The exhibition features ten new paintings from Kehinde Wiley’s multinational “World Stage” series, a global extension of his signature examinations of power and portraiture.

For this ongoing series, Wiley relocates to other countries and opens satellite studios to become familiar with local culture and history and include them in his practice. The paintings in The World Stage: Africa, Lagos ~ Dakar were created during Wiley’s extended visits to Nigeria and Senegal in 2007, where he found new subjects, inspirations and insights.

Wiley’s well-known, stylized paintings of urban African-American male youths started during his residency at the Studio Museum. He placed his subjects in poses borrowed from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European figurative paintings to investigate the ways that portraiture has been used historically to create and enforce power and privilege.

For the “World Stage” series Wiley continues to paint young black men, but uses poses based on regional sources. Paintings from the first “World Stage” site, China, featured poses from Communist propaganda art, and were shown in an exhibition at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Wisconsin last year. For The World Stage: Africa, Lagos ~ Dakar Wiley turns to public monuments built to celebrate independence and the end of colonialism. Future sites for the series include Brazil and Turkey.

The exhibition is accompanied by a full-color hardcover catalogue, the second in a series of catalogues about the “World Stage” series. The catalogue includes essays by scholars Robert Hobbs, Tavia Nyong’o and Krista Thompson, as well as a conversation between curator Christine Y. Kim, Wiley and artist/writer/performer Malik Gaines.

Kehinde Wiley (b. 1977, Los Angeles) received a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1999 and an MFA from the Yale School of Art in 2001. His work is represented in the collections of several museums, including the the Walker Art Center, Brooklyn Museum, Denver Art Museum and Virginia Museum of Fine Art. Recently, his work was featured in exhibitions in Belgium, Los Angeles, Chicago and Ohio.

Ancient Futures is an exploration into the mental make-up of the U.S. social system: the beauty, ugliness, abstraction, music, and color. The group show acts as both a revival of the 1990s monthly Avant Yard underground art experience in Tribeca, New York  during the early 1990s, as well as an update on emerging artists coming onto the scene.

Featured Artists: Terry Boddie, Fikisha C, Jennifer Crute, Francks Deceus, Joshua Humphries, Dirk Joseph, Laura James, Kip Omolade, William Rhodes, Danny Simmons, Jamel Shabazz, and Malik Yusef Cumbo, the Essential M.C., Game Rebellion, the Welfare Poets, Yolanda Zama, Nucomme, Survival Soundz featuring Carla Csharp Gomez, Lovespace Music, Defrei of Ahficianados, the Majestic Twinsound and Ahficial Music.

On the heels of Iron Man the movie starring Robert Downey Jr., this exhibition features approximately 60 ensembles including movie costumes, avant-garde haute couture, and high-performance sportswear to reveal how the superhero such as Iron Man serves as the ultimate metaphor for fashion and its ability to empower and transform the human body.

Designers in the exhibition include Atair, Giorgio Armani, Balenciaga, Pierre Cardin, Dolce & Gabbana, Jean Paul Gaultier, Eiko Ishioka, Alexander McQueen, Julien Macdonald, Moschino, Thierry Mugler, Nike, Rick Owens, Gareth Pugh, Speedo, Spyder, As Four, Walter van Beirendonck, Versace, and Bernhard Willhelm.

Objects are organized thematically around specific superheroes, whose movie costumes and superpowers are catalysts for discussion of key concepts of superheroism and their expression in fashion. Superman and Spider-Man costumes address the subject of The Graphic Body, relating Superman's 'S' chevron to designer logos and branding.

The Flash – a character who possesses superhuman speed - addresses the Aerodynamic Body as manifest in high-tech sportswear including Speedo's "Fastskin LZR Racer" designed by Rei Kawakubo for Michael Phelps and the 2008 United States Olympic swim team, Nike's "Swift Suit" for running, and Descente's "Muscle Suit" for speed skating. Batman and Iron Man represent The Armored Body, and examine avant-garde fashion that merges flesh and metal, skin and chromium. The Mutant Body, denoted by the X-Men, highlights clothing that morphs men into beasts. Ghost Rider (the biker-demon with flaming skull) and The Punisher (the vigilante who sports a giant death-skull emblem on his T-shirt) symbolize The Postmodern Body that suggests an anti-hero identity through the eclectic mixing of street styles.

In Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976, over fifty key works by 32 artists – among them Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Mark Rothko – are viewed from the perspectives of influential, rival art critics Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg, the artists, and popular culture.

Context rooms in the exhibition feature documents – including personal correspondence, magazines and newspapers, film and television clips, and photographs – that shed light on the cultural and social climate of the 1940s to the 1970s. The works in the exhibition, arranged in thematic sections, are grouped to evoke the rivalry of Rosenberg (he promoted action – his idea of the creative, physical act of making art) and Greenberg’s (belief in abstraction and the formal purity of the art object).

The American painter Philip Guston (1913–1980) was a prolific draftsman who often turned to drawing to explore new directions in his art before applying them to painting.

Organized by the KunstMuseum Bonn, and the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung Munich, in cooperation with the artist’s estate, Philip Guston: Works on Paper examines the importance of drawing throughout key periods of Guston’s career, from the mid-1940s to 1980.

The Morgan Library & Museum’s presentation of the exhibition features more than one-hundred drawings, including many rarely seen works that were left in the artist’s studio after his death as well as major loans from museums and private collections.

From the Land of the Labyrinth: Minoan Crete, 3000–1100 B.C. presents more than 280 artifacts and works of art from the ancient land of Crete, most of which have never been shown outside Greece.

The show brings to light aspects of Minoan daily life during the second and third millennia B.C., including social structure, communications, bureaucratic organization, religion, and technology.

In eleven thematic sections, the exhibition maps chronologically the establishment and great achievements of Minoan culture. Here the viewer can explore the historical and cultural context of this celebrated society and gain insight into its mysteries, such as the legends surrounding the reign of King Minos of Knossos, who commissioned the fabled Labyrinth of Greek mythology.

A national hands-on exhibition for children ages 6 and older.

Budding archaeologists can visit the Temple of Zeus at Olympia and assist in the reconstruction of a 3-D temple, learn about column construction, sculptures, and the giant statue of Zeus (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World).

The tour guides are the great gods Zeus, Poseidon and Athena who reminisce about their powers and responsibilities. Visitors can also climb inside a 12½ foot tall Trojan Horse before stepping into Homer’s great epic poem, The Odyssey. Plus, visitors explore actual examples of ancient Greek artifacts: painted pottery, coins, votives, drinking cups, loom weights, arrowheads and sling bullets.

This retrospective of Duncan’s 20-year career features approximately 400 photographs and includes his iconic images of Mikhail Baryshnikov, Eartha Kitt, Angela Lansbury, Peter Martins, Bette Midler, the cast of Hair, as well as selections of his nudes, his fashion portfolios, and his work with hundreds of celebrities including shock rock legend Alice Cooper, Al Pacino, and Christopher Walken.

Kenn Duncan (1928-1986) was born in New Jersey and became a roller-skating champion at an early age. In order to perfect his form, he took ballet lessons and eventually abandoned skating for a dance career. The injury that put an end to his dancing career set him on a new course that eventually won him international acclaim as a portrait and fashion photographer. Duncan was a prominent force in the photography world of the late 1960s through the early 1980s, notably as a principal photographer for the entertainment magazine After Dark and for Dance Magazine, which chronicled the world of dance and choreography.Photographs by Kenn Duncan also appeared in Vogue,Harper’s Bazaar, Life, Time, and Newsweek. He was photographer for such performers as Peter Allen, Carol Channing, Judith Jamison, Eartha Kitt, Bernadette Peters, Christopher Plummer, Chita Rivera, Tommy Tune and Twiggy, and for leading dance companies such as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, the Bolshoi Ballet, and the Paul Taylor Dance Company. 

Duncan published three volumes of his own photographs: Red Shoes, Nudes, and More Nudes.

