Featured Events in New York in July 2024 (May Updated)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Flapping from fence to post in the yard, an injured white bird was pursued by feral cats (I once counted seventy). I put out some oatmeal and a bowl of water on the windowsill. The oatmeal blew away so I replaced it with rice. Around five next morning a loud tapping on the metal fire window woke me. A white blur was visible through the frosted wire glass. When I opened the window, he flew up but returned, and I replenished his food and water. Later, after shopping, about to drop the grocery bag in my chair, I was startled by a loud flutter - the white bird was sitting there (I'd left a side window ajar). The Italian bookie down the block told me what pigeons ate and recommended a good source. Milton named this unusually large bird (19 inches - as long as a raven) Morgan, for J. P. Morgan, because like J.P. he had a large formation on his beak. Morgan's dinner arrangement - all in a row - consisted of a bowl of water, a cracked wooden salad bowl holding his food, and a large dirt-filled tub meant for a tree. He learned to rock the salad bowl to and from his water bowl to save getting down and walking. Sated, he'd hop on the tub, peck around in the grit I had sprinkled there, and curl up for his after-dinner nap. The trouble was that an after-dinner urge would awaken him; he'd back up politely, poop, and lay down again in it. One day, idly watching this procedure, without expecting any response, I motioned for him to back up some more. He peered at me and did as I asked. So I motioned him back and up onto the rim, which pleased him no end, because from there he could poop overboard. I put newspaper down, and Morgan was paper trained. The whole neighborhood loved that bird. When Morgan felt like showing off, the fire escapes filled with admirers—even Esteban (Vincente), sunning on his roof across the street, would stand up to watch. Added to his impressive size was the glow of his plumage (healthy birds develop a fine protective powder against mites which literally glows in the sun). Morgan's acrobatics – he would fly loops around other birds and execute amazing maneuvers, taking him in a figure eight from the spire atop St. Marks around the Con Ed clock on Fourteenth Street. Indoors, he explored every inch of the loft and chose the highest place, the front stovepipe, as a sleeping perch. When my friends visited, he liked to swing on top of the bathroom door, which meant you couldn't close it without chasing him. Herman Cherry got a kick out of this chase: he'd pull out a large handkerchief and flick it at Morgan, the two of them running and skidding around the loft. As the conversation picked up, Morgan would begin to coo. The louder we talked, the louder he cooed. Perhaps the sound resembled the soothing sounds of the coop. Anne Arnold wanted to sculpt him and tried to make some drawings. This attention made him self-conscious, and he curled up more tightly in his grit tub, leaving Anne with an uninteresting pose — just a cushion of white feathers. Fall chill brought a new problem: the draft from the open window. I had to build a window extension with a swinging door—and teach Morgan how to use it. By winter, he was flinging himself in and out expertly. From his bedtime perch on the stovepipe, Morgan looked straight across the room at my painting wall. One painting in particular excited him. He would coo, bow, and try a little strut on the short length of stovepipe. One day he took off and flew directly into my painting, sliding down the six-foot height of it and smearing inharmonious oranges, blacks, and greens over his pure white bosom. I cleaned him enough so that his feathers didn't adhere. After the painting was finished, a few of Morgan's contributions incorporated, I stretched it and leaned it against a corner. He flew right to it and spent hours strutting along its top edge, courting the lady in the picture: bowing, crowing, and fanning his tail. I called the painting, Promenade For a Bachelor.

“There is design in everything,” wrote Clara Porset, the innovative Cuban-Mexican designer. She believed that craft and industry could inspire each other, forging an alternative path for modern design. Not all of Porset’s colleagues agreed with her conviction. This exhibition presents these sometimes conflicting visions of modernity proposed by designers of home environments in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela between 1940 and 1980. For some, design was an evolution of local and Indigenous craft traditions, leading to an approach that combined centuries-old artisanal techniques with machine-based methods. For others, design responded to market conditions and local tastes, and was based on available technologies and industrial processes. In this exhibition, objects including furniture, appliances, posters, textiles, and ceramics, as well as a selection of photographs and paintings, will explore these tensions. The home became a site of experimentation for modern living during a period marked by dramatic political, economic, and social changes, which had broad repercussions for Latin American visual culture. For nearly half a century, the design of the domestic environment embodied ideas of national identity, models of production, and modern ways of living. The home also offered opportunities for a dialogue between art, architecture, and design. Highlights of the exhibition include Clara Porset’s Butaque chair; Lina Bo Bardi’s Bowl chair; Antonio Bonet, Juan Kurchan, and Jorge Ferrari Hardoy’s B.K.F. Chair; and Roberto Matta’s Malitte Lounge Furniture.

