Ferry Irwandi
As the winter season settles across the five boroughs, bringing shorter days and brisk temperatures, New York City’s cultural institutions continue to anchor the global art scene with an ambitious slate of exhibitions. Stretching from the historic halls of Museum Mile to the contemporary gallery spaces of Brooklyn and Queens, the city’s museums are challenging traditional definitions of artistic mediums. Curators are presenting works that span centuries and disciplines—ranging from Surrealist publications and rare comic illustrations to 100-year-old ceremonial figures and multimedia retrospectives. Whether visitors are navigating the iconic spiral rotunda of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum or exploring repurposed warehouse districts in East Williamsburg, the current museum calendar offers a profound look at historical memory, social commentary, and cultural evolution.
New Museum Explores Decades of Vision and Lower Manhattan History
Situated on the dynamic border of the Lower East Side and Soho, the New Museum has curated a dual-floor exhibition lineup that examines both individual artistic trajectories and the layered history of its immediate urban environment.
On the primary exhibition floors, Arthur Jafa: I Am Tony marks the first comprehensive solo museum presentation dedicated to the four-decade career of the acclaimed American artist and cinematographer. Jafa’s work unpacks the complexities of visual representation, collective trauma, and cultural celebration within the Black diaspora. Central to the presentation is his seminal eight-minute video montage, Love is the Message, the Message is Death, which weaves together sampled archival footage from 20th-century music videos, high-profile sporting events, and historic newscasts. The piece serves as a visual tapestry of grief, resilience, and joy, capturing the multifaceted contours of the Black experience in modern America.
Directly upstairs, the museum shifts its lens outward to explore the geographic and cultural evolution of its home address with Bowery: Devil’s Mile. This expansive historical survey traces four centuries of the Bowery’s identity, charting its transformation from a pre-colonial Lenape footpath to a bustling 19th-century strip of saloons and dance halls. The exhibition further documents the thoroughfare’s mid-20th-century iteration as a haven for Beatniks, punk rock pioneers, and post-rock musicians, alongside its notorious era as New York City’s primary Skid Row. Through 19th-century sideshow ephemera, Jacob Riis’s seminal documentary photographs of the working class, and archival artifacts, the exhibition contextualizes how one of lower Manhattan’s most mythic streets transitioned into a tamer, highly commercialized neighborhood.
Arthur Jafa: I Am Tony is scheduled to run through January 3, 2027, while Bowery: Devil’s Mile remains on view through January 31, 2027.
The Guggenheim Presents Taryn Simon’s Largest Monumental Installation
At the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, conceptual artist Taryn Simon has unveiled her most ambitious and expansive body of work to date. Titled Father Country I Do Love You, the exhibition occupies the entirety of the museum’s famous Frank Lloyd Wright-designed rotunda, utilizing the spiraling architectural space to mirror the labyrinthine narrative structure of the artwork itself.
The project originates from a personal anecdote shared by Simon’s father regarding an intelligence officer he encountered decades prior. This narrative serves as a jumping-off point for the artist’s own documented encounters and ongoing correspondence with an anonymous former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent. Comprising approximately one thousand distinct components—including textual documents, photographic prints, video installations, and sculptural objects—the exhibition charts an intricate web of historical events, geopolitical intersections, and covert operations.
By mapping the hidden intersections of institutional power and personal biography, Simon prompts viewers to examine the machinery of state intelligence and the often-absurd realities of modern espionage. The sheer scale of the installation reflects a growing institutional appetite for immersive, multi-medium environments that demand extended viewer engagement within major museum spaces.
Taryn Simon’s Father Country I Do Love You is on view at the Guggenheim through March 14, 2027.
Amant in East Williamsburg Bridges Contemporary Art and Ecological Urgency
Located amid the industrial warehouses of East Williamsburg, the non-profit arts center Amant has firmly established itself as a cornerstone of Brooklyn’s contemporary art landscape. Following a surge of local and international attention sparked by the opening of its campus restaurant, Zoli, the institution has redirected critical focus toward its ambitious campus-wide exhibition, Sentient Earth.
Curated to interrogate humanity’s fraught relationship with the natural environment, Sentient Earth features site-specific works by 28 international artists. The collaborative installation asks a deceptively simple yet destabilizing question: What might the planet communicate to humanity if it possessed direct agency and a voice?
The resulting artworks utilize diverse media to address ecological collapse with both sobering gravity and dark humor. Highlights include monumental sculptures resembling industrial mining tools, discarded refuse, and larger-than-life pharmaceutical blister pill packs designed to mimic archaeological artifacts. By confronting viewers with the material consequences of mass production and resource extraction, the exhibition bridges the gap between scientific data and aesthetic expression, offering a timely reflection on sustainability in the Anthropocene. Admission to Amant and its current exhibitions remains free and open to the public.
Sentient Earth is on view at Amant through February 14, 2027.
The Museum of Modern Art Explores Surrealist Publishing and Forensic Justice
Across the East River in Midtown Manhattan, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is presenting two distinct exhibitions that examine the intersection of avant-garde history and contemporary forensic investigation.
