As the third-best city for art and culture in the world (according to Time Out, and coming in behind London and Paris), NYC delivers. This week make sure to catch Giacometti’s slender silhouettes in the weighty grandeur of the Temple of Dendur, floating robotic “aerobes” in the New Museum’s new building, the Highline’s Plinth, Sotheby’s employees’ art, and tarot cards at the Morgan Library. I see art in your future.
Check out these exhibitions, then grab a bite at the New Museum’s art-meets-food collaboration or hop on the train upstate to Storm King to continue your newfound yearning for Yi.
Giacometti in the Temple of Dendur
The Met, 1000 5th Avenue, through September 8
Alberto Giacometti’s modern figures take on new resonance inside one of The Met’s most iconic spaces. Seventeen bronze and plaster works by the 20th-century sculptor inhabit the Temple of Dendur, placing Giacometti's famously elongated figures alongside the ancient Egyptian art that fascinated him throughout his career. Walking Woman I and other iconic forms appear alone and in small groups across the temple platform, creating a striking encounter between Giacometti’s modernist vision and a civilization that helped shape it. The result is a rare chance to see modern sculpture transform one of The Met’s most spectacular spaces.
Before you go: If you want to do a little homework before heading to the exhibition, check out Stories of Art’s two-part podcast on the life and career of Giacometti, whose works rank among the most expensive sculptures ever sold at auction. The podcast traces his idyllic childhood, a formative encounter with death, his restless rejection of realism and Surrealism, and his eventual discovery of the agitated, elongated figures that became his signature.
New Humans: Memories of the Future
New Museum, 235 Bowery, through August 30New Humans: Memories of the Future, on partial view at the New Museum through August 30, takes over the museum’s OMA-designed building to explore how artists and other cultural visionaries have imagined the future of humanity. Spanning the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the exhibition brings together art, architecture, science fiction, and film to envision everything from robots and cyborgs to strange post-human life forms. The result is a provocative look at how technological and social upheaval has continually reshaped not only our vision of the future, but our understanding of what it means to be human.
For the New Museum, Anicka Yi's Studio reconfigured a group of her floating “aerobes,” first seen at Tate Modern, for an entirely new architectural environment. These airborne, almost creature-like forms navigate the gallery using sensors and behavioral systems that allow them to respond to the people moving through the space. The result is an encounter that feels part sculpture, part science experiment, and part glimpse into a future in which art might have a life of its own.
The New Museum’s new restaurant Oberon, which opened in July, brings seasonal, everyday dining into the museum with an atmosphere shaped by ongoing collaborations with artists Ian Cheng, Minjae Kim, and Laurie Anderson. The art, it seems, doesn’t necessarily stop when you leave the galleries.
An Anicka Yi field trip: If the aerobes leave you wanting more Yi, head to outdoor museum Storm King Art Center in Hudson Valley, where Message From the Mud is on view through November 9. Her towering, transparent “Winogradsky” columns contain water, soil, mud, algae, and other materials drawn from Storm King’s pond. Over time, the living ecosystems inside shift and evolve, turning the sculptures into ever-changing portraits of the microbial world.
Tarot! Renaissance Symbols, Modern Visions
The Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Avenue, through October 4I see a visit to the Morgan Library & Museum is in your future. Tarot! shuffles through the cards’ surprisingly non-occult origins as a Renaissance game for the Italian elite before dealing into the surreal, mystical, and wildly imaginative ways artists have embraced their symbolism ever since.
See the famed Visconti-Sforza cards reunited in North America for the first time, then follow the deck’s influence through artists from Leonora Carrington and Niki de Saint Phalle to Betye Saar and Chris Ofili. Add a cinematic side trip featuring everything from Agnès Varda to Live and Let Die, and you’ve got art, history, mystery, and maybe even a glimpse of your future.
High Line Plinth
30th Street and 10th AvenueThe High Line’s Plinth is where art goes big. Opened in 2019, this airy perch, visible from the High Line as well as below from 10th Avenue, hosts a rotating lineup of monumental contemporary artworks, all with the city skyline as a backdrop. Come for the art, stay for the views and the impressive native gardens.
Continuing the theme of ancient art, be sure to check out Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s “The Light That Shines Through the Universe” (a 27-foot tall sandstone and recycled glass sculpture inspired by the Buddhas of Bamiyan, a World Heritage Site in Afghanistan and destroyed by the Taliban in 2001) and consider perusing the nominees for the next plinth piece and submit your thoughts before September 8. I adore Kathleen Ryan’s beautiful decomposing fruit and find her apple core quite timely and symbolically significant, but you should definitely express your voice!
Continuing the theme of ancient art, be sure to check out Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s “The Light That Shines Through the Universe” (a 27-foot tall sandstone and recycled glass sculpture inspired by the Buddhas of Bamiyan, a World Heritage Site in Afghanistan and destroyed by the Taliban in 2001) and consider perusing the nominees for the next plinth piece and submit your thoughts before September 8. I adore Kathleen Ryan’s beautiful decomposing fruit and find her apple core quite timely and symbolically significant, but you should definitely express your voice!
The Artists Among Us
Sotheby's, 945 Madison Avenue (in the incredible Marcel Breuer cantilevered building), through August 28“The Artists Among Us” showcases original artwork by Sotheby’s employees, from specialists and registrars to engineers, art handlers, security officers, and administrators. Spanning painting, photography, sculpture, ceramics, textiles, printmaking, and mixed media, the New York exhibition reveals the creative lives behind Sotheby’s professional community. The works are available for purchase for $78 to $15,000. Artists receive 80% of sales, with the remaining 20% benefiting the Red Hook Art Collective.
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Contributing Writer
Michelle Sinclair Colman
Michelle writes children's books and also writes articles about architecture, design and real estate. Those two passions came together in Michelle's first children's book, "Urban Babies Wear Black." Michelle has a Master's degree in Sociology from the University of Minnesota and a Master's degree in the Cities Program from the London School of Economics.
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