Summer is less than a month away but it feels like it’s already here. We’re heading into Memorial Day Weekend with great weather, great vibes, and of course, great art. If you’re looking for something to do over the holiday, Hyperallergic Editor-in-Chief Hrag Vartanian and contributors Ela Bittencourt and Daniel Larkin have you covered with the latest installment of our bimonthly art show recommendations for New York City, which features the good, the bad, and the ugly. 

In longer forms, Julie Smith Schneider, Alice Procter, and Livia Caligor reviewed fascinating art historical exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Adler Beatty, and the Brooklyn Museum while Eileen G’sell enjoyed a “cinematic quartet” of early silent films by Man Ray at the IFC Center.

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Sometimes we need beauty. Other times, we desire the grotesque. Right now seems to be a good time for both!

Hyperallergic editors and contributors recommend several standout exhibitions, including art collective AES+F’s sardonic views on extreme wealth, Jamie Martinez’s tragicomic takedowns of Christopher Columbus, and more.

View the list

This year’s show features art by MFA, MA, and BFA students working across a variety of disciplines. On view May 15–29 in the Bronx.

Learn more

Julie Smith Schneider

“United by fibers and gridded structures, the show’s divide between ancient and modern textiles serves as a conceptual mirror. Colors, patterns, techniques, and materials reverberate among the works on either side of the installation.”

Alice Procter

“Varo’s paintings are exquisitely strange, and it’s wonderful to be able to witness the meticulousness with which she composed them... [her] skill as a painter clearly begins with her draftsmanship. Her mastery of such delicate lines, and the precision of light and shadow that characterizes her work, are all here in her drawings.”

Livia Caligor

“In the same way that the woodblock printmaker bridges suburban and urban scenes in his work, this exhibition bridges the art historical past and present.”

Eileen G’Sell

“Filmed in Paris in the 1920s, [Ray’s] Return to Reason series anticipated the extent to which the motion picture would inform how we curate and call up memory, excavating the depths of the subconscious.”

• Columbia’s counter-commencement at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in Manhattan — “The People’s Graduation” — centered the people of Gaza through words, songs, and visual interventions.

• Students at Parsons School of Design and the School of Visual Arts used art exhibitions to demand their schools divest from Israeli military interests. 

• Private chats obtained by the Washington Post show how art-world stakeholders sought to influence Eric Adams and Columbia leadership into deploying the NYPD against student protesters.

• Jane’s Walks is an ongoing series of curated strolls across NYC. This Friday, you can take a tour of Chelsea galleries with art historian Sylvia Laudien-Meo, and on Saturday, architecture historian Matt Postal is examining Midtown’s postmodern skyscrapers built in the 1980s and ’90s.

• We loved Emil Ferris’s graphic novel My Favorite Thing Is Monsters and are beyond excited for the sequel, which is coming out on May 28. Mark Yarm’s profile for Vulture on the endlessly fascinating Ferris is great. [vulture.com]

• The new documentary Taking Venice delves into the scandalous 1964 Venice Biennale, where Robert Rauschenberg became the first American to earn the Golden Lion grand prize amid allegations of a rigged jury. You can go see it now at the IFC Center. [ifccenter.com]

• New York City beaches officially open for the season on Memorial Day Weekend starting Saturday, May 25. See you there! [nycgovparks.org]

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