The ever-inventive Pilobolus in three programmes:

PROGRAM 1: Lanterna Magica is the new full-company work by Pilobolus Co-Artistic Director Michael Tracy. This work uses ritual and mythology to create a mysterious and isensual celebration of the supernatural.

Program 1: Lanterna Magica, Pseudopodia, Memento Mori, Ocellus, Megawatt

PROGRAM 2: Razor: Mirror Jonathan Wolken's new quintet explores the hidden space that almost separates the worlds of the sane and the irrational..

Program 2: Razor:Mirror, Pseudopodia, Gnomen, Persistence of Memory, Rushes

PROGRAM 3: Borderless Innovation Pilobolus' second annual International Collaborators Project brings shadow play to the stage through the talents of the company's Co-Artistic Directors Robby Barnett and Jonathan Wolken, joined by acclaimed puppeteer Basil Twist.

Program 3: B'zyrk, Symbiosis, Basil Twist collaboration, Day Two

The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Avenue (at the corner of 19th Street)
New York, NY 10011

This retrospective of Duncan’s 20-year career features approximately 400 photographs and includes his iconic images of Mikhail Baryshnikov, Eartha Kitt, Angela Lansbury, Peter Martins, Bette Midler, the cast of Hair, as well as selections of his nudes, his fashion portfolios, and his work with hundreds of celebrities including shock rock legend Alice Cooper, Al Pacino, and Christopher Walken.

Kenn Duncan (1928-1986) was born in New Jersey and became a roller-skating champion at an early age. In order to perfect his form, he took ballet lessons and eventually abandoned skating for a dance career. The injury that put an end to his dancing career set him on a new course that eventually won him international acclaim as a portrait and fashion photographer. Duncan was a prominent force in the photography world of the late 1960s through the early 1980s, notably as a principal photographer for the entertainment magazine After Dark and for Dance Magazine, which chronicled the world of dance and choreography.Photographs by Kenn Duncan also appeared in Vogue,Harper’s Bazaar, Life, Time, and Newsweek. He was photographer for such performers as Peter Allen, Carol Channing, Judith Jamison, Eartha Kitt, Bernadette Peters, Christopher Plummer, Chita Rivera, Tommy Tune and Twiggy, and for leading dance companies such as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, the Bolshoi Ballet, and the Paul Taylor Dance Company. 

Duncan published three volumes of his own photographs: Red Shoes, Nudes, and More Nudes.

Coinciding with the 2008 election and providing insight into New York’s often pivotal role in American electoral politics, Campaigning for President:  New York and the American Election covers presidential politics from the inauguration of George Washington on lower Manhattan’s Wall Street, to the current volatile and unpredictable campaign.

The show features selections from the nation's largest and most comprehensive collection of campaign artifacts alongside objects from the Museum’s collection, notably selections from a monumental, 1.25 million artifact collection amassed by Jordan Wright, a media entrepreneur and devotee of American politics who died on 11 May at his home in Atlantic Beach, New York at the age of 50. His collection reveals not only the key platforms of particular candidates, but also the subtle and not-so-subtle strategies employed by vote-seekers.  Wright's collection forms the basis of the Museum of Democracy and is richly portrayed in a book titled Campaigning for President (available in the Museum’s shop).  Highly expressive buttons, banners, posters, hats, dresses, and other campaign materials on view highlight the role of visual propaganda in the electoral process (especially from times when many voters were illiterate).  Collectively they reveal the underpinnings of today’s mass-media campaigns, demonstrating that U. S. politics has for centuries been characterized by sloganeering, promissory mantra-making, and abundant, often gleefully vicious mud-slinging, which prevails from the 19th century through today.

