- Nathaniel Mary Quinn: Echoes from Copeland
- Sonia Boyce: Improvise with what we have
- Frank Bowling: Works on Paper: 2020 - 2023
- Yuan Fang: Spaying
- Maria Nepomuceno: Cunhó
- Maria Berrio: Soliloquy of the Wounded Earth
- Sam McKinniss: Law and Order
- Lin Wang: True Romance
- Celeste Rapone: Some Weather
- Leonora Carrington: Dream Weaver
- Tomokazu Matsuyama: Morning Sun
- Aki+Arnaud Cooren: Under the Reef
- General Conditions
- The Campus Annual Exhibition
- Sonia Gomes: Ó Abre Alas!
- Torkwase Dyson: Akua
- Rashid Johnson: ‘A Poem for Deep Thinkers’
- Shining a light on The Subway Sun
- Songs of New York
- Pirouette
- Shifting Landscapes
- 'In the Shadow of the American Dream: David Wojnarowicz'
From the backdrop of its Fall scenery to the eclectic Village Halloween Parade and the 63rd New York Film Festival, New York City proves it knows how to put on a show this month. It also continues to present a tantalising assortment of art exhibitions. Nathaniel Mary Quinn explores familial dysfunction and redemption at Gagosian, while Celeste Rapone’s new oil paintings capture the reality of ageing, balancing humour with an eerie political undertone at Marianne Boesky. Be transfixed, meanwhile, by Sonia Boyce’s kaleidoscopic installation and film at Hauser & Wirth. Don't miss a thing with our monthly updated guide to the best exhibitions to see around NYC.
Planning a longer stay? See the Wallpaper* edit of New York's best design hotels.
The best New York art exhibitions: what to see this month
Nathaniel Mary Quinn: Echoes from Copeland
Gagosian until 24 October 2025
American painter Nathaniel Mary Quinn explores themes of familial dysfunction, hope, aspiration, and redemption in his latest exhibition at Gagosian. The works draw inspiration from Alice Walker’s debut novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970). The central figures in Quinn’s work are placed in different contexts, from interiors to a cityscape. The artist further displays his intricate linework paired with detailed backgrounds to broaden the narrative.
gagosian.com
Sonia Boyce: Improvise with what we have
Hauser & Wirth until 18 October 2025
A silent disco is at the heart of Sonia Boyce’s inaugural exhibition with Hauser & Wirth. Her practice plays with language and pattern, seen in works offering a kaleidoscope of geometric shapes. Here, Boyce will present two new films alongside her latest wallpaper and photographic works.
Frank Bowling: Works on Paper: 2020 - 2023
Marc Selwyn Fine Art until 25 October 2025
Artist Frank Bowling presents 23 of his works that capture his distinct technique of bold washes of colour. He began his career at the Royal College of Art after moving from his native British Guyana to London in 1953. During his time at the RCA, he studied alongside David Hockney and Peter Blake and became involved in the British Pop Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. His ‘Works on Paper’ reflect his lifetime living along the different coastlines from Guyana to New York to London.
Yuan Fang: Spaying
Skarstedt until 25 October 2025
Marking Yuan Fang’s second solo exhibition with the gallery, ‘Spaying’, is a deeply personal body of work that reflects on the artist's recent breast cancer diagnosis and following treatments. Here, Fang looks inward, offering her feelings towards illness, identity and womanhood. Through a process of modification, layering and erasure, Fang creates viceral compositions, noting, ‘I need my paintings to be confrontational’.
Maria Nepomuceno: Cunhó
Sikkema Malloy Jenkins until 11 October 2025
Vibrant sculptures and installations twist and turn, taking on organic forms. These are the works of Brazilian artist Maria Nepomuceno, who is not afraid to utilise a wide range of materials, from rope and beads to ceramics, woods and woven carnauba (palm) straw. Nepomuceno brings Brazilian craft to the forefront. In this exhibition, her works focus on the spiral form, drawing on its functional, yet spiritual qualities.
Maria Berrio: Soliloquy of the Wounded Earth
Hauser & Wirth until 18 October 2025
‘Soliloquy of the Wounded Earth’ is the New York-based Colombian artist María Berrío’s debut solo presentation with the gallery. Large-scale works on canvas portray imaginary environments and characters and are built from watercolour painting and Japanese paper collage, an amalgamation of folktales and contemporary experiences.
