From the works of Finnish modernist painter Helene Schjerbeck to large bronze animal sculptures by Jeffrey Gibson, there’s plenty of interesting art exhibitions to see in New York right now.
The Met: Fanmania
Fanmania at The Met explores the 19th-century fascination with the hand-held fan, revealing how this everyday accessory became a source of artistic inspiration and cultural meaning. Through beautifully decorated fans and related artworks, the exhibition highlights themes of fashion, femininity, and artistic innovation in Europe.
Dates: Present – May 12
The Met: Seeing Silence: The Paintings of Helene Schjerfbeck
Seeing Silence: The Paintings of Helene Schjerfbeck at The Met presents nearly 60 works by the Finnish modernist painter, tracing her evolution from academic realism to a pared-down, expressive style that helped define her unique voice in 20th-century art. The exhibition, the first major U.S. museum show of her work, highlights her intimate portraits, still lifes, and introspective self-portraits that convey quiet emotion and artistic innovation developed over decades of creative solitude.
Dates: Present – April 5
The Met: The Genesis Facade Commission: Jeffrey Gibson, The Animal That Therefore I Am
The Genesis Facade Commission: Jeffrey Gibson, The Animal That Therefore I Am at The Met transforms the museum’s Fifth Avenue exterior with four large bronze animal sculptures—deer, coyote, squirrel, and hawk—that reflect Indigenous worldviews and our interconnected relationship with the natural world. Drawing on philosophical and ecological themes, Gibson’s site-specific installation invites viewers to rethink human-animal relations and experience these symbolic figures as teachers and companions in a shared environment.
Dates: Present – June 9
MoMA: Face Value: Celebrity Press Photography
Face Value: Celebrity Press Photography at MoMA is a major exhibition drawn from the museum’s film stills archive that examines how Hollywood studios crafted and manipulated star images from 1921 to 1996, long before digital editing and social media reshaped fame. Featuring more than 200 iconic portraits of figures from Louis Armstrong to Elizabeth Taylor and Oprah Winfrey, the show reveals both untouched photographs and press prints altered by hand, highlighting the role of photography in shaping celebrity culture and the visual economy of fame.
Dates: Present – June 21
Guggenheim: Gabriele Münter: Contours of a World
Gabriele Münter: Contours of a World at the Guggenheim is a major retrospective that brings renewed attention to the pioneering German Expressionist painter, highlighting over fifty of her vivid paintings alongside early photographs she made during travels in the United States, shown for the first time in this country. The exhibition traces her radical use of color and form from around 1908 through later decades and seeks to reposition her work as central to modernism, not overshadowed by her male contemporaries in the Blue Rider movement.
Dates: Present – April 26