New York art exhibitions to see in February

After what has felt like a three month long January, the new month is welcomed with open arms. Crammed into a 28-day February is a month abuzz with an array of intriguing and thought-provoking art. From group shows of moving photography to retrospectives, there is a variety to choose from scattered across the city.

New York continuously proves to be a powerhouse of creativity, and we don’t want you to miss a thing. Plan your next visit with our handy, monthly updated guide to the best exhibitions to see around the city.

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The best New York art exhibitions: what to see this month

'Longing: In Between Homelands'

Palo Gallery until 22 February

'Longing: In Between Homelands' is a photography exhibition featuring three Palestinian artists; Ameen Abo Kaseem, Nadia Bseiso, and Lina Khalid. Each of these artists draw on their experiences living in exile, and explore Palestinian identity, the feeling of belonging, and longing for their homeland. Each of the artist’s images provide a layered experience of displacement.

palogallery.com

Landing (again)

Goodman Gallery until 28 February

The group exhibition highlights eight artists throughout the 20th and 21st century who have helped shape art history within Africa. The artists include El Anatsui, David Koloane, William Kentridge, Atta Kwami, Sam Nhlengethwa, George Pemba, Gerard Sekoto and Sue Williamson. Work varies from visual textural paintings, to layered portraiture.

goodman-gallery.com

Takuro Kuwata's 'Together Shiyoze! (Let's Get Together!)'

Salon 94 until 15 February

In Salon 94, Japanese ceramic artist Takuro Kuwata presents his fourth solo show with the gallery, which is inspired by a large-scale chawan "tea bowl" which he crafted in his studio in Gifu, Japan. He combines tradition with modern practices which pay homage to the region’s ceramic heritage. The exhibition is colourful, captivating, and somewhat delicious.

salon94.com

Henry Taylor

Hauser & Wirth until 15 February

Critically acclaimed, Los Angeles-based artist Henry Taylor has curated an intimate collection of new works which spans from the humorous to the contemplative. Some works nod to his first etching class in the late 1970s. His printmaking is saturated in colour with expressive mark making, and this new collection explores accompanied by drawing, installation and sculpture. He is also debuting a series of limited-edition etchings and hand-painted monoprints

www.hauserwirth.com

Tyler Mitchell's 'Ghost Images'

Gagosian from 27 February – 5 April , 2025

Ghost Images is Tyler Mitchell’s debut exhibition at Gagosian. The images of leisurely times at the seaside have a gothic theme, and are rooted in the artist's Southern upbringing. It delves into memory, and how a photograph can actually capture a moment in time and is it able to capture presences that are unseen, but deeply felt.

gagosian.com

Nick Cave 'Amalgams and Graphts'

Jack Shainman Gallery until 15 March 2025

Nick Cave makes the most of the epic space at Jack Shainman Gallery with his new exhibition which unites Amalgams, composed of three large bronze sculptures, with Graphts, a series of mixed media works encompassing needlepoint and domestic items such as vintage trays. Questioning what it means to serve, Cave here considers questions of power, class and race.

Writer: Hannah Silver

jackshainman.com

Shifting Landscapes

Whitney Museum of American Art until January 2026

‘Shifting Landscapes’ is a group show exploring how evolving political, ecological, and social issues motivate artists as they attempt to represent the world around them. The works are drawn from the gallery’s collection featuring works from the 1960s to present day with a variety of approaches towards the environment from cityscapes to rural landscapes, the works gathered here bring ideas of land and place into focus, all works uniting on how society is shaped by the spaces around us.

whitney.org

Light by Rafaël Rozendaal

MoMA until Spring 2025

Artist Rozendaal chose the internet as his canvas for this graphically hypnotising installation. With each square designed as a story board sketched on paper, it is then translated into code where its final form is a website which powers the animation. The graphically intriguing installation uncovers a new way to harness a multi-dimensional landscape, with the installation presenting a selection of his work across a 25 feet resolution screen in MoMAs Garden Lobby.

moma.org

Harmony and Dissonance: Orphism in Paris, 1910–1930

Guggenheim until 9 March 2025

Dive into the world of Orphism at Guggenheim, showcasing its broad abstract art collection. The art movement which is derived from Cubism, emerged in the early 1910s with artists engaging in idesa in colourful kaleidoscopic compositions. It was spearheaded by Robert Delaunay, whose work features in the exhibition, alongside, Sonia Delaunay, Marcel Duchamp, Mainie Jellett, František Kupka, Francis Picabia, and Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, and by the Synchromists Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Morgan Russell.

guggenheim.org

Edges of Ailey

Whitney Museum until 9 February 2025

'Edges of Ailey' is a large-scale exhibition celebrating the life and work of artist and choreographer Alvin Ailey (1931-1989). The exhibition focuses on his life, dances, and influences through live performances, music, a variety of archival materials and a multi-screen video installation. It is presented in two parts, with an immersive exhibition in the museum’s fifth floor galleries, and a performance in the third-floor theatre.

whitney.org

Who Wants to Die for Glamour

The Museum of Modern Art until 17 February 2025

Artist Jasmine Gregory’s latest exhibition is a visually tactile experience. Intertwining her paintings with wine bottles, vitrines, plastic bags, tinsel, and studio refuse, she creates scenarios which can be viewed as a satirical poke at patrimony and preservation. This is her first institutional exhibition in the US, which features a selection of new works, including a site specific installation.

moma.org

‘Robert Frank’s Scrapbook Footage’

The Museum of Modern Art until March 2025

Robert Frank, who is best known for capturing post-war America and its following social and political unrest, is celebrated in MoMA’s latest exhibition Robert Frank’s Scrapbook Footage. After he passed away in 2019, it was in great discovery that tucked away in film canisters and tapes was an archive of unseen footage which spans the years 1970 to 2006. In partnership with the June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation, Frank’s long-time film editor Laura Israel and the art director Alex Bingham have used these fragments to create a moving-image scrapbook that conveys life through Frank’s lens.

moma.org

'In the Shadow of the American Dream: David Wojnarowicz'

The Museum of Modern Art, ongoing

Wojnarowicz's work has been recontextualised by MoMA, who have presented it alongside his contemporaries from the eighties New York downtown scene including filmmaker Marion Scemama, Donald Moffett, Agosto Machado and painter Martin Wong. Important works here include Wojnarowicz's's 1987 Fire, while Machado’s Shrine is a moving time capsule of ephemera. It includes a ‘Justice for Marsha’ sign, referring to questions around the suspicious death of trans activist Marsha P Johnson in 1992, as well as club flyers and memorial service cards.

Writer: Lauren Cochrane

moma.org