Hyperallergic's Spring 2023 New York Art Guide

It’s no secret that New York’s dynamic art scene is what brings our city to life. Dozens of museums, hundreds of art galleries, countless nonprofit spaces and temporary venues, and of course public art everywhere all add color and vitality to this sprawling metropolis. Spring may be the time for flowers, but we believe the real beauty of New York lies in its inclusiveness. There is something for everyone here, so go out and see it all!

Take a walk through one of our many public parks and soak in the marvelous architecture, landscaping, and art projects, or check out the commercial art galleries of Lower Manhattan to see some work by emerging and established artists alike. Or better yet, make a day of it and go museum-hopping to see some of the best art the city has to offer.

This guide is focused on the art institutions that help make this city great, highlighting the breadth of venues throughout the boroughs as well as a few shows in the tri-state area for those who want to explore outside the city limits. Art in New York is unlike anything else in the world: Go make the most of it.

—Hrag Vartanian, Editor-in-Chief, Co-founder

***

Katherine Bernhardt’s newest series of paintings place the image of Bart Simpson’s gleaming yellow butt, rendered in drips, pools, and stippled spraymarks, at the top of the late-20th-century pop-culture pyramid. Bernhardt continues to evoke a comedic if not uncomfortable sense of anxiety that the dizziness of freedom and rebellion belies.

Canada (canadanewyork.com)60 and 61 Lispenard Street Tribeca, ManhattanThrough Feb. 25

In a continued exploration of Czech-Jewish composer Pavel Haas’s deep-seated influence on her practice, Susan Philipsz’s multi-room exhibition speaks to the immersive and introspective aspects of sound work, navigating feelings of grief and yearning. Philipsz’s show debuts a two-screen film, a 12-channel sound installation, and a polished steel barrel playing a new piece inspired by a Ben Johnson poem as well as the existential despair of Echo, the ancient Greek mountain nymph.

Tanya Bonakdar Gallery (tanyabonakdargallery.com)521 West 21st Street, Chelsea, ManhattanThrough Feb. 25

Ravi Jackson strips and reorients modern and contemporary notions of Black masculinity through a mixed-media approach. Haphazard paint strokes, found objects, and imagery of the broadly fetishized body, particularly those of Black men, meet sexualized images of Rihanna and Lil’ Kim, along with lyrics and other radical and explicit texts.

David Lewis Gallery (davidlewisgallery.com)57 Walker Street, Tribeca, ManhattanThrough Feb. 25

This exhibition includes two large-scale works by artist Félix González-Torres, whose overtly political practice was often rooted in conceptual and interactive approaches. One example of these strategies is on display here, on loan from the Guggenheim: the artist’s “Untitled (Public Opinion)” (1991), an installation composed of wrapped candies that changes form as visitors are invited to take pieces. González-Torres died in 1995 from AIDS-related complications, and the work is often interpreted as a meditation on the precarious nature of life.

David Zwirner (davidzwirner.com)519, 525, and 533 West 19th Street, Chelsea, ManhattanThrough Feb. 25

A selection of projects that plumb the possibilities of subterranean living, conceived by four Mexican artist-architects, are interspersed among Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi’s biomorphic sculptures in this uniquely satisfying show. One particularly intriguing example is the long-lost “Casa Cueva” of Juan O’Gorman, legendary architect of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera’s studios, built on natural lava formations in Mexico City’s Pedregal neighborhood.

Noguchi Museum (noguchi.org)9-01 33rd Road, Astoria, QueensThrough Feb. 26

Contemporary art often privileges concept over technique, and the results can be uninspired. Labor of Love offers something refreshingly different: a tribute to delicate material, painstaking process, and meticulous detail. Textile works, trompe l’oeil painting, and darkroom sleight of hand all make an appearance in this much-needed show, which emphasizes the most tactile and sensual aspects of artmaking to rekindle your spark.

