All the Must-See Art Shows of 2023 (So Far)

Describing the 2023 arts calendar as “stacked” feels like an understatement. The sheer number of exhibitions, group shows, retrospectives, and openings is overwhelming in both number and scale. But fear not: we’ve put together a list of the highlights of this year in New York City, Los Angeles, and beyond. Consider this your grab-bag guide to the can’t-miss exhibitions of the season, and check back often—we’ll be updating this list as more events roll in.

Christian Ludwig Attersee at O’Flaherty’s

O’Flaherty’s, an artist-run gallery in New York’s East Village known for its irreverent and thought-provoking program, presents a survey of the Viennese painter, musician, and performer Christian Ludwig Attersee. On view through January 15, the exhibition examines Attersee’s influence on the midcentury scene and beyond, dubbing him the “unnamed father of 21st century zeitgeist.” While relatively unknown in the U.S., Attersee (born in 1940) has made a lasting impact on modern and contemporary painting, as evidenced by the 30-odd paintings and mixed-media works on view: They’re Pop without being overtly commercial, a little bit surrealist, and at once frenetic and elegantly restrained. Gallery co-founder Jamian Juliano-Villani credits him as a forebear of her own painting practice. “He is a genius,” she writes in an accompanying essay. “We have decided he is more advanced than us.”

Hugh Hayden at Lisson Gallery

Unprepared visitors to Hugh Hayden’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles, at Lisson Gallery’s West Hollywood outpost, might worry they’ve stumbled into the wrong building. Upon entering the space, the first thing you’ll see is walls lined with bathroom stalls. This site-specific installation contains an array of sculptures within, requiring viewers to open each door to witness the work. Inside, you’ll find a chair rendered useless by protruding branches, a toilet brush made from pelvic bones, and a crib made of chain link fencing. Like all of Hayden’s work, the sculptures are both alluring and painful to take in. “All of my work is about the American dream,” the artist told W in 2021. “It’s a dream that is seductive, but difficult to inhabit.”

Calida Rawles at Lehmann Maupin

The painter Calida Rawles’s haunting, hyper-realistic, watery works will be on view at Lehmann Maupin’s Chelsea, New York gallery from November 9 through December 16. This will be L.A.-based Rawles’s first major solo exhibition in New York City, following an “In Focus” show she did with Lehmann Maupin in 2021. “A Certain Oblivion” features a suite of brand-new paintings from Rawles, all of which are characterized by being her most monumentally scaled works to date. Depicting young women and girls floating through murky, at times smokey, pools of water, the paintings aim to exude a feeling of hope as an expression of shared humanity during dark times. The pieces featured in “A Certain Oblivion” center water—an omnipresent theme across Rawles’s extensive body of work. This time, though, the artist reclaims water as a reparative space. According to the gallery, these paintings “simultaneously offer representation and refuge. The exhibition moves from high-toned pictures of piercing clarity to canvasses of sensuous darkness.” Don’t miss this one—it’s a very special show.

Derek Fordjour at Petzel Gallery

Through December 22, the Ghanian-American artist Derek Fordjour will be taking over not one, not two, but three rooms of Petzel Gallery for his latest show, “SCORE.” The Memphis, Tennessee native now based in New York will have the entire ground floor of Petzel Gallery’s Chelsea outpost to play with—and, true to his penchant for presenting various modes of representation, medium, and format, Fordjour has used the space in new and surprising ways. In the South Gallery, you’ll find a suite of new paintings and sculptures; the East Gallery, meanwhile, plays host to a multilevel, indoor architectual installation. Then, in the West Gallery, Fordjour has put on display something of a pièce de résistance: a custom-built performance space where five dancers will perform twice a day an original ensemble movement piece titled “Arena.” Fordjour created this piece in collaboration with the choreographer Sidra Bell, who founded Sidra Bell Dance New York. “Arena” also features live music from Hannah Mayree of The Black Banjo Reclamation Project, who will perform while the dancers move atop a packed dirt floor in a built environment that includes a sculptural seating structure and custom tent.

Jonas Wood at Karma Los Angeles

On view through January 6 at Karma’s Santa Monica outpost are 100 drawings Jonas Wood created over the course of 20 years, exhibited chronologically. Although the exhibition was first shown in New York over the summer, Los Angeles is its natural home: the timeline begins in 2003, when Woods first moved to Southern California and started working as an assistant to the painter Laura Owens.

