Summertime Art | Long Island Weekly

Museums are a great place to get out of the hot, summer air into air conditioning. They are also great places to see some amazing art.
Here is a list of museums in Nassau, Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan that have exciting exhibits coming up this summer. What these museums have to offer is, of course, not limited to this list. Before visiting a museum, simply visit the websites listed below so that you know what exhibitions you’d like to focus your time on.

Nassau County:

The Nassau County Museum of Art, One Museum Dr. in Roslyn Harbor. nassaumuseum.org.
Modigliani and the Modern Portrait (July 22 – Nov. 5, 2023): “Devoted to the way that Modigliani powerfully re-defined the art of portraiture, the show includes his masterworks along with paintings and drawings by his Parisian contemporaries (Picasso, van Dongen, Laurencin). Modigliani’s enduring influence on artists even in our own time is shown in a selection of Contemporary paintings by such important figures as David Hockney, Eric Fischl, Elizabeth Peyton and others. The exhibition is being curated by Dr. Kenneth Wayne, founder of The Modigliani Project which authenticates paintings and drawings.”

Queens:

MoMA PS1, 22-25 Jackson Ave. in Queens. momaps1.org.
Standing On The Corner: Seven Prepared Pianos for the Seven African Powers (June 1 – Oct.9, 2023): “For their first durational museum presentation, the avant-garde musical ensemble ‘Standing on the Corner’ (American, est. 2016), led by Gio Escobar, will create a sonic, multimedia installation that brings together spiritual objects, modified instruments, and moving images. The centerpiece of the exhibition is a large-scale installation consisting of seven pianos distinctly presented and prepared, with symbolic objects inserted into their strings to create apparitional interventions. Forging connections between New York City, Puerto Rico, and Africa—reflecting Escobar’s own ancestral ties—the project imagines how spiritual and natural forces intersect with and bewitch our objects and environment. The installation makes visible the inner workings of the pianos, as well as the artists’ intercession into the strings, through cameras installed inside of the instruments, with footage projected in real time. This work bridges Standing on the Corner’s interest in the urban modifications of ancient devotional practices of the Caribbean and Africa and proposes the destruction of Western musical traditions. The installation will be activated during concerts that harness the altered acoustics of each piano to summon the mysterious powers that possess them.”

Brooklyn:

Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. brooklynmuseum.org.
Africa Fashion (June 23 – Oct.22, 2023): “Making its North American debut in Brooklyn, ‘Africa Fashion’ is the largest-ever presentation of the subject: more than 180 works, including standout pieces from the museum’s collections. Organized thematically, this multisensory experience features immersive displays of haute couture and ready-to-wear apparel, as well as photographs, literature, sketches, music, film and catwalk footage, textiles, and jewelry. More than forty designers and artists from twenty African countries are represented, from the vanguards who first gained worldwide attention, such as Kofi Ansah (Ghana) and Shade Thomas-Fahm (Nigeria), to the newest generation of cutting-edge creatives, such as Thebe Magugu (South Africa) and Gouled Ahmed (Djibouti). Many of their works are on view for the first time in the United States.”

Manhattan:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Ave. in New York. metmuseum.org.
Van Gogh’s Cypresses (May 22 – Aug.27, 2023): “Van Gogh’s Cypresses is the first exhibition to focus on the trees—among the most famous in the history of art—immortalized in signature images by Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890). Such iconic pictures as ‘Wheat Field with Cypresses’ and ‘The Starry Night’ take their place as the centerpiece in a presentation that affords an unprecedented perspective on a motif virtually synonymous with the Dutch artist’s fiercely original power of expression. Some 40 works illuminate the extent of his fascination with the region’s distinctive flamelike evergreens as they successively sparked, fueled, and stoked his imagination over the course of two years in the South of France: from his initial sightings of the “tall and dark” trees in Arles to realizing their full, evocative potential (“as I see them”) at the asylum in Saint-Rémy. Juxtaposing landmark paintings with precious drawings and illustrated letters—many rarely, if ever, lent or exhibited together—this tightly conceived thematic exhibition offers an extraordinary opportunity to appreciate anew some of Van Gogh’s most celebrated works in a context that reveals the backstory of their invention for the first time.”

New Museum, 235 Bowery in New York. newmuseum.org.
Pepón Osorio: My Beating Heart/ Mi Corazón Latiente (June 29 – Sept. 17, 2023): “Informed by his background in theater and performance as well as his experiences as a child services case worker and professor, Osorio’s richly textured sculptures and installations are deeply invested in political, social, and cultural issues affecting Latinx and working class communities in the United States. Installed in the New Museum’s Second Floor galleries, the exhibition will focus on the elaborate, large-scale, multimedia environments that Osorio has been creating since the early 1990s, often developed through long-term conversations and collaborations with individuals in the neighborhoods where they were first shown. This exhibition will provide an opportunity to experience Pepón Osorio’s new and most iconic projects together for the first time, and demonstrate the distinctive ways in which he creates encompassing environments that illustrate personal stories and reveal crucial societal concerns. Taken from an eponymous work, the title of the exhibition addresses themes that resonate throughout Osorio’s practice, including the simultaneous resilience and fragility of human life, the values and desires that propel humanity, and the fundamental urgency to better care for one another.”