Rachel Uffner Gallery (racheluffnergallery.com)170 Suffolk Street, Lower East Side, ManhattanThrough March 4

Xaviera Simmons calls out the links between institutions, exploitative labor, and racial politics in this sprawling show, which spans the many mediums her practice encompasses. The exhibition’s centerpiece is “Align” (2022), a structure wrapped in text hand-painted by the artist. Like the exhibition’s title, the work hints at the harmful passivity and inaction of White liberal book clubs formed during Black Lives Matter protests, one of many ways in which anti-racism is performed but not enacted.

Queens Museum (queensmuseum.org)Grand Central Parkway and Van Wyck Expressway, Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, QueensThrough March 5

For her first New York solo exhibition, poet and artist Renee Gladman shares a series of new and recent mixed-media drawings made from bright paints and pigments on mostly black paper. Gladman layers her interpretations of cosmic and architectural structures with illegible written words, granting the text a new life and meaning beyond its origins on the printed page.

Artists Space (artistsspace.org)11 Cortlandt Alley, Tribeca, ManhattanThrough March 18

While it seems that maximalism is currently enjoying the commercial limelight, Acquavella Galleries brings us back to the birth of Minimalist sculpture and installation during the 1960s with an exhibition that accentuates the stripped-down works of Sol LeWitt, Robert Smithson, Anne Truitt, Donald Judd, and myriad other historically significant contributors to the often-misunderstood movement.

Acquavella Galleries (acquavellagalleries.com)18 East 79th Street, Upper East Side, ManhattanThrough March 10

Yasunao Tone’s first retrospective not only explores his six-decade-long career but also features live performances by the Japanese-American artist and musician himself at Artists Space. Tone’s avant-garde body of work is defined by manipulated digital technologies, which he used to pioneer the “glitch” electronic music genre and has repeatedly incorporated into his visual art practice.

Artists Space (artistsspace.org)11 Cortlandt Alley, Tribeca, ManhattanThrough March 18

A thought-provoking selection of artists’ books developed from the mid-1960s onward questions viewers’ preconceived notions about the bifurcation of craftwork and conceptual art. Using the process of bookbinding as a thread to tie the two back together, curator Megan N. Liberty revitalizes the appreciation of materiality and intentional audience interaction inherent in book arts by highlighting the power of DIY zines, handmade single editions, and mass-printed photobooks.

Center for Book Arts (centerforbookarts.org)28 West 27th Street, 3rd Floor, Flatiron, ManhattanThrough March 25

This multidisciplinary exhibition features 41 artworks by 28 artists, each accompanied by short musical scores created by composer and pianist Michael Kowalski and percussionist and composer Allen Otte. The etchings, drawings, paintings, and more also reflect on music — they were all inspired by sound or seek to directly depict it in visual form.

Kentler International (kentlergallery.org)353 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook, BrooklynThrough March 26

Born in post-revolution Havana, Juan Francisco Elso was a pivotal figure in the city’s 1970s and ’80s art scene, when artists ushered in a new, experimental era of Cuban art. This show surveys Elso’s poignant practice, which was cut short by his untimely death at the age of 32. His sculptural works, constructed mostly with organic and found materials such as twigs, soil, and even his own blood, are set in poetic conversation with pieces by more than 30 artists, including Belkis Ayón, Ana Mendieta, and Lorraine O’Grady.

El Museo del Barrio (elmuseo.org)1230 Fifth Avenue, East Harlem, ManhattanThrough March 26

Stained glass and mosaics may not be the first things that come to mind when thinking of contemporary art. But consider Sebastian Duncan-Portuondo, a queer, Cuban-American artist based in Miami, whose installation “Club EXILE” incorporates glass, mosaic, neon lights, and found objects in an homage to the dance floor of a night club — hallowed ground for many in the queer community. The project, which the artist initially conceived of in the wake of the 2016 shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, is at the center of his UrbanGlass exhibition curated by Alpesh Kantilal Patel. In Duncan-Portuondo’s works, exile becomes a mappable space and a way to build community among marginalized peoples.

Agnes Varis Art Center at UrbanGlass (urbanglass.org)647 Fulton Street, Fort Greene, BrooklynThrough March 31

Artist Gordon Matta-Clark is best known for his “anarchitecture” works, made by sawing, carving, and drilling holes into buildings. Here, his drawings and films are exhibited alongside those of contemporary multimedia and performance artist Pope.L, whose practice also examines the complexities of architecture, institutions, and value. The show also includes a site-specific installation by Pope.L.

