On View

In 2018, the once obscure and overlooked Swedish artist Hilma af Klint (1862–1944) was catapulted into the limelight with the blockbuster retrospective “Paintings for the Future” at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. What followed was an avalanche of critical reappraisals and masses of new devotees of her work, in no small part buoyed by recent threats made by her decedents to lock away her work from public view, reserving it exclusively for “spiritual seekers.”
For those who count themselves among the artist’s followers and fans, the freshly opened “Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers” at MoMA offers an incisive look at the artist’s botanical work that also provides insight into her spiritual and artistic evolution. Organized by Senior Curator Jodi Hauptman, with contributions from the curatorial team and in collaboration with the Hilma af Klint Foundation, the exhibition presents a portfolio of 46 botanical drawings—shown together for the first time—alongside newly discovered studies.
Hilma af Klint, No. 8 from the “Atom” series (January 13, 1917). Collection of Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm.
Taking an overarching focus on the years 1917 to 1922, the show opens with works dated from 1917, a year which heralded a new chapter in af Klint’s practice wherein she consciously pivoted away from the purely spiritual explorations guided by “divine messengers” she had dedicated herself to over the preceding decade, and instead toward the natural world and self-directed studies centered on visual observation.
Looking to the diverse world of Sweden’s flora and fauna, the show opens with pieces from her “Atom” series (1917)—one of several important loans from the Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm—which echo the geometry of her earlier large-scale abstractions. The series illustrates her concerted effort to reconcile or bridge her studies and observations of the formal and spiritual aspects of her work with the natural world around her.
Hilma af Klint, Convallaria majalis (Lily of the Valley), Geum rivale (Water Avens), Polygala vulgaris (Common Milkwort), sheet 11 from the portfolio “Nature Studies” (June 10–11, 1919). Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
What followed was the “Nature Studies” portfolio, part of MoMA’s permanent collection, made between the spring and summer of 1919 and 1920. All 46 entries of the portfolio are on view in “What Stands Behind the Flowers,” and reveal not only her skill with rendering various plants and flowers in extreme detail, but the intriguing ways her prior, spiritually driven practice lingered on.
In pieces such as Convallaria majalis (Lily of the Valley), Geum rivale (Water Avens), Polygala vulgaris (Common Milkwort) or Prunus padus (European Bird Cherry), Prunus avium (Sweet Cherry), Prunus cerasus (Sour Cherry), Prunus domestica (European Plum), small but distinctive abstract “riktlinier,” what could be translated as “diagrams” or “guidelines,” in the shape of spirals, targets, or chevrons allude to another dimension of af Klint’s creative pursuit, one that reflected a state of consciousness or perception from the point of view of her subject based on her own close observation of the specimen.
Hilma af Klint, Prunus padus (European Bird Cherry), Prunus avium (Sweet Cherry), Prunus cerasus (Sour Cherry), Prunus domestica (European Plum), sheet 7 from the portfolio “Nature Studies” (May 27–June 3, 1919). Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
These observations are included in short descriptions on the sheets themselves, (e.g., “Innocence,” “Silence,” “Strength” next to the Lily of the Valley, “Physical strength is a necessary asset. The body is dependent on the etheric body,” next to the Tulip) which she later transferred to a collection of notebooks, also on view in a vitrine toward the center of the show.
Together, the illustrations and notebooks compose a type of botanical atlas, one where nature and spirit are explored without hierarchy. A quote from the artist displayed in the show by af Klint states, “I have shown that there is a connection between the plant world and the world of the soul.”
Hilma af Klint, Tulipa sp. (Tulip), sheet 35 from the portfolio “Nature Studies” (May 20, 1920). Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Complementing the display of the “Nature Studies” portfolio is a suite of seven drawings of various mushroom species that were commissioned by M. A. Lindblad, a Swedish mycologist. Previously unknown, they were found in the archives of the Swedish Museum of Natural History by Dr. Lena Struwe, the director of the Chrysler Herbarium at Rutgers University and a contributor to the exhibition’s accompanying catalogue and Dr. Johannes Lundberg, a curator at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in the Department of Botany, the latter of whom first identified the grouping. As part of the present show’s research, Laura Neufeld, an associate conservator at MoMA, undertook a technical analysis of the works—the first ever of its kind conducted on af Klint’s works on paper.
Hilma af Klint, Birch, from the series On the Viewing of Flowers and Trees (1922). Collection of Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm.
The last section of the exhibition shows a veer back toward abstraction and away from the intricate reproductions of natural specimens and a refreshed approach to abstraction, one informed by af Klint’s then-recent dedication to the botanical works. Part of the series “On the Viewing of Flowers and Trees” (1922), these works feature a wet-on-wet method of watercolor painting, allowing for an intensity and depth of color not easily achieved in other mediums. The compositions from this series hold space for visual, emotional interpretation; the transmutation of the sun’s light as it reaches the core of a birch tree, a type of floral aura reading, or perhaps something more incorporeal, such as an attempt to realize through visual means the point of contact between spirit and an element of nature.