Still lives, flattened and friendly, showcase potted plants, milk crates, flowers with basketballs in place of blooms, and shelves filled with studio detritus. Portraits range in style and subject. Some of the most striking feature compositions recall the look of the sports trading cards the artist collects. In one, the painter David Hockney peers at the viewer through a portal-like frame, looking rumpled and mischievous with a cigarette in hand. In another, the basketball star Larry Bird appears to be catching his breath mid-game—a broadcast screenshot rendered in the soft, light-wash tones of gouache and colored pencil.

In its intimacy and breadth, the show feels like a rare peek into the artist’s process and point of view, as well as a spotlight on the simple and personal things that fascinate him.

Jenna Gribbon at Lévy Gorvy Dayan

Jenna Gribbon’s first solo exhibition with Lévy Gorvy Dayan (presented in collaboration with Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn) showcases the artist’s wife and constant muse, the musician Mackenzie Scott AKA Torres, in a new light—both literally and figuratively. Titled The Honeymoon Show!, the exhibition is divided into two parts: A set of snapshot-like images of Scott on the couple’s sun-dappled honeymoon in Thailand, and a series of harshly illuminated, dramatically posed portraits against a colorful in-studio backdrop. In each image, Gribbon simultaneously invites the viewer to luxuriate in her and Scott’s life together (cracking open coconuts in a lush jungle, lounging in bed, showering in a hotel room) and pushes them to examine the experience of observing. As curator Alison M. Gingeras puts it in an accompanying essay, “The artist-muse relationship has been as overtly gendered as it has been richly mythologized… With her wife as her principal, sustained subject, Gribbon interrogates the act of looking as a parallel, urgent subject at the core of her practice.”

Yuichiro Ukai at Venus Over Manhattan

The hype surrounding Yuichiro Ukai rose to a fever pitch well before his 25th birthday. The Japanese visual artist, whose paintings evoke the imagery of contemporary subcultures like manga and anime with the traditions of the Japanese epic, became a name to know in the art world in 2020, when the American Folk Art Museum in New York acquired his mixed media piece Yokai. Now, the illustrator—who is based in Shiga prefecture and is a member of the renowned Yamanami workshop—is getting his first solo exhibition in the United States, at New York City’s Venus Over Manhattan gallery. The show, organized in collaboration with the Kyoto gallerist Yukiko Koide of Yukiko Koide Presents, will feature 15 new works by the artist, along with a new catalogue text by Kenjiro Hosaka, the director of the Shiga Museum of Art. Opening November 17th and running through January 13, 2024, we can’t wait for Ukai’s paintings—which are teeming with drawings of lively samurai, Pokémon, skeletons, dinosaurs, insects, and pop culture figures—to make their way downtown.

Craig Calderwood at George Adams Gallery

Self-taught artist Craig Calderwood’s Ambrosia Salad, Bad Panacea and Other Works is a wild ride through the complexities of queer and trans identity. The works on view through December 22 are a testament to the enduring power of classical art historical themes (floral still lives, madonna and child tableaus) and their potential to be probed and subverted to yield entirely new meanings. Calderwood’s vivid tapestry paintings and intricately detailed drawings use video game characters, pop culture references, and cartoonish figures to tell autobiographical stories about childhood, fear, uncertainty, and loss. In Ambrosia Salad, a figure with a demonic robot head holds a swaddled magenta infant with fruit slices for eyes—a jarringly fresh take on a portrait trope as familiar as religion itself. In Bassoon Song for a Sad Baguette, a vase of bulbous flowers becomes a comic strip about grief. This is Calderwood’s first solo show at the Tribeca gallery, but it’s safe to say we’ll see a lot more from them soon: Calderwood was recently commissioned to create a mural for the Harvey Milk Terminal at the San Francisco International Airport, set to be unveiled in 2024.

Rineke Dijkstra at Marian Goodman Gallery

The Dutch photographer Rineke Dijkstra spent two years rifling through her personal archive, diving into decades of images that have redefined the look of contemporary portraiture. Now, Dijkstra is bringing that trove of never-before-seen works and an installation to Marian Goodman Gallery in New York City. A frequent collaborator of W’s—who has shot Jessica Chastain, Cate Blanchett, and more for our magazine—Dijkstra’s hyper-real oeuvre will be shown in video format through Night Watching, a three-channel video installation commissioned and first shown at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in 2019. There will also be even more of her signature snaps on beaches, usually depicting disaffected-looking youth, with new pictures from Dijkstra’s Beach Portrait series. This selection of previously unreleased works, which Dijkstra dug out from the depths of her archive, is mounted alongside a range of her more famous pieces. The show runs from October 31 through December 20—don’t miss this one.