52 Walker (52walker.com)52 Walker Street, Tribeca, ManhattanThrough April 1

One Big Bag by Every Ocean Hughes may catch you off guard with its emotional punch. The artist’s 2021 film follows the important work of a death doula in rendering the transition from life to death as peaceful as possible. The film is part of Alive Side and it conveys the combination of warmth, poignancy, and even humor that characterizes Hughes’s art and establishes her as one of the most poetic artistic voices of her generation. Accompanying the film are works that examine gender and queer identity with disarming intimacy.

Whitney Museum of American Art (whitney.org)99 Gansevoort Street, Meatpacking District, ManhattanThrough April 2

Explore the lives of Jewish-American immigrants through the creation of the Jewish delicatessen in this profoundly original show. Compiling objects ranging from menus to neon signs to workers’ uniforms, the exhibition considers the history of the beloved “deli” and the enormous role it has played in American culture.

New-York Historical Society (nyhistory.org)170 Central Park West, Upper West Side, ManhattanThrough April 2

For native New Yorker Abigail DeVille, the Bronx is more than just a borough; it’s a haven for immigrants and communities of color, one that has persevered in the face of New York City’s continuous gentrification. Using found materials and objects, the artist draws out “forgotten ancestral histories, both real and imagined” in order to lay bare questions of racism and oppression. At the heart of her practice is a commitment to humanity and the pursuit of a better life.

Bronx Museum of the Arts (bronxmuseum.org)1040 Grand Concourse, Concourse Village, The BronxThrough April 9

Swiss artist Alfatih’s 24-hour CGI animation of a “grown-up baby” going about mundane adult rituals such as sleeping, drinking coffee, and working on a laptop is the centerpiece of this existentially puzzling exhibition. The newly commissioned work forces viewers to face the reality of melancholy solitude and modern humans’ nagging need for perceived productivity.

Swiss Institute (swissinstitute.net)38 St. Marks Place, East Village, ManhattanThrough April 23

Reaching back to the origins of the cultural revolution pioneered by the Black and Brown working-class youth from the Bronx in the ’70s, this show focuses on utility, individuality, and remixability in the evolution of streetwear, athleisure garments, and sneaker culture. The exhibition observes the regional trends, aspirational attitudes, and generational transformations that made hip hop style unique and widely sought after despite broad derision and dismissal due to institutionalized racism and classism.

The Museum at FIT (fitnyc.edu)227 West 27th Street, Chelsea, ManhattanThrough April 23

You gotta love the title of this group show at BRIC. Seven artists come together to dismantle prevalent myths about the so-called “American dream” in various mediums. They are Ayanna Dozier, Ilana Harris-Babou, Meena Hasan, Lucia Hierro, Catherine Opie, Chuck Ramirez, and Pacifico Silano. To borrow from the late comedian George Carlin, it’s called the “American dream” because you have to be asleep to believe in it.

Gallery at BRIC House (bricartsmedia.org)647 Fulton Street, Fort Greene, BrooklynThrough April 30

Nine performance artists engage with their viewers in expansive, five-day-long experiences that encompass interactivity, choreography, intimacy, science, and comedy, with the use of propwork, experiments, improvisation, and cultural infusion, in order to see and understand community through a different lens.

Neuberger Museum of Art (purchase.edu)735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, New YorkThrough May 7

The first US solo exhibition on Afro-Brazilian artist Bispo de Rosario, All Existing Materials on Earth looks at the life of the artist, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent 50-plus years in an institution, through his prolific and singular artistic output. Among the embroidered textiles and mixed-media pieces in the show (of more than 1,000 the artist produced) is his best-known work, “Annunciation Garment.”

Americas Society (as-coa.org)680 Park Avenue, Upper East Side, ManhattanThrough May 20

This show will display a selection of over 20 stoneware jars and jugs from the pottery studio of Thomas W. Commeraw, who was born enslaved and became a successful entrepreneur in New York’s Lower East Side neighborhood in the late 1700s and early 1800s. It’s the first museum show to center Commeraw’s work and will also explore other aspects of the artist’s life, including his role in New York’s free Black community and his position as an important political figure.

