12 Must-See Summer Photography Shows in New York

Get ready for Google glitches and Cuba's beaches.

Mátyás Misetics, Utopia no.2. Courtesy of Várfok Gallery.

ECHOES: City, Society, Conflict & Self in Hungarian Photography” at Alma Gallery
The Hungarian Cultural Center looks to capitalize on the Guggenheim’s current exhibition of work by Hungarian great László Moholy-Nagy by putting on a show of photography by 32 of the country’s modern and contemporary artists. Moholy-Nagy’s geometric cityscapes are joined by works by famed war photographer Robert Capa as well as more recent images, such as Marcell Piti and Mátyás Misetics’s exploration of glitches in Google Earth imagery.

The Hungarian Cultural Center, Alma Gallery, 625 West 27th Street, June 24–July 30, 2016.

Anselm Kiefer, <em>Brünnhilde Sleeps/Brünhilde Schläft</em> (1980). Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Anselm Kiefer, Brünnhilde Sleeps/Brünhilde Schläft (1980). Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Dream Stages: Contemporary Photography and Video” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Associate curator Mia Fineman and curatorial assistant Beth Saunders have mined the Met collection for works inspired by the universal experience of dreams, selecting 30 photographs and one video by artists including Robert Frank, Sophie Calle, Fred Tomaselli, and Anselm Kiefer.

The Met Fifth Avenue, 1000 Fifth Avenue, May 16–October 30, 2016.

Andre de Dienes, <em>Marilyn Monroe, Tobay Beach, Long Island, NY, Summer 1949</em> (1965). Courtesy of Steven Kasher Gallery.

Andre de Dienes, Marilyn Monroe, Tobay Beach, Long Island, NY, Summer 1949 (1965). Courtesy of Steven Kasher Gallery.

Andre de Dienes: Marilyn and California Girls” at Steven Kasher Gallery
Andre de Dienes, the first professional photographer ever to shoot a young Norma Jean, who famously grew up to become Marilyn Monroe, gets his first New York solo show in 10 years. The intimate Monroe photos, shot between 1945 and 1953, will share the stage with de Dienes’s avant-garde nudes.

Steven Kasher Gallery, 515 West 26th Street, June 9–July 30, 2016. 

Platon, <em>Seaman Jeremiah Lineberry just after lowering the flag aboard the USS San Antonio, as he prepares for his first deployment. Norfolk, 2008</em>. Courtesy Milk Gallery.

Platon, Seaman Jeremiah Lineberry just after lowering the flag aboard the USS San Antonio, as he prepares for his first deployment. Norfolk, 2008. Courtesy Milk Gallery.

Platon: Service” at Milk Gallery 
British photographer Platon’s series “Service,” shot for the New Yorker, documents the difficult journeys of the men and women serving in the Iraq War, and that of their families. His high-contrast, black and white images convey a powerful message about the devastation of war.

Milk Gallery, 450 West 15th Street, June 22–July 24, 2016. 

Gordon Parks, Trainer Works on Muhammad Ali’s Shoulder, Miami, Florida (1966). Courtesy of and copyright the Gordon Parks Foundation.

Gordon Parks, Trainer Works on Muhammad Ali’s Shoulder, Miami, Florida (1966). Courtesy of and copyright the Gordon Parks Foundation.

American Champion” at the Gordon Parks Foundation 
The timing couldn’t be more fitting for this exhibition of Gordon Parks‘s photographs of boxing great Muhammad Ali, taken for LIFE magazine in 1966 and 1970. The show, which portrays Ali’s famous fighting spirit with undeniable grace, opened just days after the champion athlete died on June 3.

Gordon Parks Foundation, 48 Wheeler Avenue, Pleasantville, New York, June 6–September 24, 2016. 

Alfred Eisenstaedt, <em>Professional model Janet MacLeod wearing veiled hat designed by Lilly Dache</em> (1937). Courtesy of Spring Studios, © Time Inc.

Alfred Eisenstaedt, Professional model Janet MacLeod wearing veiled hat designed by Lilly Dache (1937). Courtesy of Spring Studios, © Time Inc.

