Your New York Exhibition Guide

If you find contemporary galleries cold and standoffish, you’ll be delighted by this absolute bearhug of an exhibit. Ernesto Neto wants you to interact with his work in every possible way: take off your shoes and lie down on the art! (Strongly discouraged at most other shows.) Stop and sniff the air: yes, those fragrant spices are part of the installation. Neto’s interactive environments are designed to captivate all five senses. The complex dynamic between humans and their surroundings lies at the heart of his work, and if you’re feeling ungrounded at the moment, Neto’s soft forms and entrancing textures will help you towards a better sense of place.

Exhibition Site

Alfredo Jaar’s latest show will reward even the most pessimistic of gallery-goers. Inspired by the writer Emil Cioran, for whom “existence, at its core, is endless anguish and despair,” Jaar instead offers a space of resistance and hope. Step into the main gallery space and you’re immediately submerged in glowing scarlet red. Neon words spew philosophy into the room. In a separate room, the show also features Jaar’s selection of works by 72 other artists, all of whom “sought to resist and change the world.” Take the time to browse and be filled with this triumphant chorus of unity and resilience. Democracy finds itself in particular peril these days: Jaar reminds you that art can go a long way in saving it.

Exhibition Site

In a market gone gaga over hot young things, Scott Kahn offers a refreshing testament to patience and experience. Born in 1946, Kahn has only recently started seeing mass appreciation for his decades of painting. At his show in the UES, you’ll be treated to 40 years’ worth of surreal, dreamy landscapes and moody paintings of forlorn figures. Kahn’s canvases tell the story of a man who, despite years of struggle, never stopped observing life around him, and using paint to untangle its meaning. His work in general is an incredible visual diary of his experiences throughout the years. Dense and mysterious, the work will fill you with grandfatherly gravitas and childlike wonder.

Exhibition Site

Ah, virtue and vice! These two pillars of art history (and life) never go out of style. Regardless of which ruled your past weekend, Ella Walker proves the theme is just as engrossing today as it was for the 14th-century painter Giotto, whose frescoes inspired this show. Walker’s seductive paintings riff on Giotto’s subtle hues and precise lines. Women, however, are now the protagonists, grouped together in intricate poses and decked out in symbolism: armored breastplates, harlequin motley, and Christlike wounds. Walker also embraces raw materials. She uses obsolete pigments like malachite green and azurite blue, giving the work a rare, otherworldly quality. The show’s smart, refreshing twist on art history is not to be missed.

Exhibition Site

If horoscopes and auras float your boat, Naudline Pierre is paddling alongside. Her latest show imagines a universe of celestial beings and mystical flames. She mixes together trippy visions of William Blake, early Renaissance architecture, and a whole lot more. Fantasy allows you to imagine experiences that aren’t possible in real life, and in Pierre’s realm, that experience is complete freedom and total rebirth. A naked figure soars upward in a burst of light, others embrace under the protective wings of cherub-like creatures. Not all is bliss chez Pierre, however, and some elements — pained expressions and sinister fires — remind you that transformation, even in fantasy land, demands very real struggle.

Exhibition Site

If the recent rain has dampened your mood, Lauren Halsey will brighten your day. Her first solo show in NYC (which inaugurates Kordansky’s new space in the Big Apple), lights up the gallery with a dazzling assortment of color, text, and geometry. Halsey packs her native South Central LA into a series of vibrant installations and wall pieces that are both loving homages to neighborhood vernacular (rainbow tresses under a sign for the “Braid Shack”) and pointed reminders of urban hardship (“Reparations Now!” proclaims a diorama billboard). And while Halsey’s work rings with social and political urgency, its pure aesthetic force ultimately hints at a way forward. Visit the gallery for an immersive experience of community, architecture, and heritage, all bonded by a celebratory power.

The rise in Asian hate crimes in America has led to an incredible coming together of the Asian American art community. Benefit auctions left and right, new community groups forming, Asian American artists gaining the spotlight with big solo shows. Yet there has not been a show that comprehensively captures both the breadth and depth of this moment. Until now. Enter Wonder Women, thirty Asian American and diasporic women and non-binary artists exploring themes of wonder, self, and identity. It’s a show about generational trauma, colonization, violence, heteronormativity, but it’s also a story about mythology, love, self-discovery, and community. An exhibition that really allows you to see how art reflects life – perhaps even your own.

Just down the block, you can check out Sasha Gordon’s show at Deitch’s other NY space. She’s also featured in Wonder Women.

Deitch Exhibition Site