In the Now unites nearly fifty women artists who are resisting traditional ideas of gender and nationality, as well as of photography itself. The first museum survey of photography-based works by women artists born or based in Europe, this exhibition interrogates the continent’s legacies of nationalism and patriarchal power structures—which continue to shape everyday life, particularly for women. In the Now highlights the expansive nature of the Sir Mark Fehrs Haukohl Photography Collection at the Brooklyn Museum and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Made entirely after 2000, the exhibition’s more than seventy artworks offer a window into the first decades of the twenty-first century. In the section titled “Gender,” photographers such as Bettina von Zwehl and Elina Brotherus contend with (mis)representations of women’s bodies and experiences, bucking against oppressive beauty standards and the male gaze. “Nation” unpacks the promises—and realities—of contemporary Europe and the ongoing fallout of European nationalism and colonialism. The controlled explosion in Sarah Pickering’s Landmine (2005), for example, underscores the relative peace in England as British troops supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq. And in “Photography,” women artists upend this male-dominated medium with experimental approaches—as in Shirana Shahbazi’s Farsh-13-2006 (2006), a Vermeer-inspired photographic portrait translated onto a carpet hand-knotted in her native Iran. Together the works defy outdated definitions of a woman, an artist, a nation, and a photograph.

This mini-retrospective features over 35 pieces that demonstrate Liu Shiming’s (1926-2010) stature as a leading figure in modern Chinese sculpture, and an artist whose vision resonates across cultures and countries.

Joan Jonas creates meditations on bodies, space, time, and nature. As she has explained, “The performer sees herself as a Medium: Information passes through.” The most comprehensive retrospective of Jonas’s work in the United States, this exhibition provides new insights into the artist’s process, unprecedented access to archival materials, and fresh historical perspectives on Jonas’s work. Drawings, photographs, notebooks, oral histories, film screenings, performances, and a selection of the artist’s installations, drawn from MoMA’s collection and institutions around the world, will trace the development of Jonas’s career, from works made in the 1960s and 1970s exploring the confluence of technology and ritual to more recent ones dealing with ecology and the landscape.

On the centennial anniversary of the birth of artist Toshiko Takaezu (1922–2011), The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum announced its forthcoming major touring retrospective and monograph centered on her work and life. This will be the first nationally touring retrospective of Takaezu’s work in twenty years. To coincide with the exhibition, the Museum will publish a new monograph in association with Yale University Press. Also titled Toshiko Takaezu: Worlds Within, it represents the most ambitious monograph on an American ceramic artist to date. The retrospective is organized by The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum with assistance from the Toshiko Takaezu Foundation and the Takaezu family. It is co-curated by art historian Glenn Adamson, Noguchi Museum Curator Kate Wiener, and composer and sound artist Leilehua Lanzilotti. The exhibition was conceived and developed with former Noguchi Museum Senior Curator Dakin Hart. The show at The Noguchi Museum will feature approximately 200 works from private and public collections around the country. Following its presentation at The Noguchi Museum, the exhibition will travel to several additional venues across the United States.

