New York Art Week is returning after the first iteration in 2022. Major art fairs, museum exhibitions, and gallery shows are coming back with this year’s edition of the New York Art Week. Works from emerging and leading artists will be presented in solo or group shows. The main art fairs include The Armory Show, Frieze New York, and TEFAF New York, along with several satellite fairs and exhibitions throughout the city.
Here are 3 must-see shows on view during New York Art Week 2023.
Kehinde Wiley, “Havana” is on view from April 28 to 17 June at Sean Kelly Gallery.
Image courtesy of the artist/Sean Kelly/Artsy
Wiley’s solo show “Havana” features new paintings, works on paper, and a three-channel film, all of which are informed by the artist’s focus on the evolution of Black culture globally. The work was inspired by two visits Wiley made to Cuba and it explores the phenomenon of the carnivalesque in Western culture, from depictions in art history to their legacy in street performance, dance, and the circus.
“Referencing artists as diverse as Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso, Calder, and Western European depictions of the carnivalesque, the circus, and the power of street performance and dance, the HAVANA paintings focus on the circus as a site of disruption for the rational mind and circus performers who embrace a dynamic and vibrant way of living and being in the world.”
The works in the exhibition form a timeline in which political realities, economic hardship, artistic freedom, and the thirst for self-discovery become the catalyst for exploring a nation and culture through painting.
Miguel Ángel Payano Jr., “Out From” is on view from April 8 to 13 May at Charles Moffett Gallery.
Image courtesy of the artist/Charles Moffett/Artsy
Miguel Ángel Payano Jr. draws from his Afro-Caribbean heritage and experiences of living in the U.S. and China to emphasize the importance of language and communication in connecting people across cultures. He employs a wide range of materials and sculptural forms to create dynamic, three-dimensional paintings, including humorous portraits as well as whimsical scenes of limbs that alternately melt into and battle with waves and clouds.
The works on view are purposefully eclectic, even discordant, but all are evidence of an attempt to exist on the fringes of aesthetic conventions.
Senga Nengudi, “Dia Beacon” is on view from May 16 to 28 July at Sprüth Magers Gallery.
Image courtesy of Camila Falquez/Wallpaper
Senga Nengudi creates her sculptures and performance from everyday materials. She was recently awarded the Nasher Prize for Sculpture 2023 in April. Her show, Dia Beacon, explores five decades of her multifaceted practice, which straddles the boundaries between performance and sculpture, turning mundane materials such as vinyl, water, nylon, sand, dry-cleaning bags, lint, paper, and tape, into something extraordinary.
