Ben Sutton

Better late than never, I finally narrowed down my favorite exhibitions I saw in 2025 to ten: 1️⃣ “Jack Whitten: The Messenger” at @themuseumofmodernart ; pictured: “Flying High for Betty Carter” (1998). 2️⃣ “Monstrous Beauty: A Feminist Revision of Chinoiserie” at @metmuseum ; pictured: “Vase with women enjoying scholarly pursuits,” Chinese, late 17th–18th century. 3️⃣ “Huguette Caland: A Life in a Few Lines” at @museoreinasofia ; pictured: “Self Portrait in Smock” (1992). 4️⃣ “Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective” at MoMA; pictured: “Untitled (AB.029, Continuous Form Within a Form)” (1956) and “Untitled (S.273, Hanging Nine-Lobed, Single-Layered Continuous Form)” (circa 1959). 5️⃣ “Wifredo Lam: When I Don’tSleep, I Dream” at MoMA; pictured: “Bélial, empereur des mouches” (1948). 6️⃣ “June Leaf: Shooting from the Heart” at @nyugrey ; pictured: “Woman Theater” (1968). 7️⃣ “Ordinary People: Photorealism and the Work of Art Since 1968” at @moca ; pictured: Vincent Valdez, “‘Look What You Created’ (Nineteen Ninety-Two)” (2024). 8️⃣ “Coco Fusco: Tomorrow, I Will Become an Island” at @elmuseo ; pictured: costume created by Pepón Osorio for the performance “La Charla Realty Company” (1991). 9️⃣ “Diana Dowek: Uprising in the Mirror” at @islaa_nyc ; pictured: “Autorretrato” (1982). 🔟 “Carnival” at @jeffreydeitchgallery ; pictured: Whitney Ward and Mr. Gorgeous, “Orca Costume for Coney Island Mermaid Parade” (2023). Honorable mentions in no particular order: “Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers” at MoMA, “Frida Kahlo’s Month in Paris: A Friendship with Mary Reynolds” at @artinstitutechi , “Draw Them In, Paint Them Out: Trenton Doyle Hancock Confronts Philip Guston” and “Ben Shahn, On Nonconformity” at @thejewishmuseum , “Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–1350” at the Met, “In the Medium of Life: The Drawings of Beauford Delaney” at @drawingcenter , “Alice Coltrane, Monument Eternal” at @hammer_museum , “Alfonso Ossorio & Nandor Fodor: The Search for the Beloved” at @michaelrosenfeldgallery , “Laura Owens” at @matthewmarksgallery , and “Krzysztof Strzelecki: Rendezvous” at @anatebgigallery .

My ten favorite shows of 2024, from New York City and Buffalo to Los Angeles and Seattle, including historic and thematic surveys as well as riveting solo surveys and retrospectives: 1️⃣ “Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism” at @metmuseum . Pictured: Laura Wheeler Waring, “Girl with Pomegranate” (circa 1940). 2️⃣ “Marisol: A Retrospective” at @buffaloakgartmuseum . Pictured: “Baby Girl” (1962) and “Baby Boy” (1962-63). 3️⃣ Pacita Abad at @momaps1 . Pictured: “If My Friends Could See Me Now” (1991). 4️⃣ “Paul Pfeiffer: Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom” at @moca . Pictured: “Vitruvian Figure” (2008). 5️⃣ “Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary and All That It Implies” at @brooklynmuseum . Pictured: “Political Prisoner” (1971). 6️⃣ “Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory” at @elmuseo . Pictured: “Queen of the Waters, Mother of the Land of the Dead: Homenaje a Tonantzin/Guadalupe” (1992). 7️⃣ “Latoya Ruby Frazier: Monuments of Solidarity” at @themuseumofmodernart . Pictured: “Zion, Her Mother Shea, and Her Grandfather Mr. Smiley Riding on Their Tennessee Walking Horses, Mares, P.T. (P.T.’s Miss One of a Kind), Dolly (Secretly), and Blue (Blue’s Royal Threat), Newtown, Mississippi” (2017-19). 8️⃣ “Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture” at @seattleartmuseum . Pictured: Patti Warashina, “Tiger Lilly” (1976). 9️⃣ “Weaving Abstraction in Ancient and Modern Art” at the Met. Pictured: a miniature feather dress by Ica artists from the 12th-13th century in what is now Peru. 🔟 “Threads to the South” at @islaanyc . Pictured: Gracia Cutuli, “Pájaro de fuego” (Firebird, 1977). Honorable mentions include (but are not limited to): MoMA’s fantastic Joan Jonas and Käthe Kollwitz shows, Melissa Cody at MoMA PS1, Stephanie Syjuco at the Frye Art Museum, Thomas Hirschhorn at Gladstone Gallery, Kay WalkingStick and the Hudson River School at New York Historical, the two-part Karl Wirsum show at Derek Eller and Matthew Marks galleries, Beau Dick at Andrew Kreps, and Paul Cadmus at DC Moore.