The eighty-first edition of the Whitney Biennial—the longest-running survey of contemporary art in the United States—features seventy-one artists and two collectives grappling with many of today’s most pressing issues. This Biennial is like being inside a “dissonant chorus,’ as participating artist Ligia Lewis described it, a provocative yet intimate experience of distinct and disparate voices that collectively probe the cracks and fissures of the unfolding moment. The exhibition’s subtitle, Even Better Than the Real Thing, acknowledges that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is complicating our understanding of what is real, and rhetoric around gender and authenticity is being used politically and legally to perpetuate transphobia and restrict bodily autonomy. These developments are part of a long history of deeming people of marginalized race, gender, and ability as subhuman—less than real. In making this exhibition, we committed to amplifying the voices of artists who are confronting these legacies, and to providing a space where difficult ideas can be engaged and considered. This Biennial is a gathering of artists who explore the permeability of the relationships between mind and body, the fluidity of identity, and the growing precariousness of the natural and constructed worlds around us. Whether through subversive humor, expressive abstraction, or non-Western forms of cosmological thinking, to name but a few of their methods, these artists demonstrate that there are pathways to be found, strategies of coping and healing to be discovered, and ways to come together even in a fractured time. The 2024 Whitney Biennial is organized by Chrissie Iles, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Curator and Meg Onli, Curator at Large, with Min Sun Jeon and Beatriz Cifuentes. The performance program is organized by Iles and Onli, with guest curator Taja Cheek. The film program is organized by Iles and Onli, with guest curators Korakrit Arunanondchai, asinnajaq, Greg de Cuir Jr, and Zackary Drucker. View the film and performance program.

In the early decades of the 20th century, when many artists were experimenting with abstraction, Käthe Kollwitz remained committed to an art of social purpose. Focusing on themes of motherhood, grief, and resistance, she brought visibility to the working class and asserted the female point of view as a necessary and powerful agent for change. “I have no right to withdraw from the responsibility of being an advocate,” she wrote. “It is my duty to voice the sufferings of men, the never-ending sufferings heaped mountain-high.” The first major retrospective devoted to Kollwitz at a New York museum, this is also the largest exhibition of her work in the US in more than 30 years. Born in the Prussian city of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia), Kollwitz was based in Berlin from the 1890s through the early 1940s, a period of turmoil in German history marked by the upheaval of industrialization and the traumas of two world wars. Though she had trained briefly as a painter, she quickly turned to drawing and printmaking as the most effective mediums for social criticism. This exhibition includes approximately 120 drawings, prints, and sculptures drawn from public and private collections in North America and Europe. Examples of the artist’s most iconic projects will showcase her political engagement, while preparatory studies and working proofs will highlight her intensive, ever-searching creative process.

Kosovar artist Petrit Halilaj (born 1986 in Kostrci, former Yugoslavia) was commissioned to create a site-specific installation for the museum's Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden. For the artist's first major project in the United States, Halilaj transformed The Met Roof with a massive sculptural installation. Halilaj's work is closely tied to the recent history of his native Kosovo and the consequences of cultural and political tensions in the region. After studying art at the Brera Academy in Italy, he moved to Berlin in 2008, where he still lives and works. His projects span a variety of media including sculpture, painting, poetry and performance.

For more than two decades, LaToya Ruby Fraser has used photography, text, moving image, and performance to resurrect and preserve forgotten narratives of labor, gender, and race in the post-industrial age. Bringing together work from 2001 to 2024, this exhibition highlights the full range of Fraser’s practice to date, including several rare and never-before-seen works.

Close to Home is an installation that honors the domestic space as a custodian of cultural and spiritual traditions by providing support and comfort to forge appreciation for heritage and their continuity. Modeled after Nsenga Knight’s family residences from their past six years living in Cairo, Egypt, the installation’s eclectic atmosphere reflects the historic and cosmopolitan. While furnished in various materials and styles, old and new, this family home is also adorned with artifacts from the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair as well as artworks by Knight, including paintings, prints, videos, and wallpaper. A Brooklyn-born Afro-Caribbean American Muslim artist, Knight researched the Queens Museum’s 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair Archives with a focus on the representations of the then-newly postcolonial Islamic African and Caribbean nations. The historical trajectory of these nations and their influence on Black Americans has emerged as the central focus of her exhibition. Knight presents this exhibition as both a home and a forum for “Peace Through Understanding,” echoing the theme of the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair. She extends this concept into the exterior section of the installation. Hovering above are words initially spoken by martial arts masters at the SWAM Academy of Modern Martial Arts in South Jamaica, Queens. Transcribed by Knight word-by-word, these “poems” encapsulate their wisdom about self defense, spirituality, and ethical integrity imparted at the renowned Black Muslim-owned dojo. The act of safe-keeping and hope for peace extends to the toy paragliders in the exhibition. These airborne devices carry complex yet arbitrary layers of symbolism related to the Museum’s building history. The New York City Building housed the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1947 when they passed Resolution 181 to partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. By juxtaposing SWAM poetry with paragliders and parachutes, Knight considers how to position peace and safety amidst conflict and oppression. Food culture also played a pivotal role in the World’s Fair. Close to Home will host a scheduled series of social gatherings by serving tea and coffee in this installation. With this act of hospitality, Knight calls on viewers to consider the power of sensorial and experiential engagement to foster understanding, connection, and appreciation among people from various corners of the world. Close to Home is curated by Hitomi Iwasaki, Director of Exhibitions/Curator. Nsenga Knight (b. Brooklyn, New York, 1981) is an In Situ Artist Fellow at the Queens Museum. She earned an MFA from University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Howard University. She has exhibited her work internationally, including: Contemporary Image Collective, Cairo, Egypt (2022); Drawing Center, New York, NY (2017, 2016); Project Row Houses, Houston, TX (2015); New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY (2011); among others. Knight is a recipient of grants from Pollock-Krasner Foundation (2019), Foundation for Contemporary Art (2016), Brooklyn Arts Council (2007). She was an artist-in-residence at BRICworkspace, Brooklyn, NY (2019); and Film/Video Arts Center, New York, NY (2005) among others. She lives and works in New York.

