NYC art exhibitions we’re most excited about in spring 2025

For the first time in two decades, the Met's Costume Institute is dedicating a show to menswear. "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style" examines Black style from the 18th century to today through an exploration of the concept of dandyism. 

Superfine is organized into 12 sections, each representing a style characteristic such as ownership, presence, distinction, disguise, freedom, respectability, heritage and more. Expect to see monumental sculptures, bespoke mannequin heads, paintings, prints, films, a photo essay, and, of course, incredible garments.

From May 10 through October 26, 2025.

Following its 2020 closure, the Frick Collection will officially reopen on April 17 inside its historic Gilded Age mansion at 1 East 70th Street by Fifth Avenue. When it reopens, visitors will get to experience even more of the museum's extensive collection by stepping inside restored spaces on the first floor while also walking around a new roster of galleries on the mansion's second floor, open to the public for the very first time. According to The Frick, the second floor used to be the Frick family’s private living quarters, but later became staff meeting rooms and administrative offices. So yes, you’ll be able to walk into the original bedroom of Henry Clay Frick.

Starting April 17.

The Guggenheim's rotunda will become a canvas for Rashid Johnson in this major solo show. In addition to taking over the iconic site, an outdoor sculpture will also be part of the show. Themes include social alienation, rebirth, and escapism, and offer a loose chronology of Johnson's artistic evolution over the course of 25 years.

"A Poem for Deep Thinkers" will be the largest exhibition of the American artist's work. The exhibit takes its name from a poem by Amiri Baraka, an American poet, writer, teacher, and political activist whose work is a frequent source of inspiration for Johnson. Expect to see nearly 90 artworks, including film and video.

From April 18, 2025 through January 18, 2026.

Treat your eyes 46 botanical drawings by the Swedish artist Hilma af Klint (1862–1944), which will be on display for the first time at The Museum of Modern Art. "Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind Flowers" explores the artist's engagement with the natural world. Created during the spring and summer of 1919 and 1920, this portfolio presents the wonders of Sweden's flora and showcases the artist's keen botanical eye.

Look for ways the artist combines abstraction with botanical drawing, like a sunflower paired with concentric circles or a narcissus crowned by a pinwheel of primary colors. Through these forms, af Klint seeks to reveal, in her words, "what stands behind the flowers," reflecting her belief that studying nature uncovers truths about the human condition.

From May 11 through September 27, 2025.

Back in the 1970s, there was a common rallying cry at early LGBTQ+ marches: "Out of the closets! Into the streets!" An exhibit at The Hispanic Society Museum & Library borrows that refrain for its title as it brings together 18 photographs by Francisco Alvarado-Juárez that highlight the chaotic and colorful vitality of this first iteration of Pride.

The photographs of the 1975 and 1976 marches showcase the racial and ethnic diversity of the movement and reveal the nuanced bonds of kinship formed among marchers from disparate backgrounds. In these early days, Pride was a local effort in New York City known as the Christopher Street Liberation Day March or the Gay Liberation Parade. Held as a direct response to the Stonewall Uprising of 1969, the events were a call for increased queer visibility at a time when New York still enforced so-called "sodomy" laws that facilitated the repression of the LGBTQ+ community.

From May 8 through August 31, 2025. It's free to visit.

The nuclear industry can be a complicated topic to understand, but a new exhibit at Poster House in the Flatiron District will help. "Fallout: Atoms for War & Peace" explores the global development of the nuclear industry through poster art that promoted and protested its use through the second half of the twentieth century. 

In a series of 60 posters, the exhibit digs into how scientists around the world developed the nuclear bomb and nuclear power stations following World War II. It also looks at how the development of nuclear energy led to the threat of nuclear war and—later—the development of harnessing nuclear energy for peace as an inexpensive electricity source.

A few highlights of the show include the entirety of Erik Nitsche's iconic General Dynamics series which promoted President Eisenhower’s slogan "Atoms for Peace" in six languages. Also featured are numerous anti-nuclear protest posters by the celebrated British designer Peter Kennard. 

From March 13 through September 7, 2025.  

In Faith Ringgold's monumental narrative quilts, you'll go on a journey with a young girl who soars from her Harlem rooftop, celebrating her own freedom and self-possession. The Guggenheim exhibit will spotlight the first in the series of five quilts, titled "Woman on a Bridge #1 of 5: Tar Beach." It's one of the most important works by the renowned artist, writer, and activist.

The show will delve into Ringgold's artistic influences and the lasting impact she has had on generations of artists. Also expect to see pieces by European modernists such as Marc Chagall and Pablo Picasso, who directly inspired Ringgold, and contemporary American artists such as Tschabalala Self and Sanford Biggers, whose work reflects her legacy.

From May 9 through September 7, 2025.

As the Brooklyn Museum reaches a landmark birthday, it's celebrating with an exhibit called "Breaking the Mold: Brooklyn Museum at 200." The show is broken into three chapters featuring works that span time, geography and medium while highlighting Brooklyn's artistic communities.

The first chapter—Brooklyn Made—pays homage to the borough's artists and designers from the seventeenth century to today. This section features everything from a pair of Delaware Lenape youth moccasins to contemporary pieces by Duke Riley. The next section, titled Building the Museum and Its Collection features the history of the museum's famed building and explores how its collection has grown. Finally, Gifts of Art in Honor of the 200th showcases newly gifted pieces, including works by Robert Frank, Coco Fusco, Antony Gormley, Julie Mehretu and Alex Katz.

