As the overindulgence of the holidays come to an end, the concept of a fresh new start kicks in.
Similar to a video game, some choose to stay playing the same old game, while others take the initiative to reset and start a new one.
If your resolutions included learning more about art and culture, New York City offers the best art galleries and exhibitions.
Naturally, with NYC’s prominent and thriving art scene, you’ll want to stay up-to-date and catch all the amazing shows.
The year 2015 was an incredible one for art, so don’t miss out in 2016. Stay warm and channel your inner love for art and culture with these 10 must-see winter art exhibits in NYC!
1. “The Immersion Room”
Innovative and experimental, “The Immersion Room” at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum offers a unique experience for designers and art enthusiasts. This interactive installation situated in the second floor provides the opportunity to discover Cooper Hewitt’s remarkable collection of wallcoverings.
Using a special pen, visitors can browse and explore through the museum’s permanent wallpaper library. When you select a design, you can see it come to life, as they digitally project on the walls from floor to ceiling.
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Each time you pick a wallcovering, you’ll be able to learn information about the particular design or designer. To enhance the experience, you will even have the chance to see your own vibrant designs unfold across the room as you create and save your own wallpaper art using the special pen.
2. “Endless House: Intersections of Art and Architecture” (through March)
If you are into architecture, you are going to want to immerse yourself in the “Intersection of Art and Architecture.” Look through drawings, photographs, video, installations, and architectural models.
This rad exhibition at the MoMA, located in the third floor, highlights and celebrates the history of art and architectural design. Learn how architects have taken a radical approach across time and generations to expand in new ways.
Work by architects and artists spanning more than seven decades can be found at the “Intersections of Art and Architecture.” The digital 3D pop-up printed installation of the “Endless House” from German artist Annett Zinsmeister is one of the many that you will find alongside other talented and creative individuals.
3. “Frank Stella: A Retrospective” - (through February)
American painter Frank Stella is adept in minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. His art has been the subject of several retrospectives in the United States, Europe, and Japan.
Currently, “A Retrospective” at the Whitney Museum focuses on a comprehensive presentation of Stella’s career to date. Showcasing nearly 100 works of arts from the mid-1950s to the present, the showing includes detailed paintings, reliefs, maquettes, sculptures, and drawings.
Enjoy some of Stella’s best-known works alongside other rare pieces. “A Retrospective” fills the Whitney's entire fifth floor, the largest space for temporary exhibitions.
4. “Yoko Ono: The Riverbed” (December 11th - January 29th)
Conceptual artist Yoko One’s “The Riverbed” at the Galerie Lelong is a beautiful exhibit that sheds light on a spiritual journey. The general theme and reinforcement of healing is carry throughout the entire show.
“The Riverbed” features fragments of broken cups placed on a table meant for viewers to mend with tape, string, glue or other materials. Emblematically, this represents how we are all broken pieces, but with time we can heal and be freed from all desolation.
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Similarly, visitors, are also meant to pick up and meditate on one of the river stones, inscribed with a word such as remember, dream and wish. As you hold the stone, you have to concentrate on the word and let go of your anger or sadness.
5. “Walkers: Hollywood Afterlives in Art and Artifact” (through April)
raescott Date night isn't completely without a prop skull from #ApocalypseNow @movingimagenyc #HollywoodAfterlives
Are you a film buff? Then you’re in for a treat! View how contemporary artists re-imagine classic Hollywood films by the use of painting, photography, sculpture and video at the Museum of The Moving Image.
This exhibition includes 120 works by 40 artists. Explore the Scarface pop-up museum from Artist Mario Ybarra Jr., costume designs for Rosemary’s Baby, a Regan doll from The Exorcist, or a skull set prop for Apocalypse Now, alongside numerous pieces.
With an inclination towards the "walkers,” or zombies, from the TV series The Walking Dead, the exhibition’s title alludes to the lingering power of film on the imagination of the living.
,6. “The Titanosaur” (January 15th - January 19th, 2020)
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Dinosaur lovers, hang on tight! “The Titanosaur,” a cast of a 122-foot-long dinosaur will be added this Friday to the world-famous fossil halls at the Museum of Natural History.
The remains of the creature were found in 2012, in the Patagonian desert region of Argentina. The 170 tons dinosaur is one of the largest ever discovered, and now it will be the largest display in the Museum until the year 2020.
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"We have the blue whale and the Tyrannosaurus rex and the Star of India, and this will join that pantheon of things everyone wants to see when they come to the museum," says Mark Norell, chairman of paleontology.
7. “Suspended Forest” (January 9th - January 31st)
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Christmas is not over yet, well at least not in Queens! Discarded Christmas trees get a second life at the Knockdown Center in Maspeth.
Artist Michael Neff creates a forest-filled magical room of Christmas trees hanging from a ceiling. Each of the trees were collected from the streets of Brooklyn. Enjoy spinning them around while you experience the subtle pine-tree fragrance.
"Suspended Forest" started as an illicit project back in 2012, in an unauthorized and unused space under the BQE. The installation was removed within days by the city, but this time around visitors can enjoy it until the end of this month.
8. “Scenes for a New Heritage Exhibit: Long March Restart” (through April)
Primarily known for working with new media, contemporary Chinese artist Feng MengBo brings history and video game culture to a new level with his “Long March Restart” exhibit at the MoMA.
The large scale interactive video game installation depicts the massive military retreat of the Chinese Communist Party’s Red Army, under the command of Mao Zedong and others, that began in 1934, as they fought the ruling Nationalists.
The video game, which is similar to Super Mario Brothers, has a character with a Red Army soldier sweeping his way across China, wiping out deities, ghosts, and demons. The visitor or gamer can play the game in an enormous screen, approximately 80 by 20 feet.
9. “The Lowline Lab” (140 Essex Street - through March)
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If you thought the Highline was cool, wait until you experience the Lowline! “The Lowline Lab” is an exhibit with the purpose of showcasing an experimental version of how the world’s first solar-powered underground park will look like.
Built inside an abandoned market on the Lower East Side, the showing displays the technology needed to sustain the proposed Lowline. Surround yourself with over 3,000 plants, as you learn how the laboratory plans to sustain and grow plants underground.
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The showing will be a live open experiment, free for the public to visit every weekend, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., until March. Currently, they are still getting funds and approvals, but by the year 2020 it is expected that we will get to enjoy the Lowline.
10. “Mira Dancy - Greater New York: Call From Violet” - (through March)
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The “Greater New York” exhibition at the MoMA PS1 presents the work from emerging artists in the NY metropolitan area concentrating on the political and social issues of NYC.
Artist Mira Dancy’s piece, “Call From Violet” displays a neon sign with abstract lines exuding the figure of a woman. This powerful piece which is showcased in a room by itself, symbolically represents that the woman is nude for herself and no one else.
There’s no competition or beauty standards instilled for "Violet," the focus is on her only, and metaphorically, this woman radiates because she is comfortable and confident.
Essentially, a “Call From Violet” speaks volumes on our culture and society, and on the many ways people judge and shame women for expressing themselves.
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[Feature Image Courtesy Instagram]