On view are examples of alternately inspiring, thought-provoking, scandalous, hilarious, and plain-old corny campaign huckstering, including (among many others):

 - a poster lampooning “King Andrew” that asks the question: shall Andrew Jackson “reign over us, or shall the people rule?”
a translation of Abraham Lincoln and Aesop’s Fables into the Santee Sioux language

 - mechanical “nose-thumbers” produced for James Garfield’s campaign
a one-of-a-kind porcelain and cloth doll depicting, when held upright, William McKinley, and when turned upside-down, an African-American baby, in vicious response to accusations that the candidate had fathered an illegitimate black child

 - a cloth rose lapel pin bearing the likeness of Theodore Roosevelt an anti-Republican Party door hanger in the shape of a teapot, referencing President Warren Harding and the infamous Teapot Dome scandal

 - a campaign button with Socialist candidate Eugene Debs identified as “convict no. 9653”

 - Al Smith pins in the shape of his signature derby hat
a “negative-campaigning” poster for Thomas Dewey associating vice-presidential candidate Harry Truman with the Ku Klux Klan

 - “I Like Ike” socks

 - a paper mini-dress promoting Robert Kennedy

 - Good Humor Ice Cream wrappers promoting Richard M. Nixon (and John F. Kennedy)

 - a yarmulke promoting Al Gore and a Time magazine cover picturing him as President-elect

The award-winning gay rap opera Bash'd, created and performed by Chris Craddock and Nathan Cuckow in the charachters of Feminem & T-Bag, the show features music by Aaron Macri and is directed by Ron Jenkins.

Bash'd chronicles the tale of Jack and Dillon; two star-crossed lovers who must cope with the reality of hatred when one is brutally beaten. Fuelled by the increase of gay bashings that happened during Premier Ralph Klein's refusal to legalize gay marriage in Alberta, Canada, one of the lovers decides to reverse the discrimination and go out and bash innocent heterosexuals. It is told entirely through rap, spoken word and poetry, turning the often-homophobic musical genre on its ear. Even though the topic is serious, the musical is high energy, irreverent, and provocative. Bash'd was a smash hit at the 2007 Toronto International Fringe Festival.

Catholics in New York 1808-1946 explores the social and political history of the diverse group of people who established the formidable Catholic presence in New York.
The exhibition is organized around three central themes:

- How Catholic community life revolved around New York's parishes, starting with the earliest, such as St. Peter's, old St. Patrick's, and St. Brigid's in Manhattan, and the distinctive subculture that arose in their heavily Catholic neighborhoods;

- The creation of a vast system of health, education, and social welfare institutions, including parochial schools, the New York Foundling Hospital, and healthcare centers such as St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan and St. Mary’s Hospital in Brooklyn, originally founded by Catholics to provide services that embraced their religion and that would be insulated from anti-Catholic prejudice; and

- The rise of Catholics as a force in New York politics, framed by such New York figures as William R. Grace (1832-1904), the Irish-born businessman who in 1880 was elected the first Catholic mayor of New York City; Alfred E. Smith (1873-1944), the governor from the Lower East Side who became the first Catholic to be nominated by a major political party for President of the United States, in 1928; Vito Marcantonio (1902-1954), the Congressman and American Labor Party leader from East Harlem; and many others.

Woven throughout all three sections is how this "community of immigrants" defended its Catholic identity in response to widespread anti-Catholicism.  The exhibition begins with a prologue that looks at anti-Catholicism in the colonial period; it concludes with the implementation of the G.I. Bill, which paved the way to higher education, low-cost home mortgages, and ultimately the migration to the suburbs for many of New York’s Catholics, and with an epilogue that presents the new face of Catholic New York since World War II.

Highlights of the exhibition include:

- over 100  family photographs showing the diverse people of pre-war Catholic New York, collected through a massive outreach to New Yorkers conducted by Museum of the City of New York curatorial staff; also included will be parochial school report cards and yearbooks from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, sports uniforms and trophies, parish publications, and audio interviews with New Yorkers recalling their experiences growing up Catholic;

- documents related to the life of Pierre Toussaint (1766-1853), a former slave who supported church organization and whose charitable works have earned him consideration for sainthood;

- an original Test Book from the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank, listing the name of Archbishop John Hughes (1797-1864) as one of the first depositors in 1850;

- a handwritten note from a Catholic mother who left her child with the New York Foundling Hospital in 1877.

