When the Brooklyn Museum decided to showcase the breadth of creativity across the borough, it didn’t land on an exhibition of 30 or 80 artists, not even 150 artists. Rather, “The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition” will array the works of more than 200 creatives working in the vibrant enclave today.

“For years artists have been asking us to organize a big Brooklyn artists exhibition, and now we’ve done it!” raved Anne Pasternak, the museum’s director, in a statement.

The show’s line-up is an absolute bonanza. It encompasses established names such as Nicole Eisenman, Avram Finkelstein, Narcissister, and Nancy Grossman, and rising art stars including Qualeasha Wood, as well as artists working in myriad mediums. There’s sculptor Josiah McElheny, installation artists Heather Hart and E. V. Day, painters Scherezade García and Laurena Finéus, photographer An-My Lê, and multimedia artist Chitra Ganesh, among heaps others.

Jasmine Clarke, Olivia (2022). © Jasmine Clarke. Courtesy of the artist.

In between them, these artists have tackled subjects that range from the local (memory, identity) to the global (migration, cultural exchange, collective memory)—a scope that the exhibition hopes will illustrate Brooklyn’s artistic output over the past five years.

“The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition” has been organized by Jeffrey Gibson, Vik Muniz, Mickalene Thomas, and Fred Tomaselli, all of them Brooklyn Museum Artist Trustees. The four also make up the Artist Committee that handpicked the 200-plus creatives included in the show, following invitations and an open call that received up to 4,000 applications.

Brad Kahlhamer, Survival Chandelier (2019). © Brad Kahlhamer. Courtesy of the artist and
Venus Over Manhattan, New York.

This is, of course, far from the first time that the institution has platformed the neighborhood’s wealth of creative talent, as Sharon Matt Atkins, the museum’s deputy director for art, pointed out. Its annual Fence Art Show, which ran from 1966 through the late ’70s, showcased and awarded prizes to artists from Brooklyn and other boroughs. In the 1980s, its “Working From Brooklyn” exhibition series featured hundreds of Brooklyn artists, many of them at the start of their career; the series was revived in the mid-’90s and ran through 2004.

“Our commitment to supporting Brooklyn’s artists stretches back decades, and this exhibition is a continuation of that legacy,” said Atkins in a statement. “With ‘The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition,’ we’re proud to carry forward that tradition, celebrating the borough’s artistic diversity and honoring the creative voices that make Brooklyn such a vital cultural hub.”

Chitra Ganesh, All the Farewells (2023). © Chitra Ganesh. Courtesy of the artist and Hales Gallery, London and New York. Photo: JSP Art Photography.

The exhibition also has a key backer in UOVO, the art storage specialists with whom the museum has been presenting the UOVO Prize to emerging Brooklyn-based creatives since 2020. The award—which comprises a $25,000 grant as well as a solo exhibition at the museum and an art installation at UOVO’s Bushwick facility—has been conferred on John Edmonds, Baseera Khan, and, most recently, Suneil Sanzgiri.

The prize, said UOVO founder Steven Guttman, was a way for the company to back the museum’s long-running engagement with the Brooklyn artistic community. “Our support of this commemorative exhibition,” he added, “is a continuation of a shared commitment to amplify the narrative of this vibrant arts community.”

Amaryllis R. Flowers, The Girl Has Teeth and the Teeth Are Tired (2022). © Amaryllis R. Flowers. Courtesy of the artist and Hilda C. Esmonde.

The exhibition will kick off the Brooklyn Museum’s yearlong 200th anniversary celebrations, anchored by a significant rehang of its American Art galleries, spearheaded by curator Stephanie Sparling Williams; an immersive exhibition on the historical footprint of gold; and a score of performances and activities across the locale, including its inaugural Museum on Wheels.

“Brooklyn has more artists than anywhere,” said Pasternak, “and we are thrilled to expand the ways we support the excellence of our incredible borough.”

Here’s the full list of the 216 artists participating in “The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition.”

