8 Art Exhibits in NYC That Are Actually Worth the Line 

New York’s art scene is packed and always shifting, but not every exhibit is worth carving time out for. Some shows look good on paper but leave you wondering why you waited in line. This list, however, will not disappoint you.

If you’re going to stand in line, make sure it’s for one of these.

Monet and Venice at the Brooklyn Museum

For the first time since 1912, a whole group of 19 Monet paintings from his Venice series is on view again, thanks to the Brooklyn Museum. The show expands the world around the paintings with rare books from Monet’s time and an original musical score inspired by the watery light he tried to capture.

Renoir Drawings at The Morgan Library & Museum

The Morgan Library stepped outside the Impressionist spotlight to focus on Renoir’s lesser-known drawings. This is the first major U.S. exhibition of these works in over a century. It shows him working in pastel and watercolor. Up close, the softness of his figures hits differently.

Richard Serra: Anning Arcs at Gagosian

It’s rare for a single artwork to take over a gallery this size, but Serra’s Running Arcs (For John Cage) justifies the space. The steel forms weigh over 100 tons. Their quiet monumentality turns the gallery into a space for physical and mental pacing.

Man Ray: When Objects Dream at The Met

The Met tracked how one mistake—leaving lab glass on undeveloped paper—led Man Ray to invent rayographs. The exhibit comprises 160 pieces that trace this fluke into a comprehensive approach to photography. It’s a rare case where conceptual art is spontaneous and tactile, even inside one of New York’s most traditional institutions.

Jonathan Adler at the Museum of Arts and Design

The Museum of Arts and Design has assembled work from across Jonathan Adler’s thirty-year career. It features everything from his early ceramics, once sold in the museum’s own store, to the larger sculptural pieces for which he’s best known today. The exhibition also highlights older works from MAD’s collection that shaped Adler’s aesthetic.

Robert Rauschenberg at Two NYC Museums

The Guggenheim centered its show around Barge, a 32-foot painting filled with newspaper clippings, silkscreen transfers, and color blocks. Meanwhile, the Museum of the City of New York focused on his photography—black-and-white street shots that later fed into his paintings.

Kandy G. Lopez at ACA Galleries

Lopez created bold, large-scale portraits of Afro-Caribbean Americans using thread and fabric. She stitched texture into every subject’s hair, skin, and clothing. Each piece speaks to individuality and survival.

Jewelry of the Afrofuture at the Museum of Arts and Design

Douriean Fletcher designed the jewelry for Black Panther and Wakanda Forever, and MAD pulled 75 of her pieces—plus Ruth E. Carter’s costumes—into one show. The brass, gold, and semiprecious stones tell a story of Black identity, Afrofuturism, and design that doubles as armor.