From February 28, 2025 through February 22, 2026.

You may not yet know the name Amy Sherald, but you have definitely seen her work. She's the artist who created those iconic portraits of First Lady Michelle Obama and Breonna Taylor—two of the most recognizable and significant paintings made by an American artist in recent years. You'll get to see those artworks and much more as The Whitney presents a show titled "Amy Sherald: American Sublime," the artist's first New York museum solo show.

With 50 paintings, the exhibition explores Sherald's career to date, her signature portrait style, and her depictions of American life. Dedicated to American realism and portraiture, her work corrects an evident absence of Black Americans the work of early American realists. In her paintings, Sherald privileges Black Americans as her subjects, depicting everyday people and foregrounding a population often unseen or underrepresented in art history. The exhibition features early works, never-before-seen pieces, and new art created for the exhibition.

From April 9 through August 10, 2025.

Learn the story behind famed author Jane Austen in this exhibit at The Morgan Library & Museum. "A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250" shares the inspiring tale of Jane Austen’s authorship and her gradual rise to international fame. See special artifacts from Jane Austen's House in England, along with manuscripts, books, and artworks that present compelling new perspectives on Austen's literary achievement, personal style and her global legacy.

As a teenager, Austen cultivated her imaginative powers and her ambition to publish. With encouragement from her father and her sister, she persevered through years of uncertainty, eventually becoming the famed author we know today. 

From June 6 through September 14, 2025.  

Explore the overlap between abstract art, weaving, craft, and fashion at this MoMA exhibit. "Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction" delves into the dynamic intersections between weaving and abstraction. See 150 works in a range of mediums—from textiles and basketry to painting, drawing, sculpture, and media works.

The exhibition seeks to challenge long-held notions of the weave as a function of textile alone, exploring the many forms both warp and weft have taken when explored by abstract artists over the past 100 years.

From April 20 through September 13, 2025.

Got a wall to fill? This walk-around expo unites thousands of contemporary artworks under one roof, spotlighting painting, sculpture, photography and other artistic media. See artwork from local, national and international artists. 

Don’t let the name fool you: If you’re coming to buy, you should be prepared to spend in the range of three or four digits; to qualify as "affordable," the original artworks must be priced below $12,000. The least expensive works start at $100. Even if you can’t find something within your budget, you'll still get to check out pieces by a bunch of amazing artists, including Mayowa Nwadike, a Nigerian artist exploring African symbolism and masculinity through mixed-media works; Alanis Forde, a Barbadian figurative portrait and surrealist artist; Asari Aibangbee, a queer Nigerian femme fiber artist focusing on Black queer experiences across the African diaspora; and Juliette Vaissière, a French painter whose work explores consumerism and economic disparity through multiple mediums.

March 19-23 at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea. Passes cost around $30-$85. 

A couple of years ago, the New York Public Library purchased the late Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne’s archive, announcing that, once processed, the collection would be available to anyone with a library card at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue. The time has finally come—on March 26, the library will make the archive, comprised of a total of 336 boxes, publicly available. 

The collection includes a ton of artifacts, including notes and typescripts from Didion's interviews to Dunne’s correspondence with Brandon Teena’s murderer, a relationship that led to a famous piece in the New Yorker that was then adapted into the Oscar-winning film Boys Don't Cry, starring Hilary Swank.

Starting March 26.

A century ago, at the peak of the Harlem Renaissance, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture was formed. The Harlem-based organization, a part of the New York Public Library, has grown into a national landmark and world-renowned institution dedicated to the preservation and public access of Black history. It houses 11 million of items, including what is believed to be the first book written by a Black man; the unpublished last chapter of Malcolm X’s autobiography; the papers of Maya Angelou and James Baldwin; and much more.

To commemorate its 100 years in existence, The Schomburg Center will host a year-long celebration. An exhibit titled "100: A Century of Collections, Community, and Creativity" will be a part of that celebration. Learn about the library’s history while exploring objects from each of Schomburg’s divisions. This exhibition will surround visitors with the sights, sounds, and objects that comprise Schomburg's historic past. 

Starting on May 8.

Forty-five giant screens will light up the east side of Manhattan in a larger-than-life installation this spring. An outdoor space in Midtown East will soon be occupied by a new community-based art installation called "Path of Liberty: That Which Unites Us."

Screens at the exhbit will showcase breathtaking immersive photographs and compelling audio stories exploring our country's history, progress, challenges and successes. It's set to debut on the six acres between 38th and 41st Streets on First Avenue in the spring of 2025.

Every spring, the Met mounts an ambitious exhibit on its rooftop. This year, it's a piece by Brooklyn-based artist Jennie C. Jones. The work is expected to interpret the strings of acoustic instruments as a proxy for art history. See "The Roof Garden Commission: Jennie C. Jones, Ensemble" as of April 15.

Vincent van Gogh's deep blue lilies, vibrant sunflowers, and golden wheat fields leap from the canvas as if they're living flowers. This spring, they will be. 

New York Botanical Garden is hosting a massive floral show called Van Gogh: Painting with Flowers, inspired by the genius of the iconic artist Vincent van Gogh. The art-infused flower show will encourage visitors to revel in the color and beauty of the natural world with botanical displays and large-scale art. You'll get a chance to roam through a breathtaking lawn adorned with vibrant, monumental sunflowers that sounds positively Instagram-worthy. Plus, see how the floral pros at NYBG used real flowers to make spectacular re-creations of the artist's museum-level masterpieces.

From May 24 through October 26, 2025.