Evelyn Adams
Destinie Adélakun
Seongmin Ahn
Scott Albrecht
Danielle Alhassid
Jonathan Allen
Kadine Anckle
Kate Bae
Felipe Baeza
Michael Ballou
Yevgeniya Baras
Sarah Bedford
Hannah Beerman
Aisha Tandiwe Bell
Jane Benson
Damien Olsen Berdichevsky
Magda Biernat
Samantha Bittman
Lucas Blalock
Sebastiaan Bremer
Johanna Burke
Stephen Burks
Kimberly Bush
Paul Campbell
Mary Carlson
Jazmine Catasús
Geoffrey Chadsey
Henry Hung Chang
Ruby Chishti
Jasmine Clarke
Jennifer Coates
Wendy Cohen
Karen Cunningham
Jennifer Dalton
Lisa Corinne Davis
Isis Davis-Marks
E. V. Day
Leah DeVun
Lisa di Donato
Nicole Eisenman
Rodney Ewing
Sean Fader
Mohammed Iman Fayaz
Keltie Ferris
Alanna Fields
Jane Fine
Leo Fine
Laurena Finéus
Avram Finkelstein
Tatiana Florival
Amaryllis R. Flowers
France François
Ronen Gamil
Teri Gandy-Richardson
Chitra Ganesh
Scherezade García
Prajwal Godse
Anthony Goicolea
Shosh Goller
Tamara Gonzales
Isamar Gonzalez
Garry Grant
Stanley Greenberg
Katya Grokhovsky
Nancy Grossman
Haoua Habré
George Hagen
Richard Haining
Susan Hamburger
Ilana Harris-Babou
Heather Hart
Elana Herzog
Eric Hibit
Honorroller
Jackie Hoving
Sumin Hwang
James Hyde
Sarra Hussein Idris
Michelle Im
Madjeen Isaac
Yoko Iwanaga
Katherine Jackson
Swati Jain
Lutfi Janania
Gaël Jean-Louis
Ruichao Jiang
Khari Johnson-Ricks
Bo Joseph
Melissa Joseph
Yaz Josiah
Brad Kahlhamer
Sophia Karwowski
Nina Katchadourian
Nathan Kensinger
Jon Kessler
Jarrett Key
Kyung Tae Kim
Yongjae Kim
Matthew Kirk
Sonomi Kobayashi
Tamara Kostianovsky
Fay Ku
Alison Kuo
Gabrielle Lansner
Athena LaTocha
An-My Lê
Emilie Lemakis
Sujin Lim
Emily Loughlin
Lisa Ludwig
Sylvia Maier
Emily Manwaring
Guadalupe Maravilla
Karen Margolis
Chris Martin
Rachel Martin
Mario Martinez
Ingrid Mathurin
Esperanza Mayobre
Josiah McElheny
Frederick Mershimer
Sam Messer
Caleb Miller
Steven Montgomery
Jaye Moon
T. Dylan Moore
Livia Mourão
Donna Moylan
Cherly Mukherji
Loren Munk
Timothy Paul Myers
Mayumi Nakao
Rita Nannini
Martha Naranjo Sandoval
Narcissister
Susan Newmark
Danielle Noel
Dynasty Ogun
Soull Ogun
Clayton Okaly
Ozodi Onyeabor
Allison Michael Orenstein
Laura Ortman
Yaw Owusu
Tinuade Oyelowo
Christian Padron
Samora Pinderhughes
Norm Paris
Quiana Parks
Cate Pasquarelli
Rhesa Paul
Lindsay Perryman
Jamaal Peterman
Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya
Naudline Pierre
Lin Qiqing
Colin Radcliffe
Erika Ranee
Robert Raphael
Mark Reigelman
Naomi Reis
Resurrect Studio LLC
Vernando Reuben
Erin M. Riley
Pema Rinzin
Ilisa Katz Rissman
Matthew Ritchie
Leslie Roberts
Alex Dolores Salerno
Gwyneth Scally
Hiba Schahbaz
Rick Secen
Michelle Segre
Lauren Seiden
Jonathan Seliger
David Shaw
Bobby Silverman
Kuldeep Singh
Tuesday Smillie
Jane South
Susan Špiranović
Sharon Sprung
Monica Srivastava
Josh Sucher
Takura Suzuki
Assane Sy
Catherine Tafur
Hidemi Takagi
Alison Elizabeth Taylor
Leo Tecosky
Dannielle Tegeder
Mary Temple
Darryl DeAngelo Terrell
Jade Thacker
Zac Thompson
Jim Torok
A. R. Tran
Janaina Tschäpe
Juan Pablo Uribe
William Villalongo
Sophia Wallace
Cyle Warner
Kit Warren
Chris Weller
Michelle Wen
Tabitha Whitley
Tracie Dawn Williams
Oliver Wilson
Qualeasha Wood
Kenny Wu
Akiko Yamamoto
Jason Bard Yarmosky
Betty Yu
Halley Zien
Brenda Zlamany
Balint Zsako

“The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition” is on view at the Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Pkwy, Brooklyn, New York, October 4, 2024–January 26, 2025.