The Best Art Exhibits to See in New York City This Summer

On view through September 14

Scandinavia House

If you’re in the mood for some domestic travel pegged to diasporic craft traditions, but don’t have the time for an actual journey out of the city, consider Nordic Echoes—Tradition in Contemporary Art. This traveling exhibition showcases contemporary Nordic folk arts and cultural traditions as they’ve developed in the Upper Midwest (North and South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan). A total of 55 works by 24 artists look at a variety of traditions, from painting and textiles to wood and metalwork. Accompanying artist talks will run all summer.

On view through August 2

A showstopping renovation of The Frick means you can enjoy art in spaces like this one, within a Gilded Age mansion.

Joseph Coscia Jr./Frick Collection

The Frick Collection

Not technically an “exhibition” so much as a full-blown museum, The Frick Collection makes this list because, for now, its entire collection—and the building its housed in—has become novel. After reopening in its original location, a Gilded Age mansion once inhabited by its namesake family, The Frick has become a must-visit not only for its European paintings but also because of the beautiful restoration and expansion work done on the property. There are exhibits here, to be sure: currently, Highlights of Drawings From the Frick Collection and Porcelain Garden: Vladimir Kanevsky at the Frick Collection.

Both on view through August 31, 2025

Neue Galerie

Next up at the Neue? German Masterworks from the Neue Galerie, which will pull from the museum’s vast stores of German art from the period 1890 to 1940. As Austria enjoyed the Expressionist movement, Germany during this time saw major developments in color and form from the Brücke (Bridge) and Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider) groups. Expect unexpected colors from Vasily Kandinsky, August Macke, and more.

On view from June 26, 2025 through May 4, 2026

Rashid Johnson, Untitled Escape Collage, 2018 (detail). Ceramic tile, mirror tile, branded red oak flooring, vinyl, spray enamel, oil stick, black soap, wax, 97 × 121 × 2.25 in. (246.38 × 307.34 × 5.72 cm). Collection of Kathy and Mitchell Jacobson © Rashid Johnson, 2025. Photo: Martin Parsekian

Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers/Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

A portrait of Rashid Johnson, 2025. New York. Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers/Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Guggenheim

Filling this wondrous museum’s rotunda through January of next year are 90 works by Rashid Johnson. A Poem for Deep Thinkers brings the contemporary artist’s black-soap paintings, large-scale sculptures, film installations, and more to the Upper East Side, continuing the museum’s 2025 trend toward vibrant and colorfully optimistic artwork. It’s more than welcome.

On view through January 18, 2026

The Jewish Museum

Rembrandt van Rijn was inspired heavily during his time by the biblical Book of Esther, and The Book of Esther in the Age of Rembrandt explores that point of interest for the artist. Immigrant Jewish communities lived in relative freedom in 17th century Amsterdam, where Rembrandt lived and worked, and the celebration of heroic Esther during Purim led to her becoming a symbol of Dutch national identity. Pieces by Rembrandt show here alongside those of his contemporaries, as well as Jewish ceremonial art related to Purim from the period. Opening May 23 is Ben Shahn, On Nonconformity, a retrospective on the titular social-realist artist and activist’s work in paintings, mural, printmaking, and photography. The title comes from Shahn’s conviction that nonconformity is “an indispensable precondition for both significant artistic production and all great societal change. This philosophy is centered in the exhibition as the foundational thread that runs through the artist’s oeuvre.” An exhibit for the times, to be sure.