Better late than never: my top 10 shows of 2023, spanning museums and outdoor spaces from Brooklyn and Baltimore to Saint Louis and Los Angeles. 1️⃣ “Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories” at the @skirball_la (pictured: Tomie Nagano, “Indigo Colour Mixture,” 2004); 2️⃣ “Making Her Mark: A History of Women Artists in Europe, 1400-1800” at the @baltimoremuseumofart (pictured: Judith Leyster, “Self-Portrait,” circa 1630); 3️⃣ “Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map” at the @whitneymuseum (pictured: “McFlag,” 1996); 4️⃣ “Philip Guston Now” the @ngadc (pictured: “Talking,” 1979); 5️⃣ “Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces” at @themuseumofmodernart (pictured: Susan Fitzsimmons, “Hang Ups: Hair,” 1979); 6️⃣ The @counterpublic triennial in St. Louis (pictured: Matthew Angelo Harrison, “Bodily Study: The Reach” at the George B. Vashon Museum of African American History); 7️⃣ “Komar and Melamid: A Lesson in History” at the @zimmerliartmuseum (pictured: print from the “Wake Up America Series,” 1980), 8️⃣ “Bispo do Rosario: All Existing Materials on Earth” at @artamericassociety (pictured: “Untitled [Grande Veleiro (Big sailboat)],” undated); 9️⃣ “The Roof Garden Commission: Lauren Halsey” at the @metmuseum ; 🔟 “Nicholas Galanin: In every language there is Land / En cada lengua hay una Tierra” by the @publicartfund . Honorable mentions: Juan Francisco Elso at El Museo del Barrio; Wangechi Mutu at the New Museum; “Funk You Too!” at the Museum of Arts & Design; Pepón Osorio at the New Museum; Meret Oppenheim at MoMA; “Action/Abstraction Redefined: Modern Native Art, 1940s–1970s” at the St Louis Museum of Art; “Lives of the Gods: Divinity in Maya Art” at the Met; Catherine Telford Keogh at Helena Anrather; “Women Reframe American Landscape” at Thomas Cole Historic Site; Candice Lin at Canal Projects; “Manet & Degas” at the Met; and “African Modernism in America, 1947-67” at the Phillips Collection.

Some favorites from Korea Art Week, with infinite thanks to @gokams_org . 1️⃣ @sungsilryu ’s “Big King Airlines New Engine Fundraiser Drive” at @cylinder_________ 2️⃣ from @yanghaegue ’s “Latent Dwelling” in the @kukjegallery Hanok 3️⃣ detail of @osler_food ’s studio (her fantastic hand-drawn animations are sadly difficult to capture for IG) 4️⃣ @artistjinju at @arariomuseum 5️⃣ @torches4dayz_fi in “Mind Map,” organized by @koartsharing 6️⃣ detail of @grimpark ’s “Shimhodo_Seraphic Shrine” (2022), made with traditional Buddhist painting techniques, at @songeun_official 7️⃣ members of the collective @ikkibawikrrr offer @friezeofficial guests gelatin made with Jeju island seawater 8️⃣ one of @mentears ’s totally bananas paintings in @cylinder_________ ’s @friezeofficial booth 9️⃣ @dew_needs_you ’s “Shackles” (2023) in the @vsf booth at @friezeofficial 🔟 Nam June Paul’s “TV Buddha” (2005) in the @gagosian booth at @friezeofficial

Amazing exhibition by @heidiwtlau in the catacombs of @historicgreenwood , “Gardens as Cosmic Terrains.” The 🕷 have made some inspired additions to the ceramics. 🕸 Just one more day to catch it! 🏃

🚨 It’s the final weekend of the incredible Faith Ringgold retrospective at the @newmuseum — don’t miss it! This is “Slave Rape #3: Fight to Save Your Life” (1972), from the @glenstonemuseum collection, a self-portrait of a nude, pregnant Ringgold holding an axe. She made it in collaboration with her mother, fashion designer and dressmaker Willi Posey. Other works in the series, also done in the distinctive tanka format, represent the artist’s daughters.