Ultimately, “What Stands Behind the Flowers” is a jewel box exhibition that presents a closer and more nuanced look at the intricacies of af Klint’s practice as well as the lines of critical inquiry she returned to time and again over the course of her career. As a historical artist who has garnered an unprecedented level of fame and recognition well after her death, and on the heels of several major international solos (and more slated to come), the exhibition reflects an art-historically significant depth to her oeuvre and an intriguing—and seemingly growing—resonance with contemporary audiences.
Hilma af Klint, Tilia × europaea (Common Linden), sheet 22 from the portfolio “Nature Studies” (July 29, 1919). Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
“While we often think of artists of the early 20th century as focused on new technologies—the hustle and bustle of modern life—for many, the natural world was a crucial touchstone,” Hauptman commented. “MoMA’s ‘Nature Studies’ reveal af Klint as an artist uniquely attuned to nature. We hope that attunement—her demonstration of careful observation and discovery of all that stands behind the flowers—encourages our audience to look closely and see their own surroundings, whether here in the city or beyond, in new ways.” More

In this age where anyone can navigate any city around the globe like a local, with a simple tap of a smart phone, a new exhibition has the viewer step back in time to a far different way of exploring the then fast growing metropolis of Manhattan.
“Wish You Were Here” is an unusual spin on New York history through the lens of the city’s magnetic lure as a visitor and tourist destination for a century and a half. The show runs through May 10 at New York’s Grolier Club, America’s oldest and largest society for bibliophiles (founded in 1884). The show is packed with hundreds of guidebooks, photobooks, viewbooks, photos, and maps, dating from roughly the early-1800s up through the 1940s (1807-1940), that invite close examination.
From an “uncensored” guide that promises visitors “The real low-down on the things you want to know,” to books on not only where to dine but how, the material provides insight into the city’s history as a cultural and entertainment hub.
New York Behind the Scenes (1939). From the Collection of Mark D. Tomasko.
The exhibition not only tells the story of the city itself, but of its people. Since the time period also generally overlaps with decades of immigration into New York City, from every corner of the world, one can only imagine that many of these guides were enthusiastically embraced not only by visitors and tourists, but also transplants to all five of the boroughs, many of whom were eager to explore their new home territory.
Take for instance, the “New York Standard Guide,” a revised edition issued in 1924, priced at 50 cents. It bears a lengthy cover description: “This is a New and Complete Handbook of New York. . .With Views Up to Date Map and Street Directory. For Visitors and Residents. The Standard Guide has helped thousands to see New York intelligently, it will help you.”
The show comes courtesy of Mark D. Tomasko, a retired corporate lawyer and passionate collector of ephemera whose material is the source of the entire exhibition. He is also a club member.
Where and How to Dine in New York. New York (1903). From the collection of Mark D. Tomasko. One of the first guides to New York restaurants.
“New York City has always intrigued me,” writes Tomasko in the introduction to the show. He was born in Brooklyn and grew up in the suburbs with a father who worked in Midtown Manhattan. On Christmas Eve in 1969, Tomasko purchased an 1895 copy of King’s Photographic Views of New York, an acquisition which kicked off a lifelong fascination. “It started my New York City collecting, documenting the physical growth and development of the City in the 19th and 20th centuries,” he said.
In a phone interview, Tomasko told me he wanted the show to illustrate how visitors and residents would use the materials to learn about, navigate, and remember the city. Given his love of printed material and printing history,  he concedes that the complete shift to digital makes him “personally a little sad.”
A Pictorial Description of Broadway. New York: The Evening Mail and Express, (1899). From the collection of Mark D. Tomasko.
Tomasko said he hopes to provide audiences with “a better understanding of how the city grew and described itself over the 19th century and the first part of the 20th century. When you get into the 1840s, 50s, and 60s, it just grew considerably.”
While he emphasized that he is not a historian and makes “no claim to be one,” he of course has uncovered some interesting trends and discoveries along the way.
Along with borough-specific books for Brooklyn, and the Bronx, and Queens, material within the publications can be surprisingly wide ranging and specific, such as one map that has a list of churches by denomination (Baptist, Reformed Dutch, Methodist, Friends, and Roman Catholic), with several of those churches still around today, to books that incorporated merchant directories. Tomasko explained: “When New York became a major trading center, people from out of town would come in to buy things, so merchant directories in guidebooks, would serve yet another function.” More

This may be the snowiest winter New York has seen in years, but the New York Botanical Garden is offering a tropical escape with “The Orchid Show: Mexican Modernism.” The show has transformed the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory into a colorful, almost magical paradise inspired by the bold architecture of Luis Barragán (1902–1988).