New-York Historical Society (nyhistory.org)170 Central Park West, Upper West Side, ManhattanThrough May 28

For Uncommon Denominator, interdisciplinary artist Nina Katchadourian draws on the Morgan Library’s vaults and her own career and family artifacts to create a conversation among objects. Accompanying this is commentary from Morgan staff members about their favorite objects. The resulting exhibition and catalogue promise to be a clever and thought-provoking inquiry into the nature of things and their relationships.

The Morgan Library & Museum (themorgan.org)225 Madison Avenue, Murray Hill, ManhattanThrough May 28

Deconstructing Power is not the first exploration of the scholar and activist’s data visualizations as aesthetic objects, but Cooper Hewitt adds a sociopolitical twist by putting them in dialogue with decorative arts by White, male 19th-century designers including Louis Comfort Tiffany, Henry van de Velde, and Adolf Loos, thus coaxing out the racial and class hierarchies embedded in design.

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (cooperhewitt.org)2 East 91st Street, Upper East Side, ManhattanThrough May 29

Newly installed atop the New York state courthouse in Flatiron is artist Shahzia Sikander’s golden figure of a woman donning Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s lace collar and blooming from a lotus flower. The artwork, which marks the first time a female subject adorns one of the building’s 10 plinths, is beautifully incongruous with the stone statues of Confucius, Justinian, and other historical male figures surrounding her. Nearby at Madison Square Park, Sikander’s figure resurfaces in a ground-level sculpture titled “Witness” that visitors can admire up close.

Madison Square Park (madisonsquarepark.org)11 and 27 Madison Avenue, Flatiron, ManhattanThrough June 4

Drawing on the museum’s collection as inspiration, photographer Coyote Park delves into the intimate relationships and friendships in their own life, both past and present. Expanding on queer visual histories, Park’s photographs will be exhibited alongside rarely shown works in the museum’s collection.

Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art (leslielohman.org)26 Wooster Street, Soho, ManhattanThrough July 16

What’s beneath the image of New York as a “secular” city, and who does this guise erase? South Asian American artists exploring faith, activism, and identity come together in an interrogation of this and other questions surrounding racialization projects in post-9/11 New York City. From intricate portraits of South Asian feminists by Jaishri Abichandani to Amit Amin and Naroop Jhooti’s photography of the Sikh diaspora, the show poses a vision of community and creativity as conduits for reclaiming public space.

Museum of the City of New York (mcny.org)1220 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, ManhattanThrough Sept. 18

At the turn of the 18th century, French artist Claude Gillot diverged from the artistic style of the Royal Academy to create witty and satirical works, ushering in a new generation of artists aligned with the dawning Age of Reason. Featuring more than 70 paintings, prints, and drawings, this exhibition contextualizes Gillot within the rapidly changing cultural world of early 18th-century Paris.

The Morgan Library & Museum (themorgan.org)225 Madison Avenue Murray Hill, ManhattanFeb. 24–May 28

By now we all know that a silhouette is not just a silhouette in Kara Walker’s hands. Here, she makes visible, palpable even, the omission of African Americans from dominant historical narratives, specifically Harper’s 1866 two-volume Civil War anthology. By inserting her figuresinto select oversized illustrations, Walker yet again asks viewers to confront a painful past — and its effects on contemporary culture — by way of racialized and gendered stereotypes.

New-York Historical Society (nyhistory.org)170 Central Park West, Upper West Side, ManhattanFeb. 24–June 11

Weimar-born Behmer was associated with the Vienna Secession before catching the attention of Harry Graf Kessler, the legendary art patron and chronicler of the Weimar Republic. Ever surprising with its historical deep dives, Galerie Buchholz centers this fascinating figure, a member in Berlin of the world’s first homosexual organization. While his fine-lined illustrations owe a debt to Aubrey Beardsley, his hybrid creatures and erotic drawings tread into the realms of the fantastical and grotesque. Don’t miss a rare chance to see them in person.

