Art Guides
Get Outta Town with These 10 Art-Filled Day Trips
Keep this handy as summer fades into fall.
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As summer comes to an end, artnet News decided to revisit our popular list of daytrips with updates on what to expect.
From a short train ride north to the revered Dia:Beacon, to sleepy voyages to cities like Philadelphia, these 10 destinations deliver on the kind of art adventure you’ve been long overdue.
See our summer art guide out of the Big Apple below.
Grimanesa Amoros, Light Between the Islands (2013). Courtesy of Grimanesa Amoros Studios via the Katonah Museum.
1. Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New York
A group exhibition currently on view at the Katonah Museum of Art makes a hike north of town well-worth the trip. In OnSite Katonah, which runs through October 2, experimental artists offer works that respond to the site’s unique landscape and architecture. Light-based sculptor Grimanesa Amoros, whose pulsing lavender orbs are pictured above, is one of eight artists invited to present.
Yayoi Kusama, Pumpkin (2015). Courtesy of Matthew Placek via the Glass House.
2. The Philip Johnson Glass House, New Canaan, Connecticut
Yayoi Kusama has taken over the Phillip Johnson Glass House this summer with a number of popular installations drawn from her 87 years on this Earth. Between her approachable steel Pumpkin sculpture atop a nearby hill, and a mesmerizing, site-specific installation of her infinity dots adorning the modern structure’s glass walls, fans of the artist will be in for a treat.
Dennis Oppenheim, Entrance to a Garden (2002). Courtesy of Storm King.
3. Storm King Art Center, New Windsor, New York
Various pieces from Dennis Oppenheim’s 45-year-career have made their way to Storm King, upstate New York’s premier sculpture park—and given his legacy as a pioneer in land art, we’d be hard-pressed to imagine a more suitable venue. The sculptural pieces on view, which he once described as “terrestrial” in nature, range from his whimsical arrangement titled Cactus Grove to his steel gateway titled Entrance to a Garden.
Michael Heizer, North, East, South, West (1967/2002). Courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons.
4. Dia:Beacon, Beacon, New York
With its spacious exhibition rooms and all-consuming natural light, Dia:Beacon holds a legendary status among New Yorkers. For most, the prospect of surveying Dan Flavin’s neon light installations alone merit a trip to the famed space; but those considering a visit will also delight in Louise Bourgeois’s sculptures upstairs, or Louise Lawler’s sound installation Birdcalls, which can be heard at MoMA next year.
From left: Roland Fischer, Untitled (L.A. Portrait) (1994-2000); Hung Liu, Baby King II (1996); Kehinde Wiley, Passing/Posing (2002). Courtesy of the Rhona Hoffman Galle via the Wadsworth.
5. The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut
Select works by Chuck Close, Carrie Mae Weems, and Kehinde Wiley are just some of the heavy-hitters that decorate the private collection of the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC). Now, visitors to the Wadsworth Atheneum will have a rare opportunity to see 42 of these works, which have been loosely curated around the diversity of the human figure.
Richard Nonas, The Man in the Empty Space, Slant
Bayetta Rising / Zaratustra’s Ring (1989). Courtesy of MASS MoCA.
6. Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, Massachusetts
With Alex Da Corte’s major institutional debut, “Free Roses,” as well as a long-term retrospective on veteran Sol LeWitt, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) is hosting a handful of notable exhibitions in the months to come. But you’ll want to catch Richard Nonas’s geometric, industrial sculptures before his show ends this September.
Cosmo Whyte Wake the Town and Tell the People (2015). Courtesy of Mana Contemporary.
7. Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, New Jersey
Those looking for a shorter trip out of New York can simply board the PATH train to the Journal Square stop, where Mana Contemporary is less than a five-minute walk away. The impressive space, which hosts artist residencies and art handling operations, is currently offering a number of shows, including solo exhibitions of works by Gary Lichtenstein and Richard Meier.
Nari Ward, Iron Heavens (1995). Courtesy of the Barnes Foundation.
8. The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Throughout his career as a conceptual assemblage artist, Nari Ward has drawn critical and popular acclaim for his focus on urban conditions and the experiences of the Caribbean diaspora. In a mid-career survey at the Barnes Foundation, different works from Ward’s oeuvre come together in a show titled “Sun Splashed.”
Akinbode Akinbiyi, Untitled (2003/2004). Courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
9. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Five shows form “Creative Africa,” a summer-long project at the Philadelphia Museum of Art that surveys the artistic production of artists across the continent. The distinct exhibitions range from “Threads of Tradition,” which focuses on infinite textile patterns from artists working in West and Central Africa, to “Three Photographers/Six Cities,” a show dedicated to the photographic output of artists Akinbode Akinbiyi, Seydou Camara, and Ananias Léki Dag.
10. Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York
A dreamy train ride east on the Southampton-bound rail will deposit you at the Parrish Art Museum, where exhibitions by Roy Lichtenstein, Jonah Bokaer, and James Brooks are currently on view. But you may want to hold off until August 7, when the museum opens a notable new show titled “Unfinished Business,” which focuses on the relationships between artists Ross Bleckner, Eric Fischl, and David Salle.
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