Best Outdoor Art Shows This Summer

New York Newsletter

Explore summer attractions in the city, engage with a top fashion designer at the Brooklyn Museum, and greetings from Rhea!

Hello! I’m Rhea, approaching my fourth year as a staff writer at Hyperallergic. 

Lisa, who has relocated to Iowa City, has graciously passed the baton to me for the New York newsletter. While she continues her work with Hyperallergic, her presence in this role will be missed. Nonetheless, I’m excited to share insights on MoMA PS1’s latest courtyard installation, which creatively explores the boundary between Eden and indulgence through a unique entry: a giant teddy bear’s rectum.

This isn’t a whimsical tale from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; it is Precious Okoyomon’s Among the Flowers I Learned to Love: A Garden of Decreation. The piece, as described by Hyperallergic’s co-founder and Editor-at-Large Hrag Vartanian, transforms an austere museum corner into a sanctuary of joy, discovery, and serenity. This installation, which will be on display for two years, ranks among our top 15 must-see outdoor art exhibits across the five boroughs.

If you’d rather enjoy the comfort of indoor air conditioning than deal with unpredictable weather, I recommend visiting the Brooklyn Museum. There, you can experience a grand exhibition dedicated to Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen. Known for her innovative, gravity-defying 3D-printed designs inspired by nature, van Herpen is a prominent figure in celebrity and haute couture. Our contributor, Livia Caligor, had the opportunity to both converse and work with the designer at the exhibition’s makeshift atelier.

Amid the hustle and bustle of life, I often overlook how fortunate I am to reside in a city brimming with culture and inspiration. A trip to My Camera Is My Sketchbook at the Schoelkopf Gallery might be just what I need. Richard Estes’s visual meditations on New York City serve as a reminder that beauty is everywhere, waiting to be appreciated and captured. 

Features

From Our Critics

Julia Curl

Walter Benjamin and the Edges of Photography at the Jewish Museum

“Photographs that aestheticize things while erasing their meaning are dangerous, [Benjamin] argued …. Practitioners can bathe the chimneys of a steel factory in the same soft light as the trees of a forest, but unlike the paintbrush, the camera creates an undeniable impression of reality. Beyond that, not only can photography glaze everything into something beautiful, but people (myself included) will happily eat it up.”

Read the full review

Gladys Lou

Ellen Pau: She Moves at SculptureCenter

“Water reappears in various forms …. Its changing states, from melting ice to evaporating mist, become a metaphor for Hong Kong herself — ‘always on the verge of disappearing,’ as late cultural theorist Ackbar Abbas puts it — leaving little time for reflection before new changes arrive.”

Read the full review

What Else Is Happening?

• The IFC Center is showing Wild Inside, a documentary about Flaco the owl! After the screening today, stay for a talk with Jacqueline Emery and David Lei, wildlife photographers and coauthors of Finding Flaco: Our Year with New York City’s Beloved Owl. (Tues Aug 4) [ifccenter.com]
• Enjoy an evening of artisans, vendors, live music, dance, and dialogue at the Bronx Music Heritage Center, welcoming artists from the Andean diaspora, including Amado Espinoza. (Wed Aug 5) [Bronx Music Hall]
• The Bronx Museum is teaming up with Wave Hill for a night of music, art, and community in celebration of David Antonio Cruz’s exhibition. (Fri Aug 7) [bronxmuseum.org]
• Bring your junk journal with you to the library for an evening of community crafting! (Fri Aug 7) [nypl.org]
• The Whitney’s Free Friday Nights continues this week with live music by Flore Laurentienne. (Fri Aug 7) [whitney.org]
• Join Dancers for Palestine for a screening and discussion of short films exploring dance in Palestine and its diaspora. (Sat Aug 8) [interferencearchive.org]
• 8Ball Community is hosting a zine fair at the La Plaza Cultural Community Garden. (Sat Aug 8) [8Ball Community]
• Join Brooklyn Public Library for “Ancestors, Archives, and Art Making,” a three-part workshop series in which participants will learn technical skills for preserving their family stories and ancestral-inspired artmaking. (Sat Aug 8) [bklynlibrary.org]
• The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’s new photo exhibition explores the surprising animal muses behind some of the world’s greatest performers. Through Feb 2027) [nypl.org]