- Jack Whitten: Prime Mover
- Ana Benaroya: Eternal Flame
- Abang-guard: ‘Makibaka’
- Gabriele Münter: Contours of a World
- Lamar Peterson: ‘The View from Outside’
- Salon Art + Design
- Graciela Iturbide: ‘Serious Play’
- Alic Brock: When Shadows Forget Their Master
- June Leaf: Shooting from the Heart
- ‘Seydou Keïta: A Tactile Lens’
- Sam McKinniss: Law and Order
- General Conditions
- 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
- Shifting Landscapes
- 'In the Shadow of the American Dream: David Wojnarowicz'
This month dive into a tantalising assortment of art exhibitions in New York City. Atlanta-based painter Alic Brock merges collage with acrylics and digital interplay resulting in imagery with an unusual flair of Americana, while Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide showcases her first New York retrospective of nearly 200 photographs. Lamar Peterson balances private refuge and public exposure, with his paintings of men finding solitude in daily rituals. At the Flag Art Foundation, Ana Benaroya reinterprets how women's bodies are seen, blending the boundaries between masculinity and femininity. 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
Jack Whitten: Prime Mover
Dia Beacon, long term view
The sculptor and artist Jack Whitten moved to New York in 1960. After a trip to Greece in 1969 he began to make sculptures and experimental drawings, which then accompanied his painting practice of more than five decades. Dia Beacon now presents a group of recently acquired works on paper which Whitten made during the 1970s using dry and wet black pigments. His work is abstract and explores new tools, materials, and methods of his own design to generate images
Ana Benaroya: Eternal Flame
The Flag Art Foundation until 17 January 2026
New York-based artist Ana Benaroya presents ‘Eternal Flame’ , an expansive display of paintings, works on paper, and monotypes. Benaroya is known for her interpretation of women’s bodies which bridges the gap between femininity and masculinity. Drawing upon art historical motifs and contemporary culture varying from music and comics to movies, Benaroya makes the viewer question how women are seen, and whether a naked body can be viewed without being sexualised.
Abang-guard: ‘Makibaka’
Queens Museum until 18 January 2026
Abang-guard, Film still of "Filipino Community Cultural Center of Delano, California," 2025, time variable
Artist duo Abang-guard (Maureen Catbagan and Jevijoe Vitug) present their first museum solo exhibition which looks at visibility through the lens of immigration. ‘Makibaka’, roughly translated from Tagalog as “coming together for change,” is a rallying cry used by Filipino movements and communities in fighting against exploitative systems. Here, the duo looks at architecture of 1964–1965 New York World’s Fair’s Philippines and New York State Pavilions. This is the foundation of a deep dive into Filipino American labour history.
Gabriele Münter: Contours of a World
Guggenheim from 7 November 2025 until 26 April 2026
Gabriele Münter. Head of a Young Girl (Junges Mädchen), 1908
German painter Gabriele Münter was, and still is, known for her modern art during the early 20th century. Her modus operandi consisted of reimagining landscape, still life and portraiture in a flurry of bold colour. Münter explored modernist movements leaning more towards abstraction. ‘Contours of a World’ explores her work which captures daily life, informed by travel and community.
Lamar Peterson: ‘The View from Outside’
Fredericks & Freiser until 8 November 2025
Painter Lamar Peterson explores the boundary between private refuge and public exposure. Here, he finely treads the line between the peace of suburbia and the daunting outside world. Domestic life and routine is both the subject and the setting focusing on Black men attending simple rituals, from cooking a meal to looking after a garden. He brings care and solace to the forefront, allowing the viewer to take a moment to pause and enjoy the peace in mundanity.
Salon Art + Design
Park Avenue Armory from 6 to 10 November
Salon Art + Design fair is back presenting vintage, modern and contemporary pieces. Galleries from around the world come to the fair, which highlights upcoming collectible design trends. Throughout the first week of November take a peek inside the curated collection boasting a comprehensive array of diverse objects and art.