Sharing my top 10 shows of 2021 a couple of days late because it was so hard to get from my shortlist of 35 shows to the final 10, and then to put them in order. So much great art in 2021; here’s to more in 2022! 10: “New Red Order: Feel at Home Here” at @artistsspace . 9: “Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell” at @leslielohmanmuseum . Pictured: “Will Work for Axcess” (1993). 8: “From Combat to Carpet: The Art of Afghan War Rugs” at the @internationalfolkartmoifa . Pictured: Rug with map of Afghanistan and Uncle Sam hat, from Afghanistan or Pakistan refugee camp, after 2001. 7: “Howardena Pindell: Rope/Fire/Water” at @theshedny . Pictured: “Nautilus #1” (2014–15). 6: “Lynn Hershman Leeson: Twisted” at the @newmuseum . Pictured: “Deep Contact” (1984–89). 5: “Estamos Bien: La Trienal 20/21” at @elmuseo . Pictured: Eddie R. Aparicio, “El Ruido Del Bosque Sin Hojas / The Sound of the Forest Without Leaves” (2020). 4: “Lorraine O’Grady: Both/And” at the @brooklynmuseum . Pictured: “Family Portrait 1 (Formal, Composed)” (2020). 3: “Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration” at @momaps1 . Pictured: Works by Daniel McCarthy Clifford. 2: “By Her Hand: Artemisia Gentileschi and Women Artists in Italy, 1500–1800” at @thewadsworth . Pictured: Artemisia Gentileschi, “Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes” (circa 1623–25). 1: “Alice Neel: People Come First” at the @metmuseum . Pictured: “Robert Smithson” (1962).

A closeup and full view of “Four Little Girls” (2020), one of the startlingly powerful new works in Howardena Pindell’s fantastic solo show at @theshedny .

My 10 favorite exhibitions I saw in 2020. There were so many months without any exhibitions this year, and still it was very difficult to narrow this down to 10 and so many great shows were left on my long list; also very strange to look back at photos of crowded museums in February. Here goes: 10: @edenbseifu , “The Seasons to be Spirited Away is Forever” at @deligallery . 9: @fordjourstudio , “Self Must Die” at @petzelgallery . 8: @categiordano , “REX” at @postmastersgallery . 7: Emma Amos, “Falling Figures” at @ryanleegallery . 6: “Agnes Pelton: Desert Transcendentalist” at the @whitneymuseum . 5: Benny Andrews, “Portraits, a Real Person Before the Eyes” at @michaelrosenfeldgallery . 4: “Agnes Denes: Absolutes and Intermediates” at @theshedny . 3: “Baptized By Beefcake: The Golden Age of Hand-Painted Movie Posters from Ghana” at @posterhousenyc (pictured: @dajasperart , “Aliens,” circa 1990). 2: “Luchita Hurtado: I Live I Die I Will Be Reborn” at @lacma . 1: “Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 1991–2011” at @momaps1 (pictured: Hiwa K, “The Bell Project,” 2007–2015).

On Friday, after eight years and much waffling, @jilnotjill and I finally got married, with lots of help from friends and family, in Prospect Park. It was a day of joy, communion, and slight terror when, after dark, area raccoons decided they wanted their turf back. (📸 by @samanthavacca , @joooliemiller , and @iamangelacruz ) 💍🦝

So saddened by the death of Luchita Hurtado, the incredible painter of transcendent, surrealist imagery and feminist and environmentalist themes. I’m so glad I got to see her fantastic retrospective at @lacma back in the pre-COVID-19 times. This is her 1977 painting “The Umbilical Cord of the Earth is the Moon,” which seems to echo Hurtado’s comments in interviews about death being the beginning of another stage or level of existence.

Two months ago today at @lacma , I got to see solo shows of Julie Mehretu, Luchita Hurtado, and Betye Saar. It feels like aeons ago, but those shows have stuck with me. This is Saar’s “The Divine Face” (1971).