With endless talent spread around the city, here are some of our New York City exhibition favorites for summer 2024, featuring Gladstone Gallery, Hauser & Wirth, Alexander Gray, David Zwirner, Anat Ebgi, the Whitney, and MoMA.
“The Secret History”
Gladstone Gallery
Matthew Hilvers, “Copy_edit_master_file (whom is being worshipped? Whom is working? 2011 Poussin vandalism sparks museum fee debate’)., 2024, Oil on canvas, 55 1/4 x 77 inches (140.3 x 195.6 cm); © Matthew Hilvers, Courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery, Photography by Anthony Flores.
June 20–August 2, 2024
130 E 64th St, New York, NY 10065
Named after Donna Tartt’s classic novel, The Secret History, Gladstone Gallery’s current group exhibition embodies the fervor of a bacchanal, the devastation of Pompeii, and the esoteric rituals of thousands of years ago from a contemporary viewpoint. Organized by Gladstone’s Alissa Bennett, the exhibition compiles 17 artists, including Matthew Hilvers, Karyn Lyons, and Micki Pellerano.
When organizing the exhibition, Bennett reflected on the history and complexities of Pompeii’s eruption in 79 AD. From then to now, Bennett explained, humanity has dealt with loss, and has forever sought relief from that burden. “I suppose in many ways, I think The Secret History is a book that ponders why we so often fail to calculate that the world doesn’t always change in the ways we think it does,” she explained. “It’s not just us who are dissatisfied, people have always looked for ways to escape.” Each piece reflects this vision, exploring the continuities between ancient and modern fears, ambitions, and dreams.
“It’s not just us who are dissatisfied, people have always looked for ways to escape,”
–Alissa Bennett
What we love: “The Secret History” draws on both the tolls and esoteric joys that have existed among humankind for millennia, with pieces that reflect on the intricate web of devotion, obsession, and tragedy.
Rita Ackermann
Hauser & Wirth
Rita Ackermann, “Misfit,” 2023, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 279.4 x 264.2 cm / 110 x 104 in, courtesy of Hauser & Wirth.
May 2–July 26, 2024
542 W 22nd St, New York, NY 10011 & 443 W 18th St, New York, NY 10011
Rita Ackermann’s latest exhibition spreads her newest paintings and prints between Hauser & Wirth’s West 22nd Street and West 18th Street gallery spaces. Known for her dynamic brushwork, Ackermann continues her abstract painting portfolio at Hauser & Wirth’s West 22nd Street location. “Splits” presents a series of paintings that play with movement and dynamism, harkening the image of a film strip in movement. Ackermann met with each canvas without consulting prior sketches or outlines, as the artist leaned into her instinct with each brush swipe.
At 18th Street, Ackermann debuts her new exploration of printmaking, a medium she explored alongside master printer Keigo Takahashi. “Splits: Printing | Painting” presents seven large-scale silkscreens that explore the process of transforming paintings into prints, as Ackermann approached the process as if she were stepping up to a canvas. As a result, each silkscreen is a complex arrangement of fluid brush movements and refined layering finesse.
What we love: “Splits: Printing | Painting” is Ackermann’s first showcase for her silkscreen projects, bringing viewers into her journey of artistic experimentation.
Hugh Steers
Alexander Gray Associates
Installation view: Hugh Steers: Conjuring Tenderness : Paintings from 1987 Alexander Gray Associates, New York, 2024.
June 20–July 27, 2024
384 Broadway, New York NY 10013
With its latest exhibition, “Conjuring Tenderness: Paintings from 1987,” Alexander Gray Associates compiles a group of pieces by the late American painter Hugh Steers. Tracking the year 1987, the year that Steers was diagnosed with HIV, the exhibition is a moving display of the artists’ paintings and works on paper. The show’s name is drawn from a 1994 quote from Steers, who explained, “It’s like conjuring … It’s as if painting it will make it become real. That painting of a man holding another man is conjuring that tenderness, that hope that someone will still care about you and will be there.”
Each piece depicts daily and sometimes banal scenes between figures, engaging in a game of chess in Chess or preparing for a bath in White Room. The show is a portrayal of the artists’ favor towards the domestic scene and mundane activities in a time of both global and personal upheaval and loss.
What we love: Alexander Gray Associates’ latest exhibition on Steers’ work is a continued testament to the artists’ lasting impact with his creations. Through his paintings, Steers’ translated the raw emotions of a period of uncertainty and affliction.
“After-Hours: People Who Work Here”
David Zwirner Gallery
Installation view, After-Hours: People Who Work Here, David Zwirner, New York, June 20—July 19, 2024. Courtesy of David Zwirner.
June 20–July 19, 2024
525 W 19th St, New York, NY 10011
This summer at West 19th Street, David Zwirner presents “After Hours: People Who Work Here.” The show is a group exhibition of 65 artists, all of whom hail from various departments of the gallery’s international locations’ staff teams. This year marks the gallery’s third installation of the “People Who Work Here” series, which highlights the circular relationship between artists and art workers.