Galerie Buchholz (galeriebuchholz.de)17 East 82nd Street, Upper East Side, ManhattanMarch 2–April 8

Ever prolific and visionary, Wangechi Mutu has been transforming visual media for more than 25 years. The New Museum brings together more than 100 works by the artist in a major solo exhibition that connects her current art to the fantastical depictions of contemporary realities and future possibilities she’s been creating for decades.

New Museum (newmuseum.org)235 Bowery, Lower East Side, ManhattanMarch 2–June 4

We miss the ’80s, not least because that was the last time a major show of Chryssa’s art took place in North America. On track for a three-city tour across the country, Chryssa & New York debuts at Dia Chelsea, centering the artist’s formal sensibilities and indulging audiences with the elegance of industrial materials like neon and metal. Emphasizing the aesthetic qualities of these and other commercial elements, including signage, repetition, and additional forms of visual communication, Chryssa & NewYork is a love letter to the days when virtual reality was just a flimsy apparition.

Dia Chelsea (diaart.org)537 West 22nd Street, Chelsea, ManhattanMarch 2–July 23

This multimedia exhibition centers 12 contemporary artists’ reflections on the Great Migration, when around six million Black individuals relocated from the rural South to northern and midwestern cities as a result of organized racial violence and poor social conditions. The show’s artists employ mediums ranging from textiles to film to examine the six-decade-long movement’s effects on their personal lives and on United States society and culture at large.

Brooklyn Museum (brooklynmuseum.org)200 Eastern Parkway, Prospect Park, BrooklynMarch 3–June 25

Of Mythic Worlds: Works from the Distant Past through the Present looks at how artists across cultures, generations, and disciplines use rituals, ideologies, beliefs, and traditions to pursue a deeper level of consciousness and understanding beyond a “worldly” experience. Highlights include rarely seen drawings by Roland Barthes and Georgia O’Keeffe, major works by Mel Chin, and new works from Duane Linklater (Omaskêko Ininiwak from Moose Cree First Nation), as well as Shaker artworks and prints from the Qing dynasty.

The Drawing Center (drawingcenter.org)35 Wooster Street, Soho, ManhattanMarch 8–May 14

The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art is the only dedicated LGBTQIA+ art museum in the world. This exhibition features a display of photographs that tell the rich story of the community’s activism, education, and media production from the last quarter of the 20th century.

Leslie-Lohman Museum of American Art (leslielohman.org)26 Wooster Street, Soho, ManhattanMarch 10–July 30

Rachel Whiteread has made a career of materializing the traces of life. Her casts of architectural negative space in industrial materials like resin and concrete are uncanny imprints of the spaces we take for granted. Her latest exhibition at Luhring Augustine focuses on smaller floor and wall sculptures and works on paper, complements to her massive structures that suspend the ephemeral.

Luhring Augustine (luhringaugustine.com)17 White Street, Tribeca, ManhattanMarch 10–April 22

Showcasing around 40 individual quilts spanning the 19th through 21st centuries, this exhibition speaks to how quiltmakers embedded their collective and individual histories into every weave and stitch, characterizing their work as live documents that hold keys to the past and its secrets. The featured quiltworks also push the boundaries of material and technique, with some examples incorporating elements such as photographs and paintings.

American Folk Art Museum (folkartmuseum.org)2 Lincoln Square, New York, Upper West Side, ManhattanMarch 17–October 29

From thangka paintings to illuminated manuscripts, this exhibition features 58 objects representing Tibetan Buddhist and Christian traditions that span 1,200 years. As its title suggests, the show explores the concepts of death and the possibility of an afterlife, pondering what the show’s curators suggest is the universal human condition of impermanence and tendency to embrace life.

Rubin Museum (rubinmuseum.org)150 West 17th Street, Chelsea, ManhattanMarch 17–Jan. 14, 2024

Artist Sebastián Hidalgo’s work is difficult to classify. He has made elegant paintings on linen and soft, dreamlike portraits on craggy fragments of marble; immaculate figurations and mouthwatering abstractions. But all his visual worlds share an ineffable magnetism that makes us want to keep looking. The works in Encounters with Neptune are inspired by the two seemingly contradictory concepts of chaos and the structure of mandalas and the tension between them.

