While you’re in New York for the fairs happening this week and next, don’t forget to save time to visit the exhibitions taking place across the city. Here, we’re sharing details on shows at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gagosian, Perrotin, the Museum of Modern Art, and the New Museum.
Ming Smith, “American Sun Ra Space II, New York, NY,” 1978, UV print on dibond, 47 × 72 inches, courtesy of the artist.
“Projects: Ming Smith”
The Museum of Modern Art
February 4—May 29
The Museum of Modern Art is shining a spotlight on the photographer Ming Smith in the fourth iteration of its “Projects” exhibition series, presented in collaboration with Harlem’s The Studio Museum. Inviting viewers on a deep dive into Smith’s work, the selection of images represents her significant focus on movement, light, rhythm, and shadow in capturing emotion. Encompassing images captured from the 1970s onward—including subjects like Black avant-garde performers and residents of Harlem going about their daily lives—the exhibition has been organized by Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and Oluremi C. Onabanjo, Associate Curator, Department of Photography, The Museum of Modern Art, with the assistance of Kaitlin Booher, Beaumont and Nancy Newhall Curatorial Fellow, Department of Photography, The Museum of Modern Art, and Habiba Hopson, Curatorial Assistant, Permanent Collection, The Studio Museum in Harlem.
Karl Lagerfeld portrait, photo by Annie Leibovitz / Vogue /Trunk Archive, courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
“Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty”
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
May 5—July 16
The Costume Institute’s annual spring exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art honors the late designer Karl Lagerfeld in “A Line of Beauty.” Installed within the museum’s Tisch Galleries, the exhibition made possible by Chanel with support from Fendi looks to Lagerfeld’s legendary presence in fashion, spanning the 1950s through 2019. Instead of a typical retrospective, the show has been conceived as a sort of conceptual essay, inspired by the publication The Analysis of Beauty (1753) by William Hogarth, which considers aesthetics and beauty in terms of straight lines—representative of stillness—and serpentine lines—representing liveliness and movement. With a minimalistic layout by architect Tadao Ando, the show leads viewers on a journey of Lagerfeld’s work with fashion houses like Balmain, Patou, Chanel, Chloé, Fendi, and his eponymous label, putting an emphasis on his singular sketching style and the duality of his work.
Rina Banerjee, “Black Noodles,” 2023, Forged steel, vintage milk glass, hand dyed rope, shells, gourds, polyethylene netting, porcupine quill, silk thread, synthetic and human hair, horseshoe crab, polyurethane, ostrich egg and glass, dimensions variable; photo by Guillaume Ziccarelli, courtesy of the artist and Perrotin.
Rina Banerjee: “Black Noodles”
Perrotin
April 26—June 10
Rina Banerjee’s first exhibition with Perrotin, “Black Noodles” is a survey of new and archival works representing the oeuvre of the Indian-American artist. Employing her practice to look at topics like colonization, gender and race, commerce, migration, and economics, visitors will find the show presenting an adventurous narrative of fantastical encounters with humans and beasts alike, imagined in a multitude of colors, textures, and materials—ranging from metal and sequins to cotton, carpet threads, and electrical casings. With descriptive first-person titles like I am not afraid of you said the Elephant to the Rodent (2022), visitors at Perrotin’s Orchard Street gallery will find Banerjee’s multifaceted approach inciting feelings of curiosity and excitement, whilst touching on deep and impactful subject matter.
Richard Avedon, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, headed by Julian Bond, Atlanta, Georgia, March 23, 1963; © The Richard Avedon Foundation, courtesy of Gagosian.
“Avedon 100”
Gagosian
May 4—June 24
Celebrating 100 years since Richard Avedon’s birth with the exhibition “Avedon 100,” Gagosian has invited a team of nearly 150 renowned artists, designers, musicians, curators, writers, and other creatives to participate in curating this exhibition of Avedon’s most influential photographs. Representing Avedon’s enduring influence and widespread repertoire, participants like Kate Moss, Elton John, Naomi Campbell, Chloë Sevigny, Spike Lee, Christy Turlington, and Jonas Wood have each selected one of the renowned photographer’s images for its personal impact on them. The resulting selection of photographs spans his series like “In the American West,” documentation of the social justice movement, fashion photography, and advertising—including his most iconic works and some never-before-exhibited—completing an impressive showcase that underscores how Avedon helped shape contemporary visual culture.
“Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined,” 2023, exhibition view, photo by Dario Lasagni, courtesy of New Museum.
Wangechi Mutu: “Intertwined”
New Museum
March 2—June 4
The New Museum is presenting the most expansive survey to date of the Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu. Titled “Intertwined,” the exhibition features work spanning Mutu’s practice from the mid-1990s to today with paintings, drawings, sculptures, and film. Visitors at the museum will find a comprehensive display of Mutu’s varied oeuvre—one that has yielded a thought-provoking signature of spirit-like figures in fantastic scenarios—touching on recurring themes relating to colonialism, globalization, the African diaspora, and historical violence against women. Organized by Curator Vivian Crockett with the help of the Allen and Lola Goldring Senior Curator, Margot Norton, and Curatorial Assistant Ian Wallace, it occupies the museum’s three main floors, even including a specially-commissioned vinyl installation on the building’s glass façade, titled Sick Planets.
