This week I’m reminded of the breadth of world cultures and the long shadow of human history, with art exhibitions that span the local and global, past and present. While artists at the Bronx Museum engage with area communities and ecosystems, others at MoMA PS1 examine mass waste and excess, and the Morgan Library & Museum shows us how medieval Europe imagined the world. We’re also revisiting the legacy of American photographer Consuelo Kanaga, and as we get closer to summer it’s a perfect time to head a bit out of town and see a wonderful array of Indigenous artists at the Zimmerli Art Museum in New Jersey, curated by the late artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. —Natalie Haddad, Reviews Editor
The Book of Marvels: Imagining the Medieval World
The Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Avenue, Murray Hill, Manhattan
Through May 25
“I was jostling fellow museum-goers in the small room to glimpse the vast reaches of time and space that lay within the show’s manuscripts, far away from the dreary world outside.” —NH
Read the full review here.
Working Knowledge: Shared Imaginings, New Futures
The Bronx Museum of the Arts, 1040 Grand Concourse, Concourse Village, The Bronx
Through July 6
“[T]he exhibition is deeply attuned to the Bronx community it emerges from — an attentiveness that greatly enhances its significance.” —Alexandra M. Thomas
Read the full review here.
Consuelo Kanaga: Catch the Spirit
Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Through August 3
“One could write a photographic history of the first half of the 20th century through her life story. It’s a staggering resumé.” —Julia Curl
Read the full review here.
The Gatherers
MoMA PS1, 22–25 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, Queens
Through October 6
“[The exhibition] sets up human production — not as individuals, nor as small groups, as an emergent property of our global collectivity — as a force of new sublimity” —Lisa Yin Zhang
Read the full review here.
Indigenous Identities: Here, Now & Always
Zimmerli Art Museum, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, New Jersey
Through December 21
“Native artists have always operated outside the Western art world’s linear timeline — moving in circles, spirals, and returns — holding history as not something left behind but something to actively engage.” —Petala Ironcloud
Read the full review here.
