Discover the tantalising assortment of art exhibitions New York City has to offer this month. Canadian artist David Altmejd unveils a new large-scale installation, and a series of busts and bronze sculptures for his latest show, ‘The Serpent’, at White Cube. Dike Blair presents a collection of oil paintings capturing windows and openings in warm tones that feel familiar and nostalgic. ‘Vacation’ by Berlin-based artist Isa Genzken shows her work from the late 1970s to the 2010s, and is rooted around her proclamation that ‘the entire art system urgently needs a vacation’. Don't miss a thing with our monthly updated guide to the best exhibitions to see around NYC.
Planning a stay? See the Wallpaper* edit of New York's best design hotels.
The best New York art exhibitions: what to see this month
Vacation by Isa Genzken
David Zwirner from 13 March, 2026
Vacation is by Berlin-based artist Isa Genzken, whose career spans five decades. Her work explores the intersecting areas between art, design, architecture, and technology. Her latest showcase will feature a selection of work spanning the late 1970s to the 2010s, also including collaborations with artists such as Wolfgang Tillmans and Kai Althoff. The show is rooted around Genzken’s proclamation that ‘the entire art system urgently needs a vacation’.
Light in a Dark Mirror: Demetrius Wilson
Half Gallery until 13 March 2026
‘Everything is on fire in my paintings,’ says Demetrius Wilson on his second solo show at Half Gallery. He continues, ‘What does fire do so greatly? It burns brightly, radiating heat, infectiously.’ Light in a Dark Mirror is a series of new abstract paintings conceived at his Long Island City studio. Wilson focuses on temperature within his paintings, using the medium for illumination to create a composition which is both warm and cool.
Dike Blair
Karma until 28 March 2026
Artist Dike Blair observes windowsills, elevators, airport, lounges, construction, scenes and other settings which are frozen in time. With oil paint being the desired medium, the series have depth and warmth, echoing a sense of familiarity and resonance with each piece.
David Altmejd; The Serpent
White Cube from 14 March until 19 April 2025
Canadian artist David Altmejd unveils a new large-scale installation, and a series of busts and bronze sculptures for his latest show at White Cube. The work looks at nature's hierarchies, through a lens of realism and expressionism. Here, he balances growth and decay, man and animal, and how they intersect.
Continuum: Over 100 Years of Black Art
ACA Galleries until 7 March 2026
Continuum: Over 100 Years of Black Art, looks at the range of paintings, drawings and sculptures by African American artists from the 19th century to the present. Highlights include a rare 1981 Jazz collage by Romare Bearden, known for being one of the great collagists of the 20th century.
acagalleries.com
Serge Alain Nitegeka: Configurations in Black
Marianne Boesky Gallery until 8 March 2026
South Africa-based artist Serge Alain Nitegeka presents his fifth solo exhibition with the gallery. Configurations in Black is a series of new paintings and sculptures each boasting symbolic and politically charged colours and forms. He looks at modernism’s idea of colour and line, and adapts this through a lens of forced migration. He draws on his history as a refugee and puts up barriers and obstacles for the viewer to traverse.
Whitney Biennial
Whitney Museum of American Art from 8 March 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
Seeing Silence:The Paintings of Helene Schjerfbeck
The Met until 5 April, 2026
Finnish painter Helene Schjerfbeck, although celebrated in Scandinavia, is relatively unknown to the wider world. Schjerfbeck went through immense personal struggles, and produced work through a force of will. This exhibition is an ode to her pieces and how she is deeply involved in the story of modern art.
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
Gabriele Münter: Contours of a World
Guggenheim 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.
‘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
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.
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