The NYBG horticulture team has planted a profusion of the striking flowering plants amid an installation of trickling water features and textured walls painted hot pink, rich purple, fiery orange, and deep red—the trademarks of Barragán, Mexico’s most famous Modernist architect.
“The set pieces were inspired by the vibrant colors and beautiful architecture that are seen throughout Mexico,” Kenia Pittman, the NYBG’s director of exhibitions design and operations, told me at the exhibition preview. “We really wanted to capture his layering of geometry and the casting of light and shadows.”
It was her team who oversaw the design, construction, and installation of the architectural elements of the presentation, and their interaction with the orchids and other plants, looking to the way that Barragán himself tried to incorporate outdoor spaces into his buildings. The goal was to create a tranquil respite, with moments for peaceful reflection amid the lush vegetation, despite the crowds that the exhibition inevitably draws.
“The Orchid Show: Mexican Modernism” inspired by the architecture of Luis Barragán, at the New York Botanical Garden. Photo courtesy of the New York Botanical Garden.
“We are extremely excited for visitors to come and see this show,” Pittman, who grew up in Mexico, added. “I think that it does a beautiful job in executing the vibrant culture of Mexico, in addition to giving visitors the opportunity, as we always do, to learn about plants, and the native orchids that exist in Mexico.”
The show has been in the planning for about a year, when the NYBG horticulture team dreamed up the theme for the exhibition’s 22nd edition. Past outings have drawn on the gardens of Singapore (2019), Thailand (2017), Cuba (2010), and even Brazilian Modernism and the work of artist Roberto Burle Marx (2009).
“The Orchid Show: Mexican Modernism” inspired by the architecture of Luis Barragán, at the New York Botanical Garden. Photo courtesy of the New York Botanical Garden.
For this year’s edition, the NYBG is also presenting a photography exhibition from Mexican artist Martirene Alcántara, who for decades has been captivated by Barragán’s architecture. Her photographs of his Mexico City home, Casa Barragán, are on view in the downstairs gallery space at the garden’s LuEsther T. Mertz Library. (The show was organized by the Consulate General of Mexico in New York and will appear there later this year.)
The artist, who has lived in New York for 25 years, began taking architectural photographs while studying architecture at the National University of Mexico. Soon, it became her primary focus, with Casa Barragán becoming a beloved subject.
“I have pretty much lived there for 30 years or more,” Alcántara told me. “I love that house, and every time I go, it’s like discovering a new house. Just a beautiful place.”
Photographs by Martirene Alcántara in “Homage to Luis Barragán: An Act of Poetry” at the New York Botanical Garden. Photo courtesy of the New York Botanical Garden.
Her photographs isolate the architecture into its basic geometry, translating Barragán’s simple, elegant lines and angles into almost abstract compositions. (Four works from her series “Homage to Luis Barragán” are in the collection of New York’s Museum of Modern Art.) The stripped-down, minimal nature of Alcántara’s work stands in striking contrast to the maximalist approach inside the glass-walled conservatory.
The new show delivers on the “explosion of orchids that you have come to expect from this annual tradition,” Jennifer Bernstein, the garden’s president, said, but with the added bonus of other Mexican flora.
Cacti in “The Orchid Show: Mexican Modernism” inspired by the architecture of Luis Barragán, at the New York Botanical Garden. Photo courtesy of the New York Botanical Garden.
That includes agave, cacti, and the pink bougainvillea—the color which is echoed in some of the wall installations—as well as some of the country’s approximately 1,300 native orchids, 40 percent of which don’t grow anywhere else on earth. But other varieties of the beloved flower can be found almost everywhere, which has allowed the NYBG to stage such a wide variety of themes for the annual showcase.
“There’s over 30,000 species of orchid, native to every continent and every biome except Antarctica,” Zack Leibovitch, the conservatory manager, told me. “You can even find orchids growing wild just a couple of miles from the city.”
“The Orchid Show: Mexican Modernism” inspired by the architecture of Luis Barragán, at the New York Botanical Garden. Photo courtesy of the New York Botanical Garden.
The garden’s horticulture team, led by Brian P. Sullivan, vice president for glasshouses and landscape, and Marc Hachadourian, director of glasshouse horticulture and senior curator of orchids, grows many of the specialty orchids in the show on site. But these days, thanks to advances in tissue culture, the garden is able to purchase most of the plants from nurseries.
“They take a small portion of cells and grow them in a Petri dish,” Leibovitch explained. “They will be a complete clone of the parent that the cells were taken from.”
It’s much faster and less expensive than growing plants from seed or by dividing adult plants, although there are some species, like the showy slipper orchids, that don’t respond well to this method.