Exploring the intersection of art making and play, Cas Holman designs innovative toys and tools that inspire participatory imagination. Prototyping Play experiments with the different modes of intuitive and child-directed free play in an art museum environment by extending the body’s movements with uniquely crafted elements and prompts. Released in two phases, Holman’s open-ended playthings and playspaces foster collaboration, inventive thinking, and interactivity. Prototyping Play invites artists of all ages to create, exchange, cooperate, and leave your mark through these new devices. Tracing Play (launching May 19, 2024): Drawing Tools and Drawing Pads invite collective acts of drawing. The awkwardly shaped, human-sized Drawing Tools are equipped with large-scale crayons which challenge users to collaborate in figuring out how to use them. The fun is in the creative process. You can make marks using these tools on the Drawing Pads, or Tyvek paper surfaces, where your drawings will inspire future markmakers. Alternatively, you can collaborate with markmakers who visited the exhibition beforehand. Critter Party (launching July 2024): For this playscape, Holman has created different elements: the Mama Critter, Baby Critters, and Thingies. The arched Critters invite various types of interaction and opportunities for transformation, while the add-on objects, or Thingies, offer the possibility to adapt each structure with new narratives and identities. Encouraging crawling, sliding, building, storytelling, pretending, and more, the assorted sizes of Critters demonstrate how scale can change our relationship with shapes and spaces. Each critter, as well as the open-ended, reconfigurable Thingies, accommodate various types of play, depending on the desired sensory and social engagements. Here, Holman creates inclusive environments where many different types and ways of playing can coexist together. Prototyping Play will activate the Skylight Gallery as the Queens Museum prepares for a children’s museum that encourages intergenerational learning experiences. This playscape will further the Museum’s knowledge of its audiences and facilitates test thinking for future family programming. Prototyping Play is curated by Lauren Haynes, Director of Curatorial Affairs and Programs, and Kimaada Le Gendre, Director of Education.