Daichiro Shinjo: Black Wax at ATLA

Artist Daichiro Shinjo’s work resonates with the deep spiritual sensitivities instilled in him by his grandfather, a Zen Buddhist Monk. It is an innate but not always explicit quality in his final forms: gestures immortalized on rice paper and linen that hold down emotional notes long after they’ve been struck.

Shinjo’s practice is so visible in Japan that Jenny Blumenfield and Ryu Takahashi didn’t know if he’d be available to do his first U.S. exhibition at ATLA, the couple’s gallery in Echo Park, Los Angeles. When Shinjo agreed, they celebrated by taking over a secondary exhibition space in Santa Monica, where the artist would execute some of the show. As part of the Santa Monica presentation, remnants from his residency remain on display, including chunks of locally harvested Indigo from his native Okinawa, stacks of blank pages, and preparatory sketches on newspaper. Blumenfield hopes the mise-en-scene will reveal the invisible labor behind Shinjo’s haunting abstractions. Every time the artist makes a piece, he tunes his body with circles, drawing them sometimes for up to 10 hours before breaking out of the shape. This practice comes from observing how rocks, no matter their form, always throw off circular ripples. “The circles help him to maintain a certain sense of nothingness,” Blumenfield explains. “This process of repetition is tied to disassociating from ego, from his own body to free himself to create these unapologetic, unrestrained works.”

With its two halves, a small show of drawings on the east side and a big show of paintings on the west, Shinjo’s exhibition exemplifies ATLA’s ambitious program. Blumenfield and Takahashi want to see the Japanese artists they admire integrated into Los Angeles’s thriving art scene. They want to see the circles get bigger. — Kat Herriman

Jacolby Satterwhite: A Metta Prayer at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

To the buzzing, grandiose chaos of the Met’s Great Hall—the entry point to the museum that houses its ticket kiosks, membership, and information desks—the multimedia artist Jacolby Satterwhite has brought a whole new wild energy. Projected onto the space’s four main walls, skylight domes, and lunette windows, a six-channel video featuring animated versions of objects from the Met collection, the musicians Solange Knowles and Moses Sumney, drag performers, and more—all inhabiting a video-game-like universe—will be on view through January.

But the work goes beyond the walls: Even the colors of the ticket kiosks and the famed floral arrangements have been coordinated to the action—and on weekends in October and November, the piece will be accompanied by live performances throughout the space. According to a Met curator, evenings are the best time to see the work, so try to visit on a Friday or Saturday, when the museum stays open until 9 PM.

Orfeo Tagiuri: Stations of the Cross at St. Giles Cripplegate Church

Anyone who has come across Orfeo Tagiuri’s work—likely on Instagram, where he shares drawings he titles “Little Passing Thoughts” under the moniker @orfayo—understands just how much charm and poignancy the artist is able to pack into each quavering line. Exaggerated faces exude preternatural calm or teeter on the edge of explosive emotion; oversize rain and teardrops take on a juicy, tactile quality. This month, in one of the last remaining medieval churches in London, Tagiuri tackles a subject matter that has entranced artists for millennia: the stations of the cross.

“Walking into a church or engaging with its material is not always an easy or appealing option,” Tagiuri notes. But he hopes to “cultivate a dialogue between ‘art’ and ‘religion,’ two groups that were once together and are now apart.” Tagiuri’s 14 etched birch plywood panels follow in the tradition of contemporary masters who have reimagined the traditional Catholic narrative, including the abstract expressionist Barnett Newman, whose cycle of black and white paintings on raw white canvas initially puzzled viewers but are now regarded as a spiritual triumph.

Tagiuri eschews overt religious iconography in favor of tight close-ups on grieving faces, billowing garments, and the heavily grained wood of the cross. “I see the works as being about someone letting go of everything they hold as their identity,” Tagiuri says. “Death is the letting go of identity, willingly or not willingly. At this moment, as many of us are shaping our own relationship to spirituality, I wanted to look back toward this particular narrative and attempt to comprehend why it has held such potency throughout history and why it is still so emotionally evocative.” The exhibition is on view Sunday-Friday, from 11 AM to 4 PM, through October 25.