LIFE Photo Exhibition at the Gallery@Spring
Spring Studios, which hosted this year’s edition of Independent fair, once again embraces art with an exhibition of iconic LIFE magazine photos of New York from the 1940s, ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s, blown up to enormous sizes—as large as 90 by 70 inches.

Gallery@Spring, 6 St. Johns Lane, June 16–August 30, 2016. Public viewing July 22–24 and 29–31.

Cindy Sherman, Untitled (1979) in the new International Center of Photography's inaugural exhibition "Public, Private, Secret." Courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures.

Cindy Sherman, Untitled (1979) in the new International Center of Photography’s inaugural exhibition “Public, Private, Secret.” Courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures.

Public, Private, Secret” at the International Center of Photography 
As photography becomes a more and more constant fixture in modern life, the boundaries between our public and private lives are constantly being blurred and redrawn. In the inaugural exhibition in its new Bowery home, the ICP explores this issue through historical and contemporary works.

International Center of Photography, 250 Bowery, June 23, 2016–January 8, 2017.

Nan Goldin, <em>Nan One Month After Being Battered</em> (1984). Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, © 2016 Nan Goldin

Nan Goldin, Nan One Month After Being Battered (1984). Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, © 2016 Nan Goldin.

Nan Goldin: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency” at the Museum of Modern Art,
Nan Goldin‘s deeply personal, 45-minute slideshow documents the lives of the artist and her friends during late 1970s and ’80s through almost 700 portraits.

Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53 Street, June 11, 2016–February 12, 2017.

Diane Arbus, <em>Taxicab driver at the wheel with two passengers, N.Y.C.</em> (1956). Courtesy of the Met Breuer, © The Estate of Diane Arbus, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Diane Arbus, Taxicab driver at the wheel with two passengers, N.Y.C. (1956). Courtesy of the Met Breuer, © The Estate of Diane Arbus, LLC. All Rights
Reserved.

Diane Arbus: In the Beginning” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Catch never-before-seen early work by iconic photographer Diane Arbus, dating from 1956 to 1962, at the Met Breuer. Over 100 images, most taken in her native New York, track Arbus’s development as a professional photographer.

The Met Breuer, 945 Madison Avenue, July 12–November 27, 2016. 

Danny Lyon, Tesca, Cartagena, Colombia (1966). Courtesy Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York, © Danny Lyon.

Danny Lyon, Tesca, Cartagena, Colombia (1966). Courtesy Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York, © Danny Lyon.

Danny Lyon: Message to the Future” at the Whitney Museum of American Art
Organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, this Danny Lyon retrospective explores the artist’s interest in social and political issues through 175 photographs and related materials.

Whitney Museum of American Art, 99 Gansevoort Street, June 17–September 25, 2016.

K<em>The Cost of Living, Barbara Mullen, New York</em>, shot for <em>Harper's Bazaar</em> (March 1950). Courtesy of Edwynn Houk Gallery.

KThe Cost of Living, Barbara Mullen, New York, shot for Harper’s Bazaar (March 1950). Courtesy of Edwynn Houk Gallery.

Lillian Bassman at Edwynn Houk Gallery
Lillian Bassman trained and worked under famed art director Alexey Brodovitch at Harper’s Bazaar, working as an art director with the likes of Richard Avedon and Robert Frank before picking up the camera and becoming a major fashion photographer in her own right.

Edwynn Houk Gallery, 745 Fifth Avenue, May 12–July 15, 2016.

Jesse A. Fernández, <em>Alicia Alonso, Varadero Beach, Cuba</em> (1958). Courtesy Throckmorton Fine Art, Inc.

Jesse A. Fernández, Alicia Alonso, Varadero Beach, Cuba (1958). Courtesy Throckmorton Fine Art, Inc.

Under the Cuban Sun” at Throckmorton Fine Art, Inc.
The natural beauty of Cuba comes to the fore in this photographic survey of the Caribbean island, with works ranging from the 1930s to the present day.

Throckmorton Fine Art, Inc., 145 East 57th Street, third floor, June 16–September 17, 2016.

 

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