A lady slipper orchid. Photo courtesy of the New York Botanical Garden.
The show features thousands upon thousands of orchids, in a full rainbow of colors, with both tiny flowers and massive blooms. (After the show’s run, many of them get donated to the local community, such as senior centers, through the garden’s Bronx Green-Up program.)
It’s a feast for the eyes—and for the nose, with the blossoms’ fragrant scents permeating the space. (The show’s run also features seven after-hours “Orchid Nights” with adult beverages and cumbia sonidera dance parties.) As New Yorkers eagerly await warmer weather and spring sunshine, soaking up the Mexican vibes is the perfect antidote to the winter blues.
“The Orchid Show: Mexican Modernism” and “Homage to Luis Barragán: An Act of Poetry” are on view at the New York Botanical Garden, 2900 Southern Boulevard, Bronx, New York, February 15–April 27, 2025.  More

During Frieze Los Angeles later this month, Christie’s will host at its Beverly Hills branch an exhibition of art belonging to Francois Pinault, the French billionaire businessman whose holdings include the auction house.
The show, titled “Eye Contact,” will include a wide range of portraiture by eight artists: Marlene Dumas, Llyn Foulkes, Thomas Houseago, William Pope L., Jim Shaw, Cindy Sherman, Luc Tuymans, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. Nothing will be for sale, according to Christie’s. Houseago will install his outdoor sculptures on Christie’s first-floor terrace in collaboration with the Pinault Collection’s curatorial team. A fun fact: More than half of the over 10,000 works in Pinault’s holdings address the subject of the human body.
The show was initially slated to open last month, but was bumped to February due to the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles.
Christie’s recently appointed CEO Bonnie Brennan noted in an email that “Eye Contact” is the latest in a string of non-selling exhibitions that the auction house has hosted in L.A., which have included a 2023 show in collaboration with the local nonprofit Desert X, and in 2024, a presentation of Warhol film stills on loan from the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.
Thomas Houseago, Study (New York Mask I), (2010) Artist Credit: Thomas Houseago Studio © ARSPhoto Credit: Fredrik Nilsen Studio
Selections from the Pinault Collection are regularly exhibited at three museums that it operates—the Palazzo Grassi and the Punta della Dogana in Venice and the Bourse de Commerce in Paris—as well as at other institutions around the world.
Some of the works in the L.A. show have been seen only rarely, like paintings by Tuymans and Dumas that are making their U.S. debuts. Others have never been publicly displayed, such as a portrait of Pinault by Los Angeles artist Jim Shaw.
Christie’s L.A. venue “is our second-largest gallery in the Americas, with beautiful exhibition space in our first floor galleries as well as our second floor terrace,” Brennan said. (Christie’s headquarters at Rockfeller Center in New York has the most gallery space.)
Luc Tuymans, Anonymous III (2018). © Luc Tuymans. All rights reserved. Courtesy Studio Luc Tuymans, Antwerp, and David Zwirner
In response to the recent wildfires, Christie’s has made donations to the California Community Foundation Wildfire Recovery Fund, the Los Angeles Food Bank, and the Getty’s L.A. Arts Community Fire Relief Fund. “Our hearts have broken for everyone affected by the devastation caused by the recent wildfires,” Brennan said. “We are proud to have a home in Los Angeles and will continue to stand in solidarity with our friends, family, and colleagues in this great city as we rebuild together.”
“Eye Contact: An Invitation to the Pinault Collection,” will be on view at Christie’s Los Angeles, from Wednesday, February 12, through Friday, April 4. More

Israel’s war in Gaza has been documented like no conflict before, with footage filmed directly by impacted civilians and spread rapidly across the globe. For many, especially younger audiences, these firsthand accounts have become a more trusted source of information than mainstream media outlets, which many believe are obscuring the reality in line with their own agenda.
Utilizing this power of the image to cut through the discourse surrounding geopolitical conflicts and bring the focus back to its impact on everyday life, Palestinian artists have long been documenting their experiences, community, and surroundings. In many cases, violence is only obliquely referenced, either by the physical manifestations of occupation, like fences, watchtowers, or a ravaged landscape, or by its psychological aftermath: displacement, grief, longing.
Though the making of art is an interpretative, subjective act, it can unveil truths that may be otherwise impossible to convey. This is certainly what brings together projects by three Palestinian photographers living in exile —Ameen Abo Kaseem, Nadia Bseiso, and Lina Khalid—that are included in a new exhibition, “Longing: In Between Homelands,” at Palo Gallery in New York City, on view through February 8, 2025.
Ameen Abo Kaseem, Untitled. Image courtesy of the artist and Palo Gallery.
