Reviews on major exhibitions at the New Museum, Guggenheim, and MoMA PS1, what it takes to get a fair union contract, and finding joy in the history of concrete.
The actual nor’easter that punctuated last week’s whirlwind was bittersweet, for lack of a better word. Sweet in that I thought it might afford me the perfect excuse to go full cozy-mode after the intense socializing and aggressive pizzazz of Armory Week, but bitter in that, on top of the fact that the soles of my sneakers are still damp after mandatory ventures (see: things I RSVP’d yes to), I genuinely hate the rain.
On the flip side, I credit the lingering storm with flushing out the opaque remnants of last week for me. While I embrace the amnesia, plenty of others were strong enough to keep their eyes wide open all seven days and actually process what they saw. Bless them.
Stephanie Wambugu, author of Lonely Crowds (2025), writes about the limits and achievements of Arthur Jafa’s retrospective at the New Museum, identifying a trail of prescriptive esotericism between the art, its curation, and its title, I Am Tony. Along Museum Mile, veteran critic Aruna D’Souza takes her magnifying glass to Taryn Simon’s spiral of connective curiosity around the Guggenheim’s rotunda in Father Country I Do Love You. And across the river, contributor Alex Santana questions the aesthetic power of distilled violence, as presented in Teresa Margolles’s solo exhibition at MoMA PS1.
Those who prefer more tangible experiences might turn their attention to the Museum of the City of New York, which just inaugurated its new permanent exhibition devoted to the anatomy of activism through 250 years of history and ephemera of organizing in the Big Apple. And to those who want to lean into the esoteric — well, there are only five days left of the Morgan Library & Museum’s massive tarot exhibition!
Amid the buzz of art fairs (you can find our extensive coverage further down) and exhibition openings, NYC’s cultural labor force is seizing the opportunity to advocate for fair contracts at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the American Folk Art Museum. Unionized staff at the latter two institutions are deliberating on tentative agreements proposed in the last few days, while the Whitney union set October 5 as its strike deadline.
In my perpetual quest for a proper laugh, I had the pleasure of watching John Wilson’s debut feature documentary, The History of Concrete (2026), with a friend yesterday night. Despite my mistake in committing to a 9:15 pm screening, I was delighted by Wilson’s radical exploration of lateral thinking, as well as a humor profile I would argue rivals that of the first three seasons of SpongeBob.
Stay curious, and don’t be too serious.
Arthur Jafa, King of Pop
Arthur Jafa’s survey I Am Tony at the New Museum in New York is full of the artist’s characteristic gallows humor that ironizes even the most morbid images and brings to the surface the solemnity of low culture.
Occupying two levels of the Lower Manhattan institution, the exhibition is densely packed with work that ventures beyond the video art that has made Jafa one of America’s most important living artists. The largest exhibition of his work to date, its ambitions — which it achieves with mixed results — seem to be to engage in the same themes Jafa has continually mined, this time in even more idiosyncratic and brash ways. These include the history of Black music, religion and secularity, American cinema, political violence, popular culture, and the Internet. | Stephanie Wambugu
Irene Christensen: Releasing Anchors from the Past
Now on view at the National Arts Club, Irene Christensen exhibits her oil paintings and accordion books, including the new book Dread and Splendor: Paintings and Poems for a New Earth, which features poetry by Eileen P. Kennedy.
Art Fair Coverage
The Armory Show in One Sentence
This year’s edition seemed awfully quiet and downcast, making the financial sector trade show on the floor below seem like a riot in comparison. | Hakim Bishara
New Show at Pratt Manhattan Gallery Explores How Human Bodies Exist with Non-Human Objects
The internationally traveling exhibition shows the complexities and interconnectedness of these relationships. On view September 25 – December 19, 2026.
From Our Critics
Aruna D’Souza
Father Country I Do Love You at the Guggenheim Museum
“..The sheer accumulation of material for the viewer to sort out itself becomes the spectacle — we ooh and aah over the artist’s unflagging curiosity and her ingenuity in making links and tracking down documents and evidence and witnesses, but what, exactly, do we come away with? Some really good anecdotes, stories that seem too crazy to be true, perhaps a sense of how the tentacles of power extend into our lives in unexpected ways. But we also come away, or at least I did, with a sense of helplessness.”
Alex Santana
En el lugar de los hechos (At the Scene) at MoMA PS1
“Minimalism’s potential lies in compressing a complex idea or feeling into a visually “simple” gesture — distilling its essence into an experience that cuts away the excess. In Teresa Margolles’s work, this unsparing trim attempts to show us something about ourselves: a system of violence so destructive that it reinforces and codifies notions of “us” and “them” across artificial borders, all in the name of capital.”
Features
News
What Else is Happening?
- Hyperallergic Member-only Event! Join your fellow members, contributors, and staff for this exclusive studio event with ISCP’s NYC-based Ground Floor residents. Meet with the seven participating artists in their studios as they discuss their practice and work. (Wed., Sept 30) [Sign up here]
- AGI Fine Art presents the return of New York, I Love You, an exhibition at the Agora Gallery, brings together contemporary artists inspired by the rhythm, energy, and ever-changing character of New York City. Together, these works illustrate the many ways New York can be experienced, remembered, and imagined. (Wed., Sept 30 – Tues., Oct 6) [agifineart.com]
- Japanese Craft, Evolved at the Vanderplas Gallery brings together five artists working in centuries-old Japanese craft traditions including cloisonné enamel, urushi lacquerwork, Kamakura-bori woodcarving, ceramics, and hammered aluminium. (Fri., Oct 2 – Tues., Oct 6) [vanderplasgallery.com]
- The Poetry Society of New York’s will host their Fourth Annual Masquerade Ball at Pen + Brush Gallery. There will be typewriter poest, tarot & astrology readings, palmists & dream interpreters, performances by drag artists & burlesque dances, interactive installations, and a silent auction. (Sat., 10/30 [poetrysocietyny.org]
- Multidisciplinary artist Christopher Kulendran Thomas presents a screening of his recent work at the MoMA. Kulendran Thomas’s videos combine archival footage, found online videos, and AI-generated deepfakes resembling such cultural figures as Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian, to create multifaceted narratives on these entangled topics. (Mon., 10/5 at 7:00pm) [moma.org]
- The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library presents FEMINIST CANARIES, a conversation between Roxane Gay, Jenn M. Jackson, author of Black Women Taught Us; Mikki Kendall, author of Hood Feminism; and Loretta Ross, cofounder of the Reproductive Justice Movement. (Tues, Oct 6) [nypl.org]