Fortnight Institute (fortnight.institute)21 East 3rd Street, Bowery, ManhattanMarch 23–April 22

Austin Lee continues his exploration of digital graphic aesthetics by means of manual techniques through gawky MS Paint-esque characters and simplistic imagery with exaggerated textures and surfaces reminiscent of early computer animation. Lee’s new exhibition highlights the multiple stages of his full-circle process: creating and manipulating models through virtual reality, translating them into physical airbrushed paintings, realizing them dimensionally with a 3D printer, and simultaneously breathing life into them while sending them back to the digital realm through animated videos using motion capture technology.

Wallach Art Gallery (wallach.columbia.edu)615 West 129th Street, Upper West Side, ManhattanMarch 25–April 9

Sung Tieu’s first solo exhibition in the US promises to introduce audiences to the artist’s research on psychological and informational control asserted by private and governmental entities, efforts typically hidden from public view. Tieu plays with fact and fiction to challenge the idea of universal truth, looking instead to the powers of information — or lack thereof.

Amant (amant.org)315 Maujer Street and 932 Grand Street, Williamsburg, BrooklynMarch 30–Sept. 10

There’s no shortage of warnings about environmental collapse these days, and no lack of information about the history of abuses that brought us to this point. Nature, Crisis, Consequence makes visible some of that US history and brings together works by a wide range of artists calling desperately for our attention, and action.

New-York Historical Society (nyhistory.org)170 Central Park West, Upper West Side, ManhattanMarch 31–July 16

Medium-bending assemblage artist Sarah Sze brings a distinctly contemplative spirit to an exhibition designed specifically for the museum’s structure. Considering how visitors might move through space, Sze pieces together a sensory installation, livestream projection of the moon, images on the building’s exterior, and interventions into the rotunda itself to encourage reflection on our relationship to time and memory.

Guggenheim Museum (guggenheim.org)1071 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, ManhattanMarch 31–Sept. 10

One of the most significant abstract artists in Latin America, yet still underrecognized in the US, German-Venezuelan artist Gego and her 40-year career are long overdue for some serious consideration. Gego: Measuring Infinity, her first major retrospective in the States in more than 15 years, highlights her interest in line and dimension through her sculptures, drawings, prints, textiles, and artist books. The show is posed as a “fully integrated view” of the artist’s individual, and continuously influential, non-objective explorations.

Guggenheim Museum (guggenheim.org)1071 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, ManhattanMarch 31–Sept. 10

This multifaceted exhibition delves into the incredible resilience of 10 penguin species as they navigate survival through climate change and habitat loss in the already harsh conditions in which they’ve evolved to thrive. Curated by renowned penguin expert Daniel Ksepka, the science-heavy display showcases 60 million-year-old fossils, scaled dioramas, footage of penguins in their natural environments, and information about the ways penguins and humans have influenced each others’ histories. Opening in conjunction with Gallery A, this show also marks the museum’s expansion, doubling the institution’s size and adding dedicated spaces for exhibition, community, and education.

The Bruce Museum (brucemuseum.org)1 Museum Drive, Greenwich, ConnecticutApril 2–Aug. 6

You might recognize Juan de Pareja from a 1650 portrait of him by Diego Velázquez, now hanging at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. There’s a dark history behind his iconic portrait: The Afro-Hispanic painter was enslaved at Velázquez’s studio for 20 years before regaining his freedom and embarking on his own art career. The exhibition includes Pareja’s rarely-seen paintings and works by others that chart the history of forced artisanal labor in Spain’s “Golden Age” and beyond.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (metmuseum.org)1000 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, ManhattanApril 3–July 16

All is vanity, as the saying goes. British artist Cecily Brown takes the sentiment to heart with each bold brushstroke, disrupting all manner of strict representation — whether of beauty or beast. Brown’s solo exhibition Death and the Maid at The Met highlights her influential position within contemporary painting’s recasting of art history’s grandiose themes.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (metmuseum.org)1000 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, ManhattanApril 4–Dec. 3

Long overdue, this is the first New York retrospective of the celebrated 83-year-old Native American artist, spanning almost five decades of her career. Always rooted in ancestral knowledge and heritage, her work uses methods of appropriation to address issues of land, white supremacy, and cultural preservation and erasure in contemporary American society and history.