Most of the works by Ameen Abo Kaseem, from a series titled “We Deserved a Better Time on this Earth,” are diptychs that pair joyful snapshots from everyday life, including moments of bliss or affection, with more threatening scenes of chaos on the streets or armed soldiers on patrol.
The Palestinian-Syrian photographer based in Beirut said appearing in the show made “the weight of memory and exile feel shared, not solitary.”
“This work isn’t about giving answers—it’s about holding space for the questions,” he said. “What does it mean to belong when your home exists only in memory? How do we carry the land within us, making it visible even when it feels lost? And how do we keep moving forward, with love and poetry, even in the shadow of exile.”
Installation view of “Longing: In Between Homelands” at Palo Gallery in New York until February 8, 2025, featuring works by Ameen Abo Kaseem. Photo: Thomas Barrett.
Kaseem has also poured his despair into wall texts that accompany the photographs and read as private diary entries. “I wonder: if I were born on the other side of the world, would I be in this same moment?” reads one. “I stare at the ground for a long time, muttering, ‘we deserved a better time on this earth.’” Another reads: “There was never anything I believed in like love, but today I find it a compass pointing to nothing.”
The artist said that he had some trepidation about showing works like these in a commercial gallery setting. “My work is dark, personal, and not the kind of thing that feels ‘sellable’,” he said. “I worried about how it would be received. But hearing people say they’ve connected to these moments and feelings has meant everything to me.”
Nadia Bseiso, Hot Spring (2017). Image courtesy of the artist and Palo Gallery.
The only color images are those by Palestinian-Jordanian Nadia Bseiso, who is based in Amman, Jordan. The works in Infertile Crescent explore the convergence of geopolitical and ecological concerns in a region sometimes known as the Fertile Crescent for the early human civilizations that once flourished there by cultivating its lands. They were mostly made between 2016 and 2018, years leading up to the planned construction of a pipeline that would tackle water scarcity in the Middle East by moving water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea.
As such, the works often take as their subject diverse water sources native to Jordan and scenes of everyday life and survival in the Jordan Valley. The pipeline, which was criticized for its potential damage to natural ecosystems, was eventually abandoned. The Jordanian government cited a lack of interest from Israel, which had originally agreed to help fund the project.
“As Palestinians in the diaspora, we remain connected to our homeland by an invisible umbilical cord,” said Bseiso. “Even if we have man-made borders, whatever happens in Palestine hits close to home.” She added that Infertile Crescent was a way to capture “how invisible lines, geopolitics, conflict, and water scarcity [have] dictated how we lived in the region and how they are responsible for shifting the area from what it once was, to what it is today, and what it might soon become.”
Lina Khalid, 75-300mm (2024). Image courtesy of the artist and Palo Gallery.
Lina Khalid, was born to a Palestinian family that took refuge in Jordan after they were expelled from their village of Qalunya in Jerusalem during the Nakba of 1948. Now living in the capital Amman, she grew up forced to only know her homeland from afar. On family trips to the Dead Sea, she could just about make it out in the far distance.
In the black-and-white photographs of To Look Over there is a Sin, Khalid explores the complexity of this apparent proximity in a landscape scarred by manmade borders. In some of her images, these borders interrupt an otherwise timeless and tranquil topography.
Lina Khalid, The Sea is Over There. Do You See It (2024). Image courtesy of the artist and Palo Gallery.
Khalid said the exhibition is “a space to express the profound experiences of loss and transformation that deeply impact our lives as Palestinians born and living in exile.”
She added: “I’m happy to share my experience in navigating the complex relationships between memory, identity, and art as a means of healing and resistance. Each image in the project and the exhibition, featuring my colleagues Nadia and Amin, reflects a moment of contemplation on our personal and collective experiences, forming an attempt to document emotions often lost amid the chaos of reality.”
The three artists featured in “Longing: In Between Homelands” were selected from the Arab Documentary Photography Program, a joint initiative of the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, the Magnum Foundation, and the Prince Claus Fund, which provides mentorship for photographers from the Middle East.
“Longing: In Between Homelands” is on view at Palo Gallery’s second location at 21 East 3rd Street in New York City until February 8, 2025. All proceeds from the exhibition will go directly to the artists. More

The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art highlights its latest acquisitions of works by Native American artists in a new exhibition celebrating the intergenerational expressions of Indigenous artists through historical and contemporary art.
Artist-curator Jordan Poorman Cocker co-curated “American Sunrise: Indigenous Art at Crystal Bridges” with Ashley Holland, director of curatorial affairs at the Art Bridges Foundation. The latest acquisitions came from direct talks with the artists as well as from Native American markets and through art galleries, said  Cocker, who also serves as the museum’s officer for compliance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGRPA).