Immersion at the International Center of Photography

On Manhattan’s Lower East Side, three artists have mounted an exhibition that pays homage to their respective residencies. Immersion: Gregory Halpern, Raymond Meeks, and Vasantha Yogananthan at the International Center of Photography in New York sees the trio of photographers (two American—Meeks and Halpern—one French—Yogananthan) collaborating with ICP’s curator at large, David Campany. The show features images each photographer shot while participating in Immerision, a program created by the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès that supports contemporary photographers. Halpern spent his residency in Guadeloupe, while Yogananthan traveled from home country France to New Orleans for his. Meeks’s, meanwhile, was back in France, near the Spanish border then along the English Channel. Running September 29 through January 8, 2024, the show is rich with the unique projects they created during their time spent abroad. Visit icp.org for more information on Immersion: Gregory Halpern, Raymond Meeks, and Vasantha Yogananthan, which is presented in collaboration with ICP and the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris.

Wolfgang Tillmans: Fold Me at David Zwirner

Anyone who left the Wolfgang Tillmans retrospective at MoMA last fall wanting more—or, perhaps, feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of photographs that crowded the walls—will be pleased to encounter the photographer’s latest exhibition at David Zwirner’s 19th Street gallery. Titled Fold Me, a nod to the sculptural creased paper works scattered between still lives and portraits, this show feels like a meditative pause, a refreshing antidote to the chaotic abundance that New Yorkers saw a year ago.

In addition to images of Tillmans’ studio in Berlin (a frequently explored subject), aerial landscapes urban and deserted, and characteristically thoughtful portraits, there are several photographs he took throughout Africa over the past five years, where he has had a handful of recent exhibitions. Stacks of old office papers in Addis Ababa, resold to food purveyors who use them to wrap their wares, become a study in shades of gray and white; a sachet of drinking water on the ground appears as a lush, cool pillow.

Leading a walkthrough on opening day, Tillmans reflected on how rapidly changing technology may be shifting the way people perceive photographs as a reflection of reality. “This may be the last exhibition that will be seen by an audience that looks at the work the same way we have looked at photographs for the last fifty years. In two years time, one might distrust the image automatically.” he said. “This trust in photography that I want people to have with my work, I hope that it can be preserved. But the way photographic images enter our brains may be permanently altered.” If that’s not reason enough to head to Chelsea, we don’t know what is.

Quiladelphia at Hannah Traore Gallery

Photographer and frequent W collaborator Quil Lemons is getting deeply personal with his first solo show at Hannah Traore Gallery in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In Quiladelphia—a play on, of course, Lemons’s name as well as his hometown of Philadelphia—the artist contemplates the Black male form in sensual, soft, and at times erotic pictures that, at times, feature the artist himself. The intended message of the show is multilayered and can be interpreted in many ways, Lemons says. Quiladelphia presents ideas for new perspectives on Black masculinity, vulnerability, and self-assuredness, mixed with kink aesthetics. “I wanted to welcome folks into what it is to live life as a Black gay man. When it came to shooting, I was letting people into my brain. It was not to make Black nudity and sex into art,” he adds. “Younger me would not even take these images. Half my family is Muslim and half Christian. To be able to do this took a lot of healing, self-acceptance, and bravery, to be able to just walk out of my house and be a Black gay person. I would truly rather die than to not live my life as freely as I do.” Quiladelphia will be on view at Hannah Traore Gallery beginning September 6 through November 4.

Willa Nasatir at Chapter NY

In Tribeca, the visual artist and photographer Willa Nasatir is mounting her third solo show at Chapter NY (just in time for October, when the gallery will celebrate its 10th anniversary). On view from September 8 to October 21, the exhibition, named Willa Nasatir, follows Nasatir’s abstract practice, which examines different approaches to imaging; the artist is known for her surreal, distorted photographs, drawings, and paintings. According a press release, the paintings “intentionally evoke the translucency and flatness of photographic images...informed by her background in photography. Within the show, embedded visual keys connect the paintings and photographs—further collapsing the relationship between mediums in her practice.” This time, the works included in the show feature hyper-real details like an abdomen carved from stone and red bricks.