Whitney Museum of American Art (whitney.org)99 Gansevoort Street, Meatpacking District, ManhattanApril 19–Aug. 13

Artist Daniel Lind-Ramos meditates on Afro-Puerto Rican and Caribbean histories, practices, and traditions through innovative use of found objects, harnessing the power of the everyday. This exhibition, the most comprehensive museum show in his career, brings together large-scale works whose presence and detail address the impact in Puerto Rico of Hurricane María, COVID-19, and more.

MoMA PS1 (momaps1.org)22-25 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, QueensApril 20–Sept. 4

Understanding her own body as a site of resistance, Tracey Rose challenges the interlinked forces of racism, gender, and class through provocative works that echo the performance art of the 1960s and ’70s, yet are entirely her own. A selection of her pieces reflects her commitment to this experimental approach, in which she confronts systems of power, along with a newer exploration of ritual restoration and healing.

Queens Museum (queensmuseum.org)Grand Central Parkway and Van Wyck Expressway, Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, QueensApril 23–Sept. 10

Held the night before the Met Gala in the lobby of Brooklyn’s Central Library, this fashion-forward ball is a refreshingly inclusive alternative to Anna Wintour’s celebrity-focused event. It’s free, and New Yorkers from all walks of life show up in their stylish or most creative outfits. Past years have included a red carpet, a runway, and an impressive lineup of performances.

Brooklyn Public Library (bklynlibrary.org)10 Grand Army Plaza, Prospect Heights, BrooklynApril 30

Like him or not, Karl Lagerfeld’s influence on 20th-century fashion is immeasurable. From his tenure at Chloé, which paved the way for designers like Stella McCartney and Phoebe Philo, to his 36 years helming Chanel, until his death in 2019, Lagerfeld’s aesthetic is imprinted on the way we dress. This Costume Institute exhibition looks at his legacy through his creative process, including his clothing, sketches, and collaborations with his team.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (metmuseum.org)1000 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, ManhattanMay 5–July 16

For her first US solo exhibition German artist Pola Sieverding brings together work from two photographic series, focused on oysters and bullfighting, in a site-specific installation. Exploring the body as a linguistic vehicle, her recent works center on the idea of sexual potency. Rather than relying on concepts alone, however, Sieverding imbues her images and films with a rich, complex visuality.

signs and symbols (www.signsandsymbols.art)249 East Houston Street, Lower East Side, ManhattanMay 4–June 10

Spanning beadwork, photography, painting, and sculpture, artist Shelley Niro’s decades-long practice defies categorization as it subverts historical tropes weaponized against Native peoples, particularly Native women. Her exhibition at the National Museum of the American Indian pairs references to these long-standing racist stereotypes with their antidote: healing lessons from and homages to her Six Nations Kanyen’kehá:ka (Mohawk) community.

The National Museum of the American Indian (americanindian.si.edu)1 Bowling Green, Financial District, ManhattanMay 27–Jan. 1, 2024

More than 30 years after his death at 33, Darrel Ellis is finally regaining the art world’s attention. Ellis was an up-and-coming artist when he died of AIDS-related causes in 1992. While his personal narrative is compelling, it’s his haunting portraits of himself and his family, created by distorting and collaging photos he and his father took, that linger long after encountering them. Regeneration is the first museum survey of the artist’s work, and one that is long overdue.

Bronx Museum of the Arts (bronxmuseum.org)1040 Grand Concourse, Concourse Village, The BronxMay–Aug.

Dedicated to connecting New Yorkers to the city’s waterways, the Tideland Institute offers an inventive take on this project by staging a concert series in the mouth of a sewer tunnel that empties into the East River. Sound intriguing? Expect the words “sewer tunnel” to be redefined by cool breezes, rock seating, and jazz and modern classical music. Details and tickets will be released to mailing list subscribers.

For event locations, visit tidesin.org.