Sam McKinniss: Law and Order
Jeffery Dietch until 1 November 2025
Sam McKinniss is known for capturing scenes we recognise from contemporary culture; a common thread throughout is his representation of people participating in life experiences through the lens of social media. In ‘Law and Order’, the works are drawn from fictional films and new photographs.
Lin Wang: True Romance
HB381 until 25 October 2025
Oslo-based artist Lin Wang is best known for her production of large-scale still-life installations that investigate the historic resonance of porcelain and the long-standing dialogue between East and West. For Lang, this holds personal significance, as she works between China and Norway. Her works are tinged by her own wanderlust, homesickness, and experiences of cultural discovery.
Celeste Rapone: Some Weather
Marianne Boesky until 18 October 2025
Celeste Rapone’s new oil paintings look at her anxieties around ageing in a way that is humorous yet serious. Her works use a niche colour palette, which she called ‘diet colours’ and which she attributes to the sensible clothing and interior decor she kept being fed through social media as she approached the age of 40. In ‘Some Weather’, her works feature figures awaiting a coming storm while attending to random tasks – soaking in a hot tub with a drink in hand, or seeking guidance from Ouija boards.
marianneboeskygallery.com
Leonora Carrington: Dream Weaver
Katonah Museum of Art until 5 October 2025
Surrealism is at the heart of this retrospective on Leonora Carrington’s (1917-2011) career. A pioneer in this art movement for over 50 years, she created landscapes that captured otherworldly creatures, inspired by folklore, mysticism, and the occult. This exhibition offers a look into rarely seen artworks, which have been loaned from private collections, and offers a moment of escapism and imagination.
Tomokazu Matsuyama: Morning Sun
Edward Hopper House until 5 October 2025
Japanese-American artist Tomokazu Matsuyama offers a contemporary tribute to Edward Hopper’s 1952 painting Morning Sun. Matsuyama explores the complexities of solitude, life in a consumer-driven world and contemporary society. At the heart of the exhibition is the artist’s new large-scale painting, Morning Sun Dance. ‘While Hopper’s Morning Sun captures a moment of introspective stillness within the psychological landscape of midcentury urban life, his treatment of solitude, light, and constructed space continues to influence my own approach to thinking about isolation as well as my approach to painting,’ says Matsuyama.
Aki+Arnaud Cooren: Under the Reef
Carpenters Workshop Gallery until 18 October 2025
Although this is less art and more design, it would be hard not to include Carpenters Workshop Gallery’s latest display of works by Aki+Arnaud Cooren. The multidisciplinary design studio is known for its serene and dreamy works inspired by the natural world. The exhibition features new pieces influenced by freediving experiences off the coast of Ishigaki island, southern Japan.
General Conditions
Jack Shainman Gallery until 29 November
'General Conditions' is a group exhibition bringing together work from over two dozen artists. The showcase offers a variety of media at different scales. The works are centred on the theme of the current social and political climate, raising a magnifying glass to how we respond individually and collectively.
The Campus Annual Exhibition
The Campus until 26 October 2025
Located 15 minutes from Hudson and 2.5 hours from Manhattan, The Campus, a former school complex in Claverack owned by five galleries, goes into its second year with its annual group exhibition. The diverse group of artists’ were asked to respond to the ‘spatial rhythm of the site and layer new meaning atop existing associations and touchstones’. Across 35 rooms and the surrounding grounds, 30 solo and duo installations anchor the show, presenting a variety of ceramics, paintings, and photography.
Sonia Gomes: Ó Abre Alas!
Storm King Art Center until 10 November 2025
Afro-Brazilian artist Sonia Gomes is known for her tactile, sculptural works, which combine a trove of found objects, textiles and natural materials that have stories embedded into their forms. Drawing from Afro-Brazilian traditions and her personal history, Gomes' sculptures explore the complexities of memory, identity, and cultural heritage. The exhibition marks her first outdoor installation in the US, a web-like piece that drapes from the branches of trees. The artist says, ‘My work has a lot to do with nature, with trees, with the movement of trunks, with branches... I like that my work has this conversation with nature.’
collections.stormking.org
Torkwase Dyson: Akua
Brooklyn Bridge Park until 8 March 2026
Akua is a public pavilion that has been open since May 2025, and is a calming space to sit and enjoy a moment of introspection. As you enter the pavilion, recorded sounds play across eight speakers, varying from recordings of fields to conversations from Black archives. This layered composition is intended to encourage reflection on the moments of silence between words, and how these can ignite contemplation and imagination.