Ryan RedCorn, Raymond RedCorn (2018-2023). Courtesy Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
Among the new acquisitions is a photograph by the Osage artist Ryan RedCorn which depicts the late fashion designer Ardina Revard Moore, who founded the Indian apparel business Buffalo Sun. Moore, who was also one of the last remaining speakers of the Quapaw language, is pictured holding a young baby named Hikele Byrd.
“In Redcorn’s portrait, generations, legacy, resilience, and the importance of family is highlighted in monumental scale,” Cocker said, highlighting the RedCorn work as one in the exhibition that best represents the thematic aspect of kinship.
Cocker herself is an Indigenous artist from the Kiowa Tribe and from the Kingdom of Tonga in the Polynesia region of the Pacific. Her artistic and scholarly work seeks to promote Indigenous knowledge and creativity.
Frank Buffalo Hyde, Big Hat Energy (2023). Courtesy of Frank Buffalo Hyde/Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
“Misrepresentation and underrepresentation of Indigenous-led stories and narratives has historically led to an over-representation of stereotypical imagery and propaganda within museums due to settler colonialism,” Cocker said. “When museums support Indigenous curators to work closely with artists and communities to tell our own stories in our own ways, museums move closer toward best practice.”
The new acquisitions also include, among other pieces, a characteristic punching-bag sculpture by Jeffrey Gibson, a mixed media work by Ojibwe artist Andrea Carlson, a painting by Onondaga and Niimíipuu artist Frank Buffalo Hyde inspired by a 1962 advertisement for Kellogg’s Corn Flakes cereal, and a beaded necklace by the artist Bobby Dues called IHS Dental Plan (2024) that Cocker described as “fabulous.”
Bobby “Dues” Wilson, IHS Dental Plan (2024). Courtesy of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
That work is accompanied by a projection of a video titled Smiling Indians by Redcorn and Sterlin Harjo.
“The throughline between both works is Indigenous joy, happiness, and imagery of smiling Indigenous people which is rarely shown in the museums and the media,” Cocker said. “This pairing and other works in the exhibit upend negative and inaccurate stereotypes of Native American people.”
Cocker also praised the work The Zenith by artist Cara Romero, who is slated to have her first solo show at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, in Hanover, New Hampshire, in January. That work, a photograph, features a person with a spaceflight helmet on in outer space while surrounded by floating cobs of corn. To Cocker, it highlights the show’s theme of Indigenous Futurism. Meanwhile, Kelly Church’s Sustaining Traditions into the Future was selected by Cocker as the best example of the theme of place.
Consuelo Jimenez Underwood, Home of the Brave (2013). Courtesy Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
The exhibition features six new commissions by Church, Jeri RedCorn, Jane Osti, and Roy Boney that have never been seen by the public. In total, more than 30 artists spanning more than 150 years of artmaking are featured.
“American Sunrise: Indigenous Art at Crystal Bridges” is on view through March 23, 2025 at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, 600 Museum Way, Bentonville, Arkansas. More

To exhibition-goers and culture lovers, “Life is Architecture” at M+ in Hong Kong has been nothing but a treat since it opened in late June. The show, billed as the first major retrospective of Chinese-American architect I. M. Pei (1917–2019), offers a rare opportunity to revisit the iconic buildings and high-profile projects he built around the world that made him one of the most influential architects of the 20th and 21st centuries.
To architects, the exhibition on Pei carries an extra layer of meaning. It is not just about one big name, but it offers the audience a glimpse of what the practice of architecture is about, according to architect Betty Ng.
Installation view of I. M. Pei: Life Is Architecture, 2024. Photo: Wilson LamImage courtesy of M+, Hong Kong.
“Despite that the exhibition is billed as a retrospective of Pei, his work is exhibited and curated as a body of work that involves a vast amount of collaborators, ranging from his clients to glass manufacturers and artists. Among my favorites are the illustrations by Helmut Jacoby, who also collaborated with Norman Foster,” noted Ng, who is the founder and director of the Hong Kong headquartered firm Collective, which has worked on architecture and exhibition design projects across the region and beyond, including Christie’s new Asia headquarters.
The “refreshing” approach shows “how architecture is done through a coherent understanding across various parties, which is a reality in practice but not well understood by outsiders,” she said.
Peter Rosen,First Person Singular: I. M. Pei (1997). Image courtesy of the director.
The Pritzker Prize-winning architect I.M. Pei, whose full name is leoh Ming Pei, may be best remembered for the National Gallery of Art East Building in Washington, D.C., as well as the Louvre Pyramid, which went from being one of the most hated proposals during the museum’s renovation to an iconic piece of contemporary architecture in Paris. Other major projects are the Bank of China Tower, which challenged the public’s perception of architecture in Hong Kong and the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, the latter of which he built at the age of 91. Despite his institutional might, Pei did not get a museum retrospective until now.