Where Land Meets Sea at Stroll Garden East Hampton

The Los Angeles art, design, and ceramics gallery Stroll Garden is popping up in East Hampton, New York this summer with a group show featuring the work of six South Korean contemporary artists. Where Land Meets Sea is presented in a whitewashed, sunlit home that was once owned by the abstract expressionist Adolph Gottlieb, who also used the space as a studio during his lifetime. The East End’s legendary light pours in over sculptures by Yoonjee Kwak, Jaiik Lee, Re Jin Lee, Eun-Ha Paek, and Jinsik Yoo; on the walls are remarkable photographs by photographer Peter Ash Lee of women divers in Jeju Island, from his series “The Last Mermaid.” In an intimate loft space upstairs, a glossy vermillion vessel plays well with with an antique wicker chaise and cherry-red painted floors—giving visitors a cozy sense of domestic scale and inviting them to sit and stay a while. Curator and fellow ceramic artist Jane Yang-D’Haene describes the group of artists on view as “transferring generational memories and culture through their very fingertips ... reframing traditional Korean arts within a contemporary context.” The exhibition is open to the public every Thursday–Sunday, from 12-5 PM, through September 4. For the address, contact philip@stroll-garden.com.

Widow’s Walk at Winter Street Gallery

The architecture and interior design firm Charlap Hyman & Herrero is bringing their multidisciplinary vision to Martha’s Vineyard this summer, with an art and design exhibition at Winter Street Gallery in Edgartown. Titled “Widow’s Walk,” after a popular architectural feature in the region, the show brings together works that range from the historical (an evocative Penitent Magdalene by Pieter de Grebber from the 1600s) to the contemporary (a hyperrealistic sculpture of a poppy with an alighting butterfly by Carmen Almon). To create a heady, melancholic atmosphere that unites the varied pieces, the CHH team faux-painted smoke damage across all the surfaces in the gallery, with outlines of “missing” objects next to installed artwork. On view through August 27, consider it the perfect opportunity for contemplation after a day spent in the sun.

Change Agents: Women Collectors Shaping the Art World at Southampton Arts Center

From the gallerist and museum founder Peggy Guggenheim to the philanthropist Agnes Gund, women art collectors have had an outsize impact on the creative sphere. An exhibition at the Southampton Arts Center on Long Island’s east end aims to start a conversation about the often-overlooked contributions of women who have served as artists’ patrons, mentors, and champions throughout their careers. Change Agents, on view through September 30, pulls from the vast and impressive collections of 14 contemporaries, including Jane Holzer, Emily Fisher Landau, and Beth Rudin DeWoody for a peek at how it all comes together.

The Museum at FIT’s ¡Moda Hoy! Latin American and Latinx Fashion Design Today

The Museum at FIT’s senior curator of education and public programs, Tanya Melendez-Escalante, and curator of education and research, Melissa Marra-Alvarez, are the creative minds behind ¡Moda Hoy! Latin American and Latinx Fashion Design Today, The Museum at FIT’s latest exhibition. From long-standing figures of the industry like Oscar de la Renta, Carolina Herrera, and Haider Ackermann to bright new generations of talent including Willy Chavarria, Raul Lopez of Luar, and Gabriella Hearst, the exhibition explores a range of topics—art, gender, Indigenous heritage, politics, popular culture, sustainability, to name a few. Open now through November 12, 2023, its culmination of 60 objects vividly illustrates the undeniable impact designers from Latin American countries, as well as designers of Latin American heritage, have had on the fashion industry.

In My Room at Venus Over Manhattan

The latest exhibition at Venus Over Manhattan in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood highlights three artists whose props are long overdue. “In My Room,” opening Thursday, June 8 at 55 Great Jones Street, features works on paper and bristol board by Ana Benaroya, Tom of Finland, and Karl Wirsum—all of which delve into personal identity, queerness, and art histories that don’t center the Western, cis, patriarchal gaze. The show puts on view for the first time 17 new drawings by Benaroya, six pieces created between 1966-67 by Wirsum, and three works from Tom of Finland from the ’70s and ’80s. It’s also the first exhibition dedicated to Benaroya’s drawings, and explores the impact that both Tom and Finland and Karl Wirsum had on the New Jersey-based visual artist’s works. Taking in the trio of creators’ pieces together makes them truly come alive, both individually and as a group. For more, visit venusovermanhattan.com.

Angel Ortiz’s Ode 2 NYC

If you only know the pioneering artist Angel Ortiz in the context of his close collaborator and friend Keith Haring, an upcoming exhibition will allow you to see him in a whole new light. Ode 2 NYC, opening May 18-June 18 in New York City’s SoHo gallery Chase Contemporary, will feature a unique body of Ortiz’s geometric, abstract work—all of which is dedicated to his love and admiration for Manhattan, his hometown. (The show follows a sold-out exhibition in London last fall, which marked Ortiz’s international solo debut). Born and raised on the Lower East Side, Ortiz’s work captures the frenetic and bustling energy of that area through images that resemeble hieroglyphics or an advanced form of calligraphy. (That tracks—his signature motif is the street tag “LAII” or “LA2,” which drew Haring’s interest back when Ortiz was a 13-year-old tagger). The artist’s work has been featured at the Whitney, MoMA, Guggenheim, and many other New York City institutions—but Chase Contemporary’s exhibition gives Ortiz a homegrown, downtown feel that corresponds directly to the crux of his work. For more, visit Chase Contemporary’s website.

