Welcome back! We hope you had a lovely Memorial Day Weekend. Is it just me who thinks of this period as the secret start of summer? (I'm really hoping I won't regret these words, especially after the year we've had ...)
But the art world is indeed (thankfully) slowing down. We've wrapped up the last of the fairs, and we're about to enter the summer slumber, insofar as that exists in New York.
There are many lovely ways to welcome it: Enjoy the dreamy weather with a visit to Roberto Lugo's brand-new love letter to Puerto Rico in Madison Square Park. Or visit nonagenarian legend Betye Saar's personal collection of Black dolls at the New York Historical, a promised gift on the occasion of her 100th birthday this summer. Or attend Pioneer Works's boat regatta, or celebrate AIR Gallery's new space at their moving party, or a hundred other things, because slow season in New York is still fast season everywhere else.
Nearing the occasion of her 100th birthday, an exhibition at the New York Historical celebrates Saar’s promised gift of her collection of dolls to the institution. | Jasmine Weber
Pioneering performance artist Linda Mary Montano gave me a tour of her home-shrine and a glimpse into her lifelong spiritual quest through art. | Taliesin Thomas
Alejandro Valencia’s multipart installation alludes to the institution’s failure to come to terms with Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. | Daniel Larkin
"What she accomplishes is more than a reminder to never forget history: It is a painstaking argument for the value of remembering, at both the personal and collective levels."
"Are they richly composed blueprints for mysterious systems connected to extraterrestrial lifeforms — schematics for advanced engines that could guide us toward wormholes to new coordinates of potential? Or attempts at mapping some underlying substrate of the universe?"
