On the occasion of her 2016 retrospective at the New Museum, Nicole Eisenman grabbed me by the shoulders and pleaded, “Get me out of here!” One didn’t look at art in the old, claustrophobic version of the building; one endured it. Now, the snazzy stacked boxes on Bowery have added 10,000 new square feet of gallery space. The art world had been holding its breath, and after the reveal it could finally exhale.
Yes, the museum is filled with angles and sharp corners. More than a few people feared for the safety of their fingers as they negotiated the jagged staircase banisters. The slippery floors had others walking gingerly. But it flows. The artistic director, Massimiliano Gioni, has for years staged sprawling, mind-bending exhibitions inside a vault that choked them. His inaugural outing in the revamped space, “New Humans: Memories of the Future,” on view through the summer, is a full release: 700-plus objects spanning art, artifacts, images, and visual culture by more than 200 artists, everything bleeding into everything else. “Massimiliano can really spread his wings now,” said Tschabalala Self, whose outdoor sculpture of a smooching couple references the nearby architectural “kiss point” where the old and new buildings merge. (Francesco Clemente, Joan Jonas, Precious Okoyomon, and WangShui were among the artists who attended one of several opening parties.)
The inaugural show is packed to the rafters and overhung, but that’s the point: It’s supposed to be too much. You couldn’t finish it in a single walk-through. You’re meant to wander, to loop, to get lost, to come back. You survive it — and maybe it changes you a little. Lisa Phillips, the outgoing director of the museum, called the reconfigured building “a spaceship.” It seems to me more like an ark, something built to carry art through an uncertain future.
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If you prefer to read in print, you can also find this article in the March 23, 2026, issue of
New York Magazine.
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If you prefer to read in print, you can also find this article in the March 23, 2026, issue of
New York Magazine.