Alfred Hitchcock meets Monty Python in this whodunit, part espionage thriller and part slapstick comedy, adapted for the stage from the famous film and novel. This production had its NYC premiere earlier this season by the Roundabout Theatre Company.

Cast: Arnie Burton, Charles Edwards, Jennifer Ferrin, Cliff Saunders

Adapted by Patrick Barlow
Maria Aitken, director
Sets: Peter McKintosh

The exhibition features approximately 60 ensembles including movie costumes, avant-garde haute couture, and high-performance sportswear to reveal how the superhero serves as the ultimate metaphor for fashion and its ability to empower and transform the human body.

Designers in the exhibition include Atair, Giorgio Armani, Balenciaga, Pierre Cardin, Dolce & Gabbana, Jean Paul Gaultier, Eiko Ishioka, Alexander McQueen, Julien Macdonald, Moschino, Thierry Mugler, Nike, Rick Owens, Gareth Pugh, Speedo, Spyder, As Four, Walter van Beirendonck, Versace, and Bernhard Willhelm.

Objects are organized thematically around specific superheroes, whose movie costumes and superpowers are catalysts for discussion of key concepts of superheroism and their expression in fashion. Superman and Spider-Man costumes address the subject of The Graphic Body, relating Superman's 'S' chevron to designer logos and branding.

The Flash – a character who possesses superhuman speed - addresses the Aerodynamic Body as manifest in high-tech sportswear including Speedo's "Fastskin LZR Racer" designed by Rei Kawakubo for Michael Phelps and the 2008 United States Olympic swim team, Nike's "Swift Suit" for running, and Descente's "Muscle Suit" for speed skating. Batman and Iron Man represent The Armored Body, and examine avant-garde fashion that merges flesh and metal, skin and chromium. The Mutant Body, denoted by the X-Men, highlights clothing that morphs men into beasts. Ghost Rider (the biker-demon with flaming skull) and The Punisher (the vigilante who sports a giant death-skull emblem on his T-shirt) symbolize The Postmodern Body that suggests an anti-hero identity through the eclectic mixing of street styles.

Now in its first Broadway revival, South Pacific features  Kelli O'Hara (The Light in the Piazza) and baritone Paulo Szot in the leading roles with direction by Bartlett Sher (The Light in the Piazza and Awake and Sing).

Music by Richard Rodgers
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Author, Tales of the South Pacific
James Michener

Cast:

Kelli O'Hara , Paulo Szot
Matthew Morrison , Danny Burstein , Loretta Ables Sayre , Sean Cullen , Victor Hawks , Luka Kain , Li Jun Li , Laurissa Romain , Skipp Sudduth , Noah Weisberg, Becca Ayers , Wendi Bergamini , Genson Blimline , Grady McLeod Bowman , Charlie Brady , Matt Caplan , Christian Carter , Helmar Augustus Cooper , Jeremy Davis , Margot De La Barre , Christian Delcroix , Laura Marie Duncan , Mike Evariste , Laura Griffith , Lisa Howard , Maryann Hu , Zachary James , Robert Lenzi , Garrett Long , Nick Mayo , George Merrick , William Michals , Kimber Monroe , Emily Morales , Darius Nichols , George Psomas , Andrew Samonsky , Jerold E. Solomon

In the Heights is a musical about three days in the life of Washington Heights, a vibrant and tightly knit, but diverse Latino community at the top of the island of Manhattan. It's a place where the coffee from the corner bodega is light and sweet, the windows are always open, and the breeze carries the rhythm of three generations of music. In the Heights is the tale of a community at a crossroads. Find out what it takes to make a living, what it costs to have a dream, and what it means to be home In the Heights.

With music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda and a book by Quiara Alegria Hudes, In the Heights is directed by Thomas Kail and choreographed by Andy Blankenbuehler. Alex Lacamoire is music director, and music arrangements and orchestrations are by Alex Lacamoire and Bill Sherman. Miranda and Kail are both members of the hip-hop improv troupe Freestyle Love Supreme and head a 22-member cast.