In Buenos Vecinos, which translates to “good neighbors,” Catalina Schliebener Muñoz confronts the impact of two Walt Disney animated films: Saludos Amigos (1942) and Los Tres Caballeros (1944). Both films emerged from Disney’s state-sponsored research trips to South and Central American nations as part of The Good Neighbor Policy, which sought to discourage Nazi influence and improve the United States’ public image in Latin America following its numerous military invasions throughout the early 20th century. Disney and his team of artists toured Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, and Mexico to generate visual motifs and storylines for recognizable characters like Donald Duck and Goofy, as well to create new characters, songs, and dances based on local customs and archetypes. Schliebener Muñoz examines how these films functioned as a form of soft power, enlisting children’s media towards the economic and geopolitical interests of the United States. Through installation, collage, sculpture, and murals, the artist subverts reductive and exoticized representations of Latin American cultures in the films to center its secondary characters and rebellious underdogs. Schliebener Muñoz also contends with Disney’s depictions of gender, sexuality, race, and Indigeneity by appropriating and fragmenting the films’ imagery to create critical narratives of resistance. Acknowledging the capacity of stories to shape value systems, the exhibition employs mirroring, queer coding, ambiguity, and humor to challenge the imposed boundaries between the real and fictional, natural and synthetic, spectacular and grotesque. As World War II gave way to the Cold War, the United States abandoned Pan-American unity to support coups and dictatorships in many of the countries depicted in Disney’s films. Schliebener Muñoz incorporates archival materials that address the aftermath of The Good Neighbor Policy, U.S. interventionism, and imperialist ideology through the history of the Queens Museum’s site. This building hosted the former United Nations, where decisions ranged from the 1947 partition of Palestine to the creation of UNICEF, and is also located on the grounds of the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair where Disney premiered the “it’s a small world” attraction. For Schliebener Muñoz, this context becomes integral to understanding the legacy of Disney’s films alongside hostile foreign policies, and how the imagination of children became a vehicle for the projection of American innocence and exceptionalism on the global stage. Buenos Vecinos is curated by Lindsey Berfond, Assistant Curator and Studio Program Manager.

From late February into early March of 1961, during an unseasonably warm close to a cold English winter, the 29-year-old poet Sylvia Plath (b. 1932) lay in a hospital bed, convalescing from a surgical operation—one that removed her appendix—at St. Pancras Hospital in Central London. Ten days after her stay at St. Pancras—where her husband, the English poet Ted Hughes, made frequent deliveries of “steak sandwiches & apricot tarts & milk & fresh-squeezed orange juice,” according to letters—Plath wrote Tulips, a poem in nine stanzas. The poem itself is a psychologically acute portrait of a bedridden subject who willfully modulates a painfully ambivalent return to a state of consciousness through a descriptive appraisal of a given situation. The works assembled for the second iteration of Tulips at Kapp Kapp, on the fifth anniversary of the inaugural group show, expand the scope of the exhibition’s origins, generationally as well as materially—along thematic lines that pay expressive homage to the vivid sensory imagination of a Sylvia Plath ensconced somewhere in St. Pancras. Works included in the show, though vastly different in terms of style and medium, likewise figure a set of contextual relationships—whether spatial, temporal, or material—within a given set of constraints, much like Plath does with her own stay at St. Pancras. Who best to personify a penchant for rearranging the spatial imaginary of America than Queen Martha Stewart herself, the most recent subject of a Sam McKinniss (b. 1985) portrait (and a foil to that other host of the Apprentice, who boasts immunity to any form of legal accountability let alone an electronic ankle bracelet)? Alicia Adamerovich (b. 1989) returns to part II of Tulips with a distinctively wrought, nearly pointillist handling of surrealist inspired imagery—that spawns figures and forms redolent of an earthy toned yet otherworldly landscape. Luke O’Halloran (b. 1991) continues to figure the paralyzing suspense of our compulsive investment in chance through a bold approach to color along with novel methods of framing “the” event. Paintings by Julien Ceccaldi (b. 1987) showcase the artist’s mercurial overlay of a Japanese manga aesthetic with gothic tableaux visited by a cast of characters whose props are often plucked from an algorithmically self-referential, twenty-first century landscape. Louis Osmosis (b. 1996) takes aim at the various aesthetic and cultural currencies that reinforce a contemporary art “status quo,” often devising works that critically intervene in the frequency of their own public reception. Thomas Blair (b. 1996) has recently turned to contemporary methods of image production such as AI, moreover, distorting their printing process to generate coarse yet simultaneously refined image gradients that subtly challenge our grasp of medium or source material. While Cynthia Hawkins (b. 1950) continues to draw inspiration from languages of “astrophysics, microbiology, space-time, ancient cave-painted symbols, and mathematics,” what remains consistent to Hawkins’ decades long career is a formal positioning of her work in relation to a range of sensory phenomena. We see an interest in “pure” abstraction in a 1986 painting series where dashes of red paint evoke the “excitable” hue of Plath’s tulips. Also included in the show are black-and-white photographs by Stanley Stellar (b. 1945) who frames serendipitous encounters to heighten our aesthetic appreciation of a particular historical interplay of subjects and objects in a setting. Though each is formally distinct down to the minutia of facture, we can place Justin Liam O’Brien (b. 1991) and Anthony Cudahy (b.1989) along a continuum of contemporary artists who have turned to the medium of paint in order to devise complex compositions that figure a queer contemporary sociality along with queer forms of embodiment and isolation. Though each approaches the construction of pictorial space in altogether different ways, Cudahy and O’Brien often make direct reference to pre-existing situations, settings, or imagery within their compositions, whether of Southern-Italian Renaissance paintings or modish watering holes. We are left with a group show that lends plastic credence to the persistence of an aesthetic imaginary to rouse consciousness into an awareness of itself—whether we like it or not. Text by Desiree Mitton.