Curated by Shirley Surya, design and architecture curator at M+, and Aric Chen, general and artistic director of Nieuwe Instituut (New Institute) in Rotterdam and formerly M+’s founding lead curator for design and architecture, the show was organized with the support of the Estate of I. M. Pei and Pei Cobb Freed & Partners has been seven years in the making.
Installation view of I. M. Pei: Life Is Architecture, 2024. Photo: Dan Leung. Image courtesy of M+, Hong Kong
The exhibition tells the story of Pei’s life and practice through six chapters and it features more than 400 objects, with many being shown for the first time.
“It’s hard to pick ‘favorites’ as each exhibit—be it a video, a letter, model, or drawing—is key in revealing certain aspects within each thematic section of the exhibition,” said exhibition curator Surya. While attention is likely drawn to some of Pei’s landmark designs, Surya noted that as a historian, she was grateful to have found several lesser-known exhibits that demonstrated Pei’s versatility not just as an architect but also for his transcultural vision.
Installation view of I. M. Pei: Life Is Architecture, 2024. Photo: Lok Cheng. Image courtesy of M+, Hong Kong
Among them is a series of short documentaries about Pei from 1970 that were kept at Pei Cobb Freed’s archive. It “revealed Pei’s articulate and reflective stance on his practice and presented him as an important public figure even before accomplishing other projects later,” the curator pointed out.
The other is the model of Taiwan Pavilion at Expo 1970 in Osaka. The model on view was built in collaboration with master’s students at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s School of Architecture, which also served as the exhibition’s dedicated model maker.
I.M. Pei’s Bankers’ club drawing from undergrad project at MIT. Photo: M+.
“As a temporary structure, few knew of Pei’s involvement in this project. But its design for a circuitous exhibition path—through two multi-story triangular volumes with multiple bridges—akin to the unfolding sequence of spaces experienced while walking through a Chinese garden really demonstrated Pei’s ability to reinterpret culturally specific historical archetypes for the design of a contemporary and modern structure,” said Surya.
The I.M. Pei designed Suzhou Museum opened in 2006. Photo: M+.
Architect Ng, who also teaches architecture at the Chinese University of Hong Kong with her Collective directors Juan Minguez and Chi Yan Chan as a collective teaching cohort, was the team behind this education engagement. Students were asked to conduct in-depth research of two of Pei’s culture-related projects: a Museum of Chinese Art for Shanghai in 1948, an unrealized proposal that was originally Pei’s Harvard Graduate School of Design thesis, and Taiwan pavilion at Expo ’70 in Osaka. These aspiring architects were asked to reflect on the idea of “Chineseness” through Pei’s work. Ng and her teammates found this exercise inspiring.
“To us, as architects from different places practising in the context of Asia, we have always been asked to create ‘a design with Asianess’. There is no straight forward answer to this delicate matter, but the collaboration was a great exercise to explore various design methodologies through the understanding of characters instead of motifs,” said Ng.
Liu Heung Shing, I. M. Pei with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and guests at Fragrant Hill Hotel’s opening (1982). Photo: © Liu Heung Shing
The show also highlights the backdrop of important historical moments throughout the decades of Pei’s career that saw key cultural and geopolitical transformations across the world. Important archival images on view include those depicting Pei’s interaction with important figures such as French-Chinese artist Zao Wou-Ki and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and scenes representing the modernization of China.
To Ng, projects that Pei had worked on with real estate tycoon William Zeckendorf being showcased alongside other arts and cultural projects was moving. The collaboration gave Pei a reputation of being “an architect for a developer.” Reflecting on this, Ng noted that private developers play a more dominant role in the architecture ecology in Hong Kong and the region, compared to Europe, where she had worked before. By putting these commercial projects on view, it helped to clarify the basis of architecture design, which is about methodology, rather than genres and styles. “We do not believe in being a particular type of architect. We believe in architecture,” she said.
Marc Riboud, I. M. Pei and Zao Wou-Ki in the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris ca.1990 © Marc Riboud/Fonds Marc Riboud au MNAAG/Magnum Photos
The exhibition will run until January 5, 2025. But in case one isn’t able to make a trip to Hong Kong for the show, don’t fret. There may be a chance to see the show elsewhere afterwards. “We are currently in various discussions to bring this exhibition to a wider audience in different parts of the world,” Surya noted. More

Every fall, Seoul’s Leeum Museum of Art hosts blockbuster exhibitions to assert its position as a leading institution in the region, and this year is no exception. Two major shows, a solo presentation of Anicka Yi and the group exhibition “Dream Screen,” are running through the end of the year.
Yi’s “There Exists Another Evolution, But In This One” is certainly the headline attraction as the first and most expansive museum exhibition of the renowned Korean-American artist in Asia. Yet many visitors would agree that “Dream Screen,” organized by artist Rirkrit Tiravanija, has stolen some of the spotlight.
