you would like more information about being a donor so that you can help bring this event to life and share it with others, please reach out at broadwayseder@gmail.com. Information Source: Howie Tilkin | eventbrite