William Kentridge: New Gravures 2022 – 2024 David Krut Projects, New York June 6 - August 3, 2024 Opening Reception: Thursday, June 6 from 6-8pm David Krut Projects, New York is pleased to announce William Kentridge: New Gravures 2022 – 2024, a continuation of exhibitions showing the artist’s editioned works collaboratively created at David Krut Workshop (DKW) in Johannesburg. New Gravures will be on view from June 6 – August 3, 2024 at our Project Space in the West Chelsea Building at 526 West 26th Street. William Kentridge's gravure collaborations with David Krut Projects date back to 2000, when Krut invited Randy Hemminghaus of Galamander Press to visit South Africa to create the artist’s first gravure plates. The plates were editioned at Galamander Press in New York in the workshop that became the location of David Krut Projects in Chelsea. Twenty years later, Kentridge returned to the gravure process with plates created in South Africa and this time editioned at David Krut Workshop in Johannesburg, which was established in 2002. The reintroduction of the gravure medium to Kentridge's repertoire proved to be a versatile and effective tool, enriching his image-making process and allowing him to navigate the distance between his team of long-time collaborators, now dispersed internationally. It enabled Kentridge to continue working with Master Printer Jillian Ross, who was his primary printer at DKW for seventeen years before returning home to Canada in 2020. David Krut Workshop printers have enabled an ongoing collaboration with the artist and Ross, with the new editions in this exhibition reflecting Kentridge's expanded use of the medium - incorporating multiple plates and collaging to present the concept of a fragmented view of identity. The body of work features Kentridge's well-recognized visual lexicon of processions, trees, and self-portraits, inviting viewers to contemplate their own journey of self-discovery and the interconnectedness of human experience. The most recent work and focal point of the show is My Father is a Tree in a Forest of Fathers, born from the initial pre-production set imagery of Kentridge’s forthcoming theatrical performance, The Great Yes, The Great No. Set to premiere in July 2024 in Aix-en Provence, France, this chamber opera delves into themes of power, colonialism, and migration, drawing on diverse influences and once again inviting audiences to contemplate the complexities of human existence. For more information, please contact info@davidkrut.com. David Krut Projects, New York 526 West 26th Street, Suite 816, New York, NY 10001 T. 212-255-3094 | E. info@davidkrut.com | Hours: Tuesday - Saturday from 11-6pm