Africa Fashion at the Brooklyn Museum

Following a historic showing at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London last year, Africa Fashion is making its way Stateside. From June 23 to October 22, the Brooklyn Museum will play host to the exhibition, which highlights the lively and imaginative history of African fashion—alongside the global influence of Africa’s contemporary style. Pieces from labels like Thebe Magugu, IAMISIGO, and Kenneth Ize will be on display. The show will continue its mission from across the pond: to provide a comprehensive timeline of the evolution of African fashion on the continent while also exploring themes like colonialism and neo-colonialism in Africa’s fashion language, and the practice of drawing inspiration from different parts of the continent. In addition to contemporary designer garments, there will also be photography, film, catwalk footage, and editorial spreads on view.

Mark Bradford at Hauser & Wirth

Los Angeles native Mark Bradford’s artistic work feels more timely than ever. That’s why we’ve included Hauser & Wirth’s new exhibition of the painter, sculpture, and performance artist on this list. You Don’t Have to Tell Me Twice is a major solo exhibition by Bradford that fills Hauser & Wirth’s entire 22nd Street building in New York City. And the artist’s first show in New York since 2015 is deserving of all that space and more: the work consists of a deeply personal exploration of displacement and “the predatory forces that feed on populations driven into motion by crisis,” according to the gallery. His sculptures on view are especially arresting—“Death Drop,” a mixed-media piece that shows off the popular house ball dance move, is a gorgeous visual ode. For more, check out Hauser & Wirth’s website.

Sarah Sze at the Guggenheim

Sarah Sze is an artist known to push the limitations of form. Her paintings, installations, and architectural works will often extend far off the canvas, extending onto the floor or creeping up toward the ceiling. This month, Sze’s signature sculptural practice arrives at The Guggenheim Museum, in a series of site-specific installations called Sarah Sze: Timelapse. Opening March 31, the artist’s work will interact with the Guggenheim’s iconic architecture, turning the building millions flock to a year into a tool for timekeeping, and a rumination on the ways people mark and experience time passing. The show will run at the Guggenheim until September 10, 2023.

Our Neighborhood at Hannah Traore Gallery

Hannah Traore Gallery, an arts space located on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, has quietly been playing host to some of New York City’s best indie exhibitions since it opened in 2022. Its latest show, Our Neighborhood: Seen Through The Eyes of The Anna Silver School, The Benjamin Altman School and The Island School, pays homage to the community surrounding Hannah Traore Gallery, by featuring artworks created by local students from three schools in the area. The Anna Silver School, Benjamin Altman School, and The Island School are leaders in their commitment to keeping art education available to all students, making the trio a perfect fit for a collaboration with the gallery. Each of the kids were asked to make a piece about their neighborhood—the results? A range of paintings, colorful drawings, and even paper plate works that capture the purity and heart of a child’s love for the arts.

Dan Flavin: Kornblee Gallery 1967 at David Zwirner

In January of 1967, Dan Flavin—the artist famous for creating minimal sculptures and installations from fluorescent lights—mounted two groundbreaking exhibitions at New York City’s Kornblee Gallery. On January 10, David Zwirner is recreating those two projects inside its Upper East Side location. The “situations,” as Flavin used to call them are separated into two distinct rooms inside the townhouse at 34 East 69th Street. At Zwirner’s London gallery, there will be concurrent show titled Dan Flavin: Colored Fluorescent Light.

Projects: Ming Smith, at MoMA

One of the most hotly anticipated openings of the year is coming to New York City’s Museum of Modern Art on February 4. Projects: Ming Smith is a deep dive into the work of the inimitable photographer, who has been living and working in New York since the 1970s and inspired a generation of artists that followed her. Curated by Thelma Golden, the director and chief curator at The Studio Museum in Harlem, along with associate curator Oluremi C. Onabanjo, Projects is a deep dive into Smith’s archives, and a new examination of her most famed images. If you can’t make it to New York and are hoping for more Ming, no worries—Nicola Vassell Gallery will have a booth at Frieze L.A. with a solo exhibition of the photographer’s work.

Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952–1982, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

On the West Coast, LACMA presents Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952–1982, a show exploring how the rise of computer technology has shaped how art is made. Featuring artists, writers, musicians, choreographers, and filmmakers—some of whose work will be digitally generated—this exhibition will run from February 12 through July 2.

María Berrío: The Children’s Crusade, at the ICA Boston

The New York–based Colombian artist María Berrío is taking her large-scale, collaged paintings to the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. Using Japanese paper and watercolors, Berrío makes artworks that capture riveting, magical scenes, evoking folkloric stories of her upbringing. For this particular exhibition, Berrío blended the history of the Children’s Crusade of 1212 with modern-day migrant stories of displacement, loss, and the unknown. On view from February 16 through August 6.

Robert Grosvenor at Paula Cooper Gallery

At last year’s Venice Biennale, the American sculptor Robert Grosvenor displayed three of his signature super-sized installations; those three pieces became sources of inspiration for Grosvenor’s next show at Paula Cooper Gallery in New York City. The artist, who is known for his large-scale room installations that toe the line between sculpture and architecture, created untitled—a bright orange, VW Buggy-looking car sitting directly on the gallery’s floor—just for Paula Cooper. But rare photographs he snapped between 2000 and 2013 will be on display as well. The show closes on January 28.

Archetypes of Desire at Eclectico Studio

Eclectico Studio, a virtual gallery founded in 2013 by the curator Stefan Cosma, specializes in featuring works that represent the best and brightest of European post-modern design. Now, Eclectico is bringing an IRL exhibition to Paris. From March 28 through April 2, Archetypes of Desire will be on view at 29 Boulevard de la Tour-Maubourg in the Invalides neighborhood of the French city. Taking place during Spring Art and Design Week, Eclectico’s new show will include nearly 100 rare pieces from the 1980s and 1990s—designed by post-modern design heavyweights like Memphis Group, Philippe Starck, and Paolo Pallucco. Above, some of our favorite selections from the show—don’t miss Nanna Ditzel’s Art Deco-inspired approach to furnishing a small apartment and Bohuslav Horak’s nature-inspired lamp fixtures.

Leonor Fini: Metamorphosis at Kasmin Gallery

The Argentine-Italian artist Leonor Fini (1907-1996) spent her life surrounded by sartorial elegance, excess, and high fashion. She maintained personal relationships with Christian Dior and Elsa Schiaparelli, and created decadent paintings, sculpture, and works on paper that explored themes of masquerade and performance. Now, a portion of her oeuvre is on view at Kasmin Gallery in Metamorphosis—a tribute to Fini’s figurative depictions of drama and folklore. This is the first-ever solo presentation of work by the artist at Kasmin, and it will run through February 25.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres at David Zwirner Gallery

Four of the renowned Cuban-American conceptual artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s massive installation works have officially entered one of the most heralded galleries in the world. Through February 25, Gonzalez-Torres’s pieces will take over all three of David Zwirner’s New York City gallery spaces. Notably, it’s the first time his works “Untitled” (1994–1995) and “Untitled” (Sagitario) (1994–1995) have been put on public display (each creation from the artist’s decades-long career are named “Untitled”). According to reps from Zwirner, this is also the first time these pieces have been realized in the manner Gonzalez-Torres envisioned them, prior to his untimely passing in 1996, when he died from complications related to AIDS. Seeing Gonzalez-Torres’s huge billboards and paired circular objects together in a gallery context is a very special experience indeed.

Two Heads at Kapp Kapp

It should come as little surprise that twins Haylie and Sydnie Jimenez’s ceramic practices are informed by their sisterhood. The Afro-Latina artists are now bringing the fantastical, imaginative, and at times twee sculptures of their figurative universe to New York City for the first time. On view through April 15, 2023 at Kapp Kapp Gallery (86 Walker Street in Manhattan), Two Heads exemplifies the similarities and stark differences between the siblings’ art practices; Sydnie leans toward ceramic, while Haylie primarily draws and paints. Both sisters have been in residence at the Helena, Montana Archie Bray Foundation, where they’ve been working on pieces that will be included in the show.

Drake Carr: Walk-Ins at New York Life Gallery

Drake Carr is taking a page out of Marina Abramović’s playbook. This month, the Brooklyn-based artist presents a residency and exhibition of live drawings at New York Life Gallery. Meaning: Carr will draw both personal friends of his and models by trade (including supermodel and fellow illustrator Connie Fleming) in person at the gallery over the course of 12 days. The sketches, drawings, and paintings born from that nearly two-week period will be installed directly and immediately onto the gallery walls—where they’ll be on view from January 14 to February 9. Plus, the artist will be on site and making drawings periodically throughout the exhibition period while the gallery is open to the public—an opportunity to witness his process.