Rashid Johnson: ‘A Poem for Deep Thinkers’
Guggenheim until 18 January 2026
Chicago-born artist Rashid Johnson presents a major solo show, which spans almost 90 works, inspired by history, philosophy, literature and music. Exploring Johnson’s immersive contemporary works, the exhibition spans from black-soap paintings and spray-painted text to large-scale sculptures, film and videos.
Shining a light on The Subway Sun
New York Transit Museum, ongoing
Historically on the New York subway, posters advised and informed users, encouraging correct etiquette and manners. For 'Shining a light on The Subway Sun', posters designed by illustrators Fred G Cooper and Amelia Opdyke Jones are celebrated, with the exhibition showcasing more than 40 examples from the museum's collection of approximately 120 original poster artworks and more than 100 vintage posters, most produced between 1936 and 1965.
Songs of New York
Museum of the City of New York, ongoing
LL Cool J with Cut Creator, E-Love, and B-Rock, Janette Beckman (1950-), 1986, Museum of the City of New York, 2016
Featuring music from 100 artists, ‘Songs of New York’ explores a full range of genres that have influenced the city from the 1920s through to the present day. Different genres explore different locations, from subways to apartments, nightclubs to neighbourhoods in this immersive, interactive exhibition.
mcny.org
Pirouette
MoMA until 18 October
Milton Glaser. Mahalia Jackson (Poster for an Easter Sunday concert at Lincoln Center, New York). 1967
The Museum of Modern Art explores iconography, objects and design that have impacted everyday life. The aim of the exhibition is to showcase the power of design and how it translates the human experience into ‘tangible forms’. Visitors will see icons such as the ‘I ♥️ NY’ logo and Telfar’s Shopping Bag, dubbed the ‘Bushwick Birkin’. Other items include technology, from the cassette player to the Macintosh 128K Home Computer. The exhibition is a fun dose of nostalgia while also looking towards the future.
moma.org
Shifting Landscapes
Whitney Museum of American Art until January 2026
LaToya Ruby FrazierLandscape of the Body (Epilepsy Test), 2011
‘Shifting Landscapes’ is a group show exploring how evolving political, ecological, and social issues motivate artists as they attempt to represent the world around them. The works are drawn from the gallery’s collection, and span various environments, from cityscapes to rural landscapes, bringing ideas of land and place into focus, and considering how society is shaped by the spaces around us.
'In the Shadow of the American Dream: David Wojnarowicz'
The Museum of Modern Art, ongoing
Wojnarowicz's work has been recontextualised by MoMA, which has presented it alongside that of the artist's contemporaries from the 1980s New York downtown scene, including filmmaker Marion Scemama, Donald Moffett, Agosto Machado and painter Martin Wong. Important works here include Wojnarowicz's's 1987 Fire, while Machado’s Shrine is a moving time capsule of ephemera. It includes a ‘Justice for Marsha’ sign, referring to questions around the suspicious death of trans activist Marsha P Johnson in 1992, as well as club flyers and memorial service cards.
Writer: Lauren Cochrane
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Out of office: the Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekAs we approach Frieze, our editors have been trawling the capital's galleries. Elsewhere: a 'Wineglass' marathon, a must-see film, and a visit to a science museum
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June Leaf’s New York survey captures a life in motionJune Leaf made art in many forms for over seven decades, with an unstoppable energy and fierce appetite leading her to rationalise life in her own terms.
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Jamel Shabazz’s photographs are a love letter to Prospect ParkIn a new book, ‘Prospect Park: Photographs of a Brooklyn Oasis, 1980 to 2025’, Jamel Shabazz discovers a warmer side of human nature
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Apple unveils its next-gen camera in a powerful new photography exhibitionThe new iPhone 17 Pro Max takes centre stage in a New York exhibition where artists Inez & Vinoodh, Mickalene Thomas, and Trunk Xu explore the theme of joy
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Central Park’s revitalised Delacorte Theater gears up for a new futureEnnead Architects helmed an ambitious renovation process that has given the New York City cultural landmark a vibrant and more accessible future