Infused with horror-genre themes, the show features a dynamic group of artists millennial-aged or younger whose practices explore and negotiate cultural encounters experienced through screens, whether via the internet, video games, or films within local and regional contexts. After its opening in September, the show quickly became one of the most talked-about exhibitions of the fall.
Installation view of 2024 Art Spectrum “Dream Screen.” Photo: Yeonje Kim. Image courtesy of Leeum Museum of Art.
The exhibition is part of the museum’s Art Spectrum program, a biennial initiative launched in 2001. Originally established as a platform to showcase emerging Korean artists amid the country’s growing contemporary art scene, this edition has been revamped. The previous award system was removed, and the program expanded its scope to feature artists from across the region. “Dream Screen” presents the work of 26 artists and collectives from various parts of Asia, organized by Tiravanija, who served as artistic director and co-curated the show with Leeum’s curator Hyo Gyoung Jean and guest curator Jiwon Yu.
Installation view of 2024 Art Spectrum Dream Screen. Photo: Yeonje Kim. Image courtesy of Leeum Museum of Art.
The show explores the proliferation of digital technologies and the sense of the uncanny that is created as our lives become overloaded with information, sensory stimuli, and narratives all shared through screens.
Perhaps there is no better way than presenting this in the form of a haunted house. The exhibition’s entrance is the façade of a house, which is inspired by the Winchester Mystery House, dubbed “the creepiest mansion” in the U.S. Built by Sarah Pardee Winchester, who received a massive inheritance from her late husband, William Winchester, a firearms mogul, the 110-room 19th-century mansion located in San Jose, California, was said to be built to house the spirits of those killed by the Winchester rifle so she could be spared by the ghosts of these victims.
Arlette Quynh-Anh Tran, The Spinning Shadows (2024) Commissioned by Leeum Museum of Art. Image courtesy the artist.
What connects an American haunted house to Asian horror? The exhibition offers no explicit explanation, but its format speaks volumes. Featuring 26 artists and collectives, each occupying a room, courtyard, or hallway within a labyrinthine structure inspired by the Winchester House, the show balances individual expression with a unified narrative. Given Asia’s legacy of iconic horror films like Ring (1998), The Eye (2002), and A Tale of Two Sisters (2003), it’s a fitting setting for exploring the genre’s global resonance.
Installation view of Bo Wang’s Asian Ghost Story (2023). Photo: Vivienne Chow.
As visitors enter the house, they are greeted by music from a live jam session at a bar—an installation by the international collective Sparkling Tap Water, whose members performed throughout the opening night. Deeper inside, a room features the haunting video installation Asian Ghost Story (2023) by Amsterdam-based, Chongqing-born artist Bo Wang. This powerful work reflects on the late 20th-century hair trade, set against Asia’s economic rise, industrialization, Cold War tensions, and migration.
Inspiration from Shan State and Chiang Rai (2023) by the Yangon-based artist Soe Yu Nwe. Photo: Vivienne Chow
Among the 60 works on show, 23 of them were commissioned by the museum and exhibited for the first time. One keeps making discoveries in this maze-like structure wandering from one room to the next, not knowing what to expect.
One room features Inspiration from Shan State and Chiang Rai (2023) by Yangon-based artist Soe Yu Nwe, an installation of delicate glass and ceramic sculptures resembling mysterious plants sprouting from bodily forms. The work draws inspiration from her family history and regional folklore. Meanwhile, a corridor showcases Forms of Perfect Love (2024) by Seoul- and Amsterdam-based artist Eunsae Lee, a whimsical mural depicting various forms of human connection.
Kaeru (2024) by Jihyun Jung. Photo: Yeonje Kim. Courtesy of Leeum Museum of Art
Ghost in the Machine (2024) by the Cebu-based Kolown is an installation of what appears to be a farm for internet trolls, consisting of 40 smartphones; it offers a critical take on how the ease of communication with digital devices can be a double-edged sword.
For those whose nightmares involve public scrutiny, Seoul-based Jihyun Jung’s Kaeru (2024) might be the most unsettling work in the exhibition. This large-scale installation invites visitors to attempt indoor wall climbing in front of an audience, forcing them to confront fears of failure and embarrassment.
While international blockbuster names are inevitable to draw audiences and sell tickets, platforming emerging talent from the region is equally important, especially when the global art community is becoming more receptive of artists of Asian roots. Leeum would do well to  maintain this balance in its future programming.
“Anicka Yi: There Exists Another Evolution, But In This One” and “Dream Screen” run through December 29 at Leeum Museum of Art, 60-16 Itaewon-ro 55-gil, Seoul, South Korea. More