Juan Francisco Elso: Por América at El Museo del Barrio

Technically, this show opened in October 2022—but it’s so good, we had to include it on this list. (Plus, it’s open through March 26, so there’s still plenty of time to check it out.) Por América examines Juan Francisco Elso’s short but significant career from his home in Havana—where he was part of the first generation of artists born and educated in a post-revolutionary sociopolitical landscape. His sculptures—most of which were made with organic materials—dives into Latin America, Caribbean, and Cuban identity, as well as Indigenous traditions, the effects of colonialism, and Afro-Caribbean religious beliefs.

Cy Twombly at Gagosian Gallery

Cy Twombly’s multidisciplinary oeuvre is coming to Gagosian in New York. The artist’s paintings, sculptures, and works on paper will be on display across two floors at the 980 Madison Avenue location beginning January 20 through March 4. This particular exhibition focuses on Twombly’s late work—specifically, the final decade of his life. Created in collaboration with the Cy Twombly Foundation, Gagosian’s exhibition also coincides with Making Past Present: Cy Twombly, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, from January 14 to May 7, 2023.

House for the Inhabitant Who Refused to Participate at Tina Kim Gallery

On view through January 21, this hybrid art and design show curated by the New York and Los Angeles-based architecture and interior design firm Charlap Hyman & Herrero features works by Louise Bourgeois, Heidi Bucher, architects Sam Chermayeff and John Hejduk, and many more artists and makers modern and contemporary whose work reflects a moment frozen in time. Felt “shadows” on the floor and an audio artwork by Emma McCormick Goodhart add an electric, surrealist energy to the proceedings. The exhibition is an homage to a project by the same name that Hejduk opened in 1978.

Gaetano Pesce: Dear Future at The Future Perfect

When it comes to today’s trends in furniture and interior design, Gaetano Pesce deserves his due credit. The Italian artist, industrial designer, and architect is the forefather of practically every candy-colored Lucite furnishing and home decoration populating your For You Page today. And at The Future Perfect Gallery’s new sprawling Los Angeles outpost, the Goldwyn House, six decades of Pesce’s visionary designs will be on view—including some never-before-seen works alongside rarely exhibited historic pieces—from February 16 through March 31.

...Plus, 정Jeong at The Future Perfect

Another standout show at The Future Perfect’s New York City location: 정Jeong, an exhibition of new work by eight South Korean artists, designers, and craftspeople. Inside the gallery’s West Village townhouse, you’ll find Korean concept furniture made by Seungjin Yang, soft-focus colorfield sculptures by Rahee Yoon, as well as contemporary interpretations of the moon jar, made by Jane Yang-D’Haene and Jaiik Lee (shown above). Don’t miss this very special show, which opens on February 2 and closes March 17.

Gordon Matta-Clark & Pope.L: Impossible Failures at 52 Walker

52 Walker is kicking off the new year with Gordon Matta-Clark & Pope.L: Impossible Failures, an exhibition pairing the work of the site-specific artist Gordon Matta-Clark and the visual artist Pope.L. The TriBeCa space helmed by Ebony L. Haynes will unveil on February 3 an examination of the two artists’ careers—specifically, their shared fixations on the problematic nature of institutions, language, scale, and value. Running through April 1, Impossible Failures will also feature a new site-specific installation by Pope.L, presented in collaboration with Mitchell-Innes & Nash. Personally, we can’t wait to see the Newark, New Jersey native’s take on Matta-Clark’s preferred medium.

Julia Chiang: Salt on Our Skin at Nicola Vassell Gallery

Through February 25, Nicola Vassell Gallery is highlighting the work of Brooklyn-based painter, sculptor, and installation artist Julia Chiang. Chiang’s pieces reflect her obsession with repeating patterns—and offer commentary on the idea of transformation and assimilation. “I grew up with parents who didn’t throw things away,” Chiang writes of her inspiration for the show. “Sometimes out of thrift, but often because my dad would give old things a new life. An old chair leg would become a new railing. A hand-painted wood carving would show up as a holder for some new kitchen gadget. Piles of newspapers in Chinese and English would be twined together, waiting for recycling, but there were too many piles to ever really disappear. There were textures and materials for all kinds put aside for later use, we just weren't sure what.”