Andrea Burns, Janet Dacal, Robin De Jesus, Carlos Gomez, Mandy Gonzalez, Christopher Jackson, Priscilla Lopez, Olga Merediz, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Karen Olivo, Seth Stewart

Stew, a popular performer at Joe's Pub, was commissioned by The Public Theater of New York to develop this heartfelt and hilarious story of a young bohemian who charts a course for “the real” through sex, drugs and rock and roll. Loaded with soulful lyrics and overflowing with passion, the show takes us from black, middle-class America to Amsterdam, Berlin and beyond on a journey towards personal and artistic authenticity.

The score includes such Stew tunes as "Amsterdam," "Keys/It's Alright," "Love Like That," "Come Down Now," and "Arlington Hill."

Cast: Stew (Book, Lyrics, Co-Composer, Co-Orchestrator, Narrator), Daniel Breaker, de'Adre Aziza, Eisa Davis, Colman Domingo, Chad Goodridge, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Heidi Rodewald, Jon Spurney, Christian Cassan

Music: Stew & Heidi Rodewald
Annie Dorsen, director
Sets: David Korins
Karole Armitage, choreographer

Passing Strange has received 7 Tony Award Nomimations including Best Musical.

Fight Night Fights originated in the basement space of the Church Street Boxing Gym in lower Manhattan. The limited seating capacity and ever growing demand prompted Fight Night Fights to move to a larger venue, the basement of St. Paul the Apostle's Church behind Columbus Circle. This old school fight club has become popular with everybody from blue collar toughs to Wall Street investment bankers to New York style editors and hipsters.

The Friday Night Fights NYC Series features a variety of fighting styles. Muay Thai Boxing, Amateur Boxing and White Collar Boxing are just some of the types of fights that are featured at fight nights.

The new musical Spring Awakening arrives on Broadway following a sold-out run at the Atlantic Theater. The show features music by Grammy Award nominee Duncan Sheik, book and lyrics by Steven Sater, choreography by Bill T. Jones, and direction by Tony Award nominee Michael Mayer.

Based on Frank Wedekind's The Awakening of Spring, Spring Awakening is the contemporary musical adaptation of one of literature's most controversial plays.

It’s Germany, 1891.  A world where the grown-ups hold all the cards.  The beautiful young Wendla explores the mysteries of her body, and wonders aloud where babies come from, till Mama tells her to shut it, and put on a proper dress.

Elsewhere, the brilliant and fearless young Melchior interrupts a mind-numbing Latin drill to defend his buddy Moritz – a boy so traumatized by puberty he can’t concentrate on anything.  Not that the Headmaster cares.  He strikes them both and tells them to turn in their lesson.

One afternoon – in a private place in the woods – Melchior and Wendla meet by accident, and soon find within themselves a desire unlike anything they’ve ever felt.

Spring Awakening

As they fumble their way into one another’s arms, Moritz flounders and soon fails out of school.  When even his one adult friend, Melchior’s mother, ignores his plea for help, he is left so distraught he can’t hear the promise of life offered by his outcast friend Ilse.

Naturally, the Headmasters waste no time in pinning the “crime” of Moritz’s suicide on Melchior and expel him.  And soon Mama learns her little Wendla is pregnant.  Now the young lovers must struggle against all odds to build a world together for their child.

Michael Longoria 
Christian Hoff - Tony Award Winner
Sebastian Arcelus
J Robert Spencer

Book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice
Music and Lyrics by Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe
Directed by Des McAnuff
Choreography by Sergio Trujillo

Telling the legendary tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and the quest for the Holy Grail in song, Monty Python's Spamalot features "a chorus line of legless knights, men in tights (with legs), killer rabbits, flatulent Frenchmen and sexy dancing divas."

Directed by  Tony and Academy Award-winner Mike Nichols and with music by John Du Prez, Spamalot is an adaptation of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the 1975 film.  The new musical stars Tim Curry (The Rocky Horror Picture Show) as King Arthur, David Hyde Pierce (Frasier) as Sir Robin and Hank Azaria (The Simpsons) as Sir Lancelot.