Graciela Iturbide: ‘Serious Play’
The International Center of Photography until 12 January 2026
Mujer ángel, Desierto de Sonora, México, 1979
Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide presents her first ever retrospective in New York City. The exhibition features nearly 200 photographs spanning five decades of her career. Iturbide is known for her black-and-white images of the local communities in her native Mexico. She travelled extensively giving attention to communal life, indigenous communities and how culture and nature interact with each other.
Alic Brock: When Shadows Forget Their Master
Plato Gallery until 15 November 2025
Using mostly acrylic on canvas, Atalanta-based painter Alic Brock creates intriguing compositions that seem familiar yet otherworldly. He uses fragments of Americana and cultural icons intertwined with his own personal memories to deliver different scenarios. His process is intriguing. Each work begins as a collage of found and personal imagery that is then altered and translated onto canvas using airbrush acrylics,
June Leaf: Shooting from the Heart
Grey Art Museum until 13 December 2025
June Leaf in her Bleecker Street studio, 1994
June Leaf, the late American artist, has been inspired by movement as seen within her art, which she created across seven decades. She transformed motion into a way of understanding the world through painting, sculpture and drawing, working daily between her studios in downtown New York and Nova Scotia, until her final days.
‘Shooting from the Heart’ has a conceptual layout that eschews a chronological order to manoeuvre the visitors around a life of ceaseless curiosity for movement, both of the body and the mind. After debuting at the Addison Gallery of American Art this past spring, the expansive survey currently occupies New York University’s Grey Art Museum at stone’s throw away from Leaf’s studio in East Village.
Writer: Osman Can Yerebakan
‘Seydou Keïta: A Tactile Lens’
Brooklyn Museum until 8 March 2026
In April 2024, curator and author Catherine E McKinley travelled to Mali to meet the family of legendary photographer Seydou Keïta, to discuss an upcoming exhibition and to ask for their participation. Celebrated as one of the most outstanding 20th-century photographers, Keïta ran a photography studio in the Malian capital, Bamako, between the late 1940s and early 1960s, where he shot black and white portraits of fashionably dressed people, with the patterned backdrops that he is perhaps best known for. He also documented the social and political landscape in pre- and post-independence Mali.
‘Seydou Keïta: A Tactile Lens’, billed as the most extensive North American presentation of the artist, is now open at the Brooklyn Museum, and includes almost 275 works, including portraits, rare images, and never-before-seen negatives, textiles, jewellery, dresses, and the artist’s personal items
Writer Gameli Hamelo
www.brooklynmuseum.org
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.
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.
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
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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In the frame: Layer is a new high-tech platform for displaying unique pieces of generative artA museum-grade canvas renders digital art with spectacular precision, cutting-edge tech and exacting industrial design
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Chrome tableware to make your dining setup shineOnce a hallmark of industrial and midcentury design, chrome is shining once again. The latest expression? Metallic dinner-, drink- and serveware that embody sophistication
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Serenity radiates through this Mexican home, set between two ravinesOn the cusp of a lakeside town, Mexican home Casa el Espino is a single-storey residence by Soler Orozco Arquitectos (SOA)
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Inside the work of photographer Seydou Keïta, who captured portraits across West Africa‘Seydou Keïta: A Tactile Lens’, an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, New York, celebrates the 20th-century photographer
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Out of office: The Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekFrom sumo wrestling to Singaporean fare, medieval manuscripts to magnetic exhibitions, the Wallpaper* team have traversed the length and breadth of culture in the capital this week
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María Berrío creates fantastical worlds from Japanese-paper collages in New YorkNew York-based Colombian artist María Berrío explores a love of folklore and myth in delicate and colourful works on paper
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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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The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles launches the seventh iteration of its highly anticipated artist biennialOne of the gallery's flagship exhibitions, Made in LA showcases the breadth and depth of the city's contemporary art scene
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Inside a Courtney Love-inspired art exhibition in New YorkLiza Jo Eilers looks to the glory days of Hole at an exhibition at Grimm New York