For over three decades Daniel Rozin has been exploring the mechanisms of reflection. The artist utilizes custom software and mechanical engineering to examine a range of materials that reflect the viewer’s image in real-time. For his tenth exhibition at the gallery, Contours, the artist turns his focus to the outline of the human form. Rozin’s works often invite true-to-image reflection. Exhibited works in Contours shift away from rich appearance and towards the tension of delineated borders. Modern masters such as Pablo Picasso and Keith Haring celebrated the tension between line and area, inside and out, by implementing silhouettes and abstraction. Rozin presents four new pieces that approach the minimal side of reflection through the diverse materials of lenses, straps, carbon fiber tubing, and light. One Candle Mirror is a monumental installation situated in total darkness. The sculpture’s single light is diffused by 276 lenses positioned in front of the single candle. Each lens is articulated by a motor that rotates its focal direction “bending” the light to depict the viewer’s likeness while they move around the space. Rozin references the effect to that of a solar eclipse, citing the 1919 eclipse as a notable event that historically verified Albert Einstein’s theory of gravity bending light. Einstein’s theory was proven to be true by measures taken by Arthur Stanley Eddington during a total solar eclipse. In front of Rozin’s sculpture the viewer’s reflection is expressed as a silhouette made by the absence of light. In a nod to Keith Haring’s famously defined figures, Rozin plays with art historical archetypes through physical means. RGB Lights Mirror employs color reflection and is the 25th piece in the artist’s Mechanical Mirrors series that began in 1999 with Wooden Mirror. RGB Lights Mirror returns to the idea of turning tiles towards a bright light to activate them as pixels in a physical image. The work is made from aluminum knobs that rotate to face red, green, or blue lights and become color pixels. The vivid lights, coupled with the glow of the aluminum knobs, result in a saturated display that looks deceptively like an LED screen or a projected image. Viewers standing in front of the piece see themselves in saturated color and full motion. Rozin’s latest works, Contour Mirror and Straps Mirror, exemplify the artist’s analysis of form and outline. Contour Mirror is equipped with two columns of carbon fiber tubes. Contrasting yellow caps highlight the ends of each tube. When a viewer stands in front of the sculpture, all tubes respond in a choreography that aligns their yellow ends to portray the viewer’s outline. Straps Mirror continues Rozin’s investigation of constructing images by means of straight line objects. His exploration began in 2010 using wooden slats in the artwork X by Y and Twisted Strips (2012). This latest piece approaches straight lines through ribbons consisting of half white and half black straps that roll using custom mechanics. The work creates a high contrast image that investigates the contrast between monochromatic two dimensional areas and one dimensional lines.

Edward C. Moore (1827–1891), the creative force that led Tiffany & Co. to unparalleled ingenuity and success in the second half of the 19th century, amassed an extensive collection of decorative arts of exceptional quality and in a wide variety of materials, from Greek and Roman glass and Japanese basketry to metalwork from the Islamic world. These objects served as a source of inspiration for Moore, a renowned silversmith, and the designers he mentored. Collecting Inspiration: Edward C. Moore at Tiffany & Co. will feature more than 180 objects from Moore’s extraordinary personal collection donated to the museum, as well as 70 magnificent pieces of silver designed and crafted at Tiffany & Co. under his direction. Drawn primarily from the Met’s collection, the exhibition will also include rare specimens from more than a dozen private and public lenders. An iconic figure in the history of American silver, Moore played a key role in shaping the legendary Tiffany design aesthetic and in the evolution of the Met’s collection.

Get ready for an exciting two-day cycling adventure from GWB in New York City to the magnificent Mt Greylock in Massachusetts. This fully supported event is designed to take you on a thrilling 170.5-mile journey through picturesque landscapes and challenging terrains. On the first day, we will cover 162 miles, with an optional climb to the top of Mt. Greylock. If at any point you wish to end your ride early, simply notify our sag support and they will take care of everything. You can either ride the sag van to the finish line or hop back on your bike and complete the ride. The second day will be dedicated to conquering the climb up Mt. Greylock, after a warmup. We have two route options for each day, allowing you to choose the distance and elevation gain that suits you. Throughout the event, we will have reliable sag support, ride captains with radios, and two drivers to ensure your safety and comfort. The van will have ample space for your gear and bikes, with early registrants benefiting from bike stowage. To top it off, we have reserved rooms at a local inn for your convenience. Please note that all costs will be divided equally among participants as a donation to our registered tax-exempt organization. Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity and secure your spot now by reserving your ticket. For more information and updates, stay tuned to our notifications.

For more than two decades, Shining Stars has been introducing children to the enchanting world of theater. This esteemed 5-day camp, known as Camp Broadway Shining Stars, takes place in the vibrant city of New York at the prestigious Pearl Studios NYC. From July 8th to July 12th, young aspiring performers can immerse themselves in a transformative experience that fosters confidence and collaboration skills. Led by a team of highly trained theater professionals, the camp offers a comprehensive curriculum that covers singing, movement, storytelling, and scenic/costume design. Throughout the week, participants will engage in creative group play, discovering the joy of theater in a fun and supportive environment. Camp Broadway Shining Stars nurtures a deep appreciation for the arts, setting the stage for a lifelong love of creativity. The highlight of the camp is the Family Finale Showcase, where the Shining Stars ensemble will dazzle audiences with their musical presentation, featuring songs and scenes from a captivating featured show. Under the guidance of experienced mentors, each Shining Star will not only gain valuable performance skills but also learn the importance of being a great performer both on and off the stage. With a ticket price of $875, this extraordinary camp promises an unforgettable experience for young talents looking to embark on their theatrical journey. Join the Camp Broadway Shining Stars and witness the magic unfold as young performers shine brightly on stage.