In The Surrealist Book: Tomorrow Lives in Mirrors, MoMA shifts its focus from traditional canvas and sculpture to the printed page, examining how Surrealist artists utilized the book format as a primary medium for ideological and formal experimentation. The exhibition highlights rare publications, manifestos, and collaborative texts by foundational figures such as André Breton and Max Ernst. Of particular note is the inclusion of pioneering photomontages by the queer artist and writer Claude Cahun. Long marginalized by mainstream art historical canons throughout the 20th century, Cahun’s subversive explorations of gender identity, portraiture, and poetic text are finally receiving institutional validation.
Simultaneously, the museum’s second-floor galleries host Teresa Margolles: Aproximación al lugar de los hechos (Approaching the Scene). Margolles, a former forensic pathologist, applies clinical precision and material evidence to trace the systemic impacts of femicide and localized violence across the United States, with a particular focus on Minnesota, California, and Texas. Utilizing fragments recovered directly from crime scenes—such as shattered glass, blood-stained soil, and architectural remnants—the artist constructs a somber environment that honors victims while challenging viewers to confront the societal structures that permit gender-based violence.
The exhibition continues across the East River at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, Queens, where the second installment, Teresa Margolles: En el lugar de los hechos (At the Scene), expands upon the themes of site-specific trauma and collective memory.
The Surrealist Book: Tomorrow Lives in Mirrors runs through January 23, 2027, while Teresa Margolles: Aproximación al lugar de los hechos is scheduled to remain on view through the summer of 2027.
The Museum at Fashion Institute of Technology Examines the Cultural Legacy of Dolls
Delving into the intersections of fashion, sociology, and material culture, the Museum at Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) has mounted Doll Dressing, a major historical survey spanning three centuries.
The exhibition investigates the enduring role of dolls as both children’s playthings and crucial muses for high-fashion designers. By examining how miniature figures have shaped sartorial trends and idealized body standards over the last three hundred years, Doll Dressing explores the archetype of the living doll through various cultural lenses. Visitors can observe how contemporary fashion houses—including Maison Margiela, Loewe, and Marc Jacobs—incorporate scale manipulation, surrealism, and illusion into their collections.
The exhibition also highlights the cultural impact of 1960s British supermodel Twiggy alongside the contemporary global influence of Japanese lolita subculture. Alongside designer garments inspired by miniatures, the galleries feature a comprehensive display of iconic playthings, ranging from antique boudoir dolls and classic Barbie iterations to lesser-known Japanese Takara dolls and modern Bratz figures.
Doll Dressing is on view at the Museum at FIT through January 3, 2027.
Brooklyn Museum Celebrates the Global Phenomenon of Manga and Hopi Heritage
In a landmark presentation for North America, the Brooklyn Museum has opened Art of Manga, the first major museum exhibition in the Western Hemisphere to comprehensively analyze Japanese graphic novels as a distinct and historically significant art form.
Featuring more than 600 original drawings, manuscript pages, and preparatory sketches, the exhibition traces the evolution of manga from its historical roots to its current status as a multibillion-dollar global cultural phenomenon. Highlights include rare, hand-drawn panels by master creators such as Hirohiko Araki, author of the cult-classic series JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure; Eiichiro Oda, creator of One Piece, the best-selling manga series in history; and acclaimed horror manga artist Junji Ito. The exhibition underscores the narrative complexity and draughtsmanship that have allowed Japanese graphic storytelling to exert a profound influence on global literature and visual arts.
Visitors continuing their museum journey to the institution’s fourth floor can explore Hopi Kachina Dolls: Blessings for a Balanced World. This complementary exhibition showcases 53 meticulously carved and painted wooden figures gifted to Hopi girls and women as part of traditional coming-of-age ceremonies, offering a meditative counterpoint to the contemporary pop-culture energy of the manga survey.
Art of Manga runs through January 31, 2027, while Hopi Kachina Dolls: Blessings for a Balanced World remains on view through June 27, 2027.
The New-York Historical Society Re-evaluates New York’s 1970s Underground Scene
Concluding its six-part institutional series celebrating America at 250, the New-York Historical Society—the city’s oldest museum, founded in 1804—turns its analytical eye toward the cultural explosions of a bankrupt, crisis-ridden New York City in the late 20th century.
You Should Be Dancing: New York, 1976 and Beyond examines the parallel yet distinct underground cultures that materialized within the city’s boroughs and subterranean club circuits during a period of severe economic and social turmoil. Focusing on the simultaneous rise of disco, punk, and hip-hop, the exhibition argues that artistic innovation frequently thrives in environments of civic adversity.
The galleries are packed with rare archival artifacts that document the city’s countercultural pedigree. Among the marquee items on display is an original exterior awning salvaged from CBGB, the legendary Bowery punk club. Additional ephemera includes handwritten lyric sheets by Patti Smith and Richard Hell, exclusive party invitations from Studio 54, and early draft screenplays for Saturday Night Fever. Together, these objects paint a vivid portrait of an era when New York’s creative communities forged identities that would permanently alter global music, fashion, and lifestyle trends.
You Should Be Dancing: New York, 1976 and Beyond is on view at the New-York Historical Society through April 2, 2027.
