Whether you’re trying to beat the winter blahs or enjoy the rare moments of midwinter sunshine, there’s plenty of compelling art to see in New York City’s museums and galleries. Prepare for the overlap of Inauguration and MLK Day with Kamari Carter’s incisive take on the American flag, check out the spiritual art of Shakers, bask in Esther Mahlangu’s colorful patterns and the esoteric worlds of Forrest Bess, and wander into a field of conceptualism with Michael Asher. And when the snowstorms roll in, curl up on your couch and enjoy dozens of online exhibitions designed by the Morgan Library & Museum, including two on the wondrous Beatrix Potter! If you’re in need of some creative community on January 20, visit artist Eva Mueller’s Wall of Emotions (WOE) pop-up event at Satellite Gallery on the Lower East Side. Mueller will be exhibiting their photo portraits of people from LGBTQ+ and allied communities and on hand to take photos of visitors who want to join their wall. —Natalie Haddad, Reviews Editor
Longing: In Between Homelands
Palo Gallery, 30 Bond Street, Soho, Manhattan
Through February 8
The silent beauty of the Dead Sea, a sorrowful child on a Beirut beach, and bathers commingling in the hot springs of Jordan. These are some of the images in this group show, captured by three Palestinian photographers who live in the diaspora: Lina Khalid, Nadia Bseiso, and Ameen Abo Kaseem. Born out of place, they observe their environments from within the gaping wound of exile. Though most were taken in 2024, the photos enclose a generations-old memory of an ancestral land that can be seen in the near horizon, but not reached. In a heartwarming gesture by the gallery, all proceeds from the sales will go to the artists, who need the money. —Hakim Bishara
Michael Asher
Artists Space, 11 Cortlandt Alley, Tribeca, Manhattan
Through February 8
I’m usually bored to tears with Michael Asher’s institutional critiques, since they feel so staid and conservative nowadays, but I still recognize the art historical significance of an artist who helped open our understandings of what is and can be art, and what we should consider part of the conversations.
If you want a primer on this important figure in late 20th-century art, this is a show to see. If you normally avoid archive-heavy exhibitions that are slippery in the way only a grad student can love, then don’t bother — also, I find Asher much more interesting when experienced in books than in galleries but I guess curators have to make a living.
On Thursday, January 23rd at 7:30pm, Artists Space will be rescreening “a film” that was first made in 1973 at Project Inc. Like so much else on display, this project apparently has no name. Have fun! Oh wait, it’s Asher, so don’t have fun, just think really, really hard — and make sure to perform your thinking by bunching your brows so others know that you’re deep in thought. Ok, I’ll stop. As I said, it’s well worth a look. —HV
Beatrix Potter: The Picture Letters and other online exhibitions
Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Avenue, Murray Hill, Manhattan
Ongoing
Some days you’d like to see art but you just can’t stand to leave the house, especially in the freezing cold of mid January. For times like these, the Morgan has us covered with its rich, informative, and engrossing series of online exhibitions. These shows — continuations of in-person exhibitions (including the current show Belle da Costa Greene: A Librarian’s Legacy, at the museum through May 4) — are composed like stories carrying the virtual visitor from one moment to the next, often with video or audio augmenting the text and visuals. It’s easy to spend hours with the museum’s dozens of online shows.
My personal favorite at the moment is Beatrix Potter: The Picture Letters, created to accompany a 2012–13 museum exhibition. The show is a fascinating look at letters Potter sent to the children of her friends and family between 1892 and 1900, replete with personal details and beguiling drawings of animals at work or play. As we learn from the show, The Tale of Peter Rabbit began as a letter to Noel Moore, the young son of Potter’s former governess, when he fell ill. Potter’s graceful line drawings — including a charming one of the doctor Mr. Mole and Nurse Mouse tending to a bedridden child mouse — are perfectly matched with her warm messages: “I hope the little mouse will soon be able to sit up in a chair by the fire.” —NH