Experience the magic of Broadway behind the scenes at the upcoming event, "From The Back Of The House: Memoir of a Broadway Theatre Manager." Taking place in the bustling city of New York at The Drama Book Shop on July 9, 2024, this unique opportunity offers a glimpse into the world of theatre management like never before. Dive into the captivating memoirs of a seasoned Broadway Theatre Manager and uncover the challenges, triumphs, and anecdotes that make up their journey. Tickets for this exclusive event will be available for purchase starting on Jun 9 at 12:00 AM. Immerse yourself in the rich history and vibrant energy of Broadway as you attend "From The Back Of The House: Memoir of a Broadway Theatre Manager" and gain a newfound appreciation for the dedication and passion that goes into every production. Mark your calendars and secure your spot for a night of insight and inspiration.

“I think of myself, standing in a world that is never standing still,” the artistRobert Frankonce wrote. “I’m still in there fighting, alive because I believe in what I’m trying to do now.”Life Dances On: Robert Frank in Dialogue—the artist’s first solo exhibition at MoMA—provides a new perspective on his expansive body of work by exploring the six vibrant decades of Frank’s career following the 1958 publication of his landmarkphotobook,The Americans. Coinciding with the centennial of Frank’s birth, the exhibition will explore his restless experimentation across mediums including photography, film, and books, as well as his dialogues with other artists and his communities. It will include some 200 works made over 60 years until the artist’s death in 2019, many drawn from MoMA’s extensive collection, as well as materials that have never before been exhibited. The exhibition borrows its title from Frank’s poignant 1980 film, in which the artist reflects on the individuals who have shaped his outlook. Like much of his work, the film is set in New York City and Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, where he and his wife, the artist June Leaf, moved in 1970. In the film, Leaf looks at the camera and asks Frank, “Why do you make these pictures?” In an introduction to the film’s screening, he answered: “Because I am alive.” Organized by Lucy Gallun, Curator, with Kaitlin Booher, Beaumont and Nancy Newhall Curatorial Fellow, and Casey Li, 12 Month Intern, Department of Photography

A mandala is a diagram of the universe—a map of true reality that in Tibet is used to conceptualize a rapid path to enlightenment. This exhibition explores the imagery of the Himalayan Buddhist devotional art through over 100 paintings, sculptures, textiles, instruments, and an array of ritual objects, mostly dating between the 12th and 15th centuries. This dazzling visual experience provides a roadmap for understanding Himalayan Buddhist worship through early masterworks, juxtaposed with a newly commissioned contemporary installation by Tibetan artist Tenzing Rigdol.

Get ready for an unforgettable musical experience at The Volunteers concert, set to take place at Warsaw on July 22, 2024. Located at 261 Driggs Ave, Brooklyn, NY, 11222, this event promises to be a night to remember. The lineup will include a mix of classic hits and new tunes that are sure to get the crowd on their feet. From rock anthems to soulful ballads, The Volunteers will showcase a range of musical talent that is not to be missed. Tickets for this exclusive event will be available for purchase starting from April 12, 2024, at 14:00, until July 23, 2024, at 00:00. Mark your calendars and secure your spot at The Volunteers for a concert experience like no other.

Get ready to be blown away by the creativity and talent of Gwyn McAllister at the upcoming arts event, You CAN Make This Sh*t Up! This one-of-a-kind experience will take place at The Drama Book Shop in the heart of New York City on July 23, 2024. Mark your calendars because tickets for this extraordinary event will go on sale on June 23 at 12:00 AM. Immerse yourself in a world of imagination and artistry as Gwyn McAllister showcases their unique storytelling abilities in a way that will leave you in awe. Located at 266 West 39th Street, New York, NY 10018, The Drama Book Shop provides the perfect backdrop for an evening filled with inspiration and wonder. Don't miss out on this unforgettable opportunity to witness creativity in its purest form.