Discover the tantalising assortment of art exhibitions New York City has to offer this month. Step into the uncanny world of the Haas Brothers at the Museum of Arts and Design. The Museum of Sex dives deep into the relationship between portraiture and eroticism, with works by Amoako Boafo, Tracey Emin and Bert Stern. Tove Jansson’s magical Moomin characters return to the city with a Botanical Garden takeover, while at David Zwirner Gallery fall into a dreamlike state gazing into Gerhard Richter’s photorealist landscape paintings. Don't miss a thing with our monthly updated guide to the best exhibitions to see around NYC.
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The best New York art exhibitions: what to see this month
Haas Brothers: Uncanny Valley
Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) until 16 August 2026
‘Uncanny Valley’ invites visitors into the minds of the Los Angeles-based duo, best known as the Haas Brothers. Since starting their practice 15 years ago, the twins have created a genre-blurring world that spans art, furniture, craft and technology through hybrid creatures and kooky forms. The show, organized with the Cranbrook Art Museum in Detroit, displays 85 of their works against a backdrop of surreal algorithmically-generated landscapes
The Life Force: Intimate Portraits from the Amparo y Manuel Collection
Museum of Sex until November 2026
At the Museum of Sex, 45 works from the Amparo y Manuel Collection dive into the relationship between portraiture and eroticism. Spanning painting, sculpture, drawing and photography by artists including Amoako Boafo, Tracey Emin and Bert Stern, the showcase features large-scale figurative portraits that show vulnerability and intimacy.
‘In 'The Life Force,' the body becomes a space where Eros and Thanatos exist in constant tension,' says Tam Gryn, curator and managing director at the Museum of Sex Miami, in a statement. ‘The artworks hold that complexity, between presence and disappearance, pleasure and instability–and reveal how intimacy can function as a form of resistance against decay. Within that fragility, the human impulse to love, feel, connect and remain alive becomes incredibly powerful.’
Summer of Moomin
The New York Botanical Garden from 23 May until 13 September
After the Moomins' debut US exhibition last year at the Brooklyn Public Library, Tove Jansson’s mystical characters are back, this time taking over The New York Botanical Garden. It is a fun, interactive installation which encourages people to get outdoors. The takeover features a clue-based quest, nature crafts, and large-scale character moments.
Alex Israel: Where is My Mind?
Pace Prints from 30 April until 6 June 2026
Pace Prints present a new iteration of ten archival prints by Alex Israel. The collection is an alternative view on the artist’s ‘Self Portrait’ series, mounted in a custom, artist-designed frame. Previous iterations of the series were presented as large-scale paintings, however these new interpretations offer a more intimate viewing. The title offers introspection, borrowed from the popular song by The Pixies.
Gerhard Richter: Landschaften
David Zwirner New York: 20th Street from 7 May 2026
Gerhard Richter is known for his photorealist landscape paintings. Here, his work spans from the 1960s to the 2000s. Having begun looking at landscape as a subject for painting around six decades ago, he swiftly created atmospheric and calming compositions. His technique, and end result, nods to classics rooted in art history, and effortlessly captures the movement and tone of his travels. The exhibition is displayed in chronological order, each room dedicated to a period within the artist’s career.
Julian Schnabel: Italy Through Its Trees
Pace Gallery from 15 May until 14 August 2026
Transport to Italy with Julian Schnabel’s new textured paintings. Schnabel first went to Italy in his twenties, and recently reminisced about the country’s landscape and architecture, which has now inspired this latest series. While living near the Villa Borghese in Rome during the filming of his forthcoming feature film, In the Hand of Dante, Schnabel began to think about particular Italian trees. Exploring this as the subject matter comprises the new exhibition at Pace.
1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair
Starrett-Lehigh Building from 13 to 17 May 2026
1-54 the first and only international fair dedicated to contemporary African art. Founded in 2013 by Touria El Glaoui, and taking its name from the fifty-four countries that constitute the African continent, the fair offers three editions each year, one in London, another in Marrakech, and New York. It strives to promote diverse perspectives, and different interpretations of the diasporic experience. The New York edition will arrive this month, offering showcases from leading galleries, and artists, alongside panel discussions. Says El Glaoui, the founding director, ‘Each edition we asked ourselves: what is necessary, what can be achieved & how can it be different?’
Helen Frankenthaler & Anthony Caro: SIMILITUDES: Color, Form, Friendship
Yares Art from 11 April 2026
‘SIMILITUDES: Color, Form, Friendship' is an exhibition exploring the friendship between American painter Helen Frankenthaler and British sculptor Anthony Caro, who first became acquainted in New York in 1959. The exhibition looks at the similarities between both their work, and positions their friendship as a place for creative expression. Expect to see over 30 works including paintings, sculptures, and archival materials that illuminate their shared appreciation and use of colour, form, material and space. Alongside this, a selection of letters exchanged between them which spanned over five decades.
Marcel Duchamp
MoMa 12 April until 22 August 2026
Featuring 300 artworks, this exhibition marks the first retrospective of the artist’s work in the United States since 1973. Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) had a career spanning six decades, and worked across varying mediums and played a key part in modern art movements without adhering to one in particular. His work was defined by continuous reinvention and experimentation, having once said, ‘I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste.’
Raphael: Sublime Poetry
The Met until 28 June 2026
This is the first comprehensive exhibition on Raffaello di Giovanni Santi (1483–1520), a pioneer of the Italian Renaissance. Bringing together more than 170 of the artist’s works, the exhibition charts his creativity throughout his short life of only 37 years, from his origins in Urbino to Florence where he began to emerge as a peer of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, to his final, prolific decade at the papal court in Rome. There is a particular focus on his portrayal of women, from the use of female models, to depictions of The Madonna and Child, this exhibition is a must for lovers of art history.
Carol Bove
Guggenheim until 2 August 2026
Located in the Frank Lloyd Wright–designed rotunda, Carol Bove’s work is showcased in a first museum survey. It is a retrospective of her career, spanning more than 25 years, and looks at her interest in how her work sits within its surroundings. Discover towering steel sculptures, and paper collages, which explore scale, space, surface and colour. Throughout the exhibition she includes areas for rest and interaction, including comfortable seating built into the architecture, a library in which materials from the artist’s studio may be handled directly, and her own chess tables which encourage people to get involved and play.
Whitney Biennial
Whitney Museum of American Art until 23 August, 2026
Still from the Whitney Biennial 2026 | Historical Trailer
The longest-running survey of contemporary art in the United States is back as the Whitney museum prepares for its 82nd edition. The biennial will showcase 56 artists and collectives that present work which spans across themes of family relations, geopolitics, mythologies and more.
Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination
MoMA until 5 July 2026
Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination, a new exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, explores themes such as Pan-African subjectivity and solidarity through photography. The exhibition is the third show at MoMA from the 2019 gift of modern and contemporary African art from collector Jean Pigozzi, alongside a selection of recent acquisitions and key loans.
Writer: Gameli Hamelo
Fanmania
The Met until 12 May, 2026
Henri-Gabriel Ibels (French, Paris 1867–1936 Paris). Circus Fan, ca. 1893–95. Lithograph on silk fan leaf. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1938 (38.91.98).
This exhibition dives into the art of the hand-held fan. Innovative artists in 19th century Europe used these accessories as a canvas for their works, adding to its purpose of functional and fashionable objects of communication. The exhibition explores themes of gender, courtship, consumerism, and appropriation.
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
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
'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