The show features a range of mediums including painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, textile work, installation, video, sound, and sculpture. As testaments to the diverse talent within the contemporary art sphere, each presented artist blends their artistic eye with their role at the gallery.
What we love: “After Hours: People Who Work Here” proudly boasts David Zwirner members’ broad talents, showcasing them on the gallery’s renowned walls and floors for all to see.
“Mama’s in the Kitchen”
Anat Ebgi Gallery
Jaime Muñoz, “The Garden,” 2024, Acrylic, paper, glitter, and velvet flocking on wood panel, 60” x 60, courtesy of Anat Ebgi Gallery.
Jay Lynn Gomez, “Untitled,” 2023, Acrylic on paper, 10.875” x 8,” courtesy of Anat Ebgi Gallery.
June 28–August 16, 2024
372 Broadway, New York, NY 10013
Anat Ebgi’s newest exhibition “Mama’s in the Kitchen” is a group exhibition of 12 artists or artist groups, including Jay Lynn Gomez, Caleb Hahne Quintana, Stephanie Temma Hier, Ryan Johnson, Alison Knowles, Tidawhitney Lek, Jaime Muñoz, Alvin Ong, Kate Pincus-Whitney, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Kemar Keanu Wynter, and the trio FOOD: Tina Girouard, Carole Goodden, and Gordon Matta-Clark.
The show delves into the power that comes with domestic labor and care, acts that have often been rejected by modern culture. Each artist explores the power that comes with the domestic sphere, from cultural connections to community growth. Through mediums like epoxy clay bread sculptures and acrylic and oil narrative paintings, the exhibition offers a compelling glimpse into how each artist interprets the complexities of domestic life today.
What we love: Throughout “Mama’s in the Kitchen,” each artist unapologetically represents their own visions of home and its empowering nature–viewers are met with dynamic and thought-provoking pieces at every turn.
“Portable Orchard”
The Whitney Museum
The Harrisons, “Survival Piece #5: Portable Orchard,” 1972–73 (installation view, Art Gallery at California State University, Fullerton). Citrus trees, soil, wood, and lights, dimensions variable. Courtesy California State University Fullerton Archives & Special Collections,
June 29, 2024–January 1, 2025
99 Gansevoort St, New York, NY 10014
For the first time in 50 years, this exhibition marks the first standalone museum presentation of artists Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison’s 1972 installation project, “Survival Piece #5: Portable Orchard.” The installation, an indoor citrus orchard, originally proposed a sustainable alternative farming process in the context of growing environmentalist movements in the 1970s United States.
While the project was conceived more than five decades ago, its message remains pertinent: a salient need for sustainable ecosystems and environmental change. “The Harrisons’ collaborative and community-focused work put ecological research at the center of a unique creative practice that tapped into some of the most urgent issues of their time, from sustainable agriculture to climate justice,” explained Kim Conaty, Nancy and Steve Crown Family Chief Curator at the Whitney. “A visit to Portable Orchard will be an immersive, unconventional gallery experience, and we hope that it will also spark dialogue and exchange around environmental awareness and climate action today.”
“We hope that it will also spark dialogue and exchange around environmental awareness and climate action today,”
Kim Conaty
What we love: 51 years later, “Portable Orchard” remains a crucial conversation starter. The installation emphasizes the continuities between the Harrisons’ search for sustainable solutions and global discussions decades later.
LaToya Ruby Frazier
MoMA
LaToya Ruby Frazier, “Momme Silhouettes,” 2010, Gelatin silver prints, 62 × 48”, courtesy of MoMA.
“LaToya Ruby Frazier, “Mary A. Williams, Tuklor’s Mother, Holding the Water Hose at the Atmospheric Water Generator on North Saginaw Street Between East Marengo Avenue and East Pulaski Avenue, Flint, Michigan,” 2019, Inkjet print and text panel on steel and concrete stand, 30 × 40″, courtesy of MoMA.
May 12, 2024 – September 7, 2024
11 W 53rd St, New York, NY 10019
With its survey show “Monuments of Solidarity,” MoMA presents a compilation of artist-activist LaToya Ruby Frazier’s rarely or never-before-seen works. With pieces that span between 2001-2024, the MoMA exhibition is concerned with Frazier’s portrayal of forgotten narratives of labor, gender, and race in the modern post-industrial era. Frazier shines a light on social and political issues through her mediums, which are a melange of the social documentary tradition of the 1930s, the photo-conceptual forays of the 1960s and 1970s, and writings of leading figures like Upton Sinclair, James Baldwin, and bell hooks. For example, in Flint is the Family in Three Acts, Frazier presents the vivid experiences of a family in Flint, Michigan, who were face-to-face with the region’s devastating water crisis.
“As a form of Black feminist world-building, these nontraditional monuments demand recognition of the crucial role that women and people of color have played and continue to play within histories of labor and the working class, of who and what is worth celebrating,” emphasized the show’s organizer Roxana Marcoci.
“These nontraditional monuments demand recognition of the crucial role that women and people of color have played and continue to play,”
Roxana Marcoci
What we love: This is Frazier’s first comprehensive museum survey show, providing the artist with a platform to showcase her striking pieces.
