Shifting Landscapes | Art & Artists

Nov 1, 2024–Jan 25, 2026

New York Cityscapes

Vehicles drive through a dimly lit tunnel with glowing lights along the ceiling, creating a sense of motion and depth.

New York Cityscapes

From the unruly energy of a single city block to the grandeur of its towering skyline, New York has long inspired artists. The works gathered here, ranging in date from the early 1970s to 2020, document the many ways the city has changed—whether gradually or abruptly—in the aftermath of significant economic, political, and catastrophic events. The early 1970s saw New York in a state of economic decay and social turmoil, yet artistic experimentation flourished, driving new developments in feminist art, neo-expressionism, and street photography. By the 1980s and early 1990s New York had come to be known as a global city; nonetheless many artists living here remained decidedly local in their focus, depicting their neighbors or the theater of daily life. In the wake of the attacks on September 11, 2001, unsettling images of the tragedy and an overwhelming sense of alienation impacted the way some artists portrayed the city. Two decades later, works made during the COVID-19 pandemic similarly bear signs of the loneliness, disruption, and uncertainty experienced by so many. Through all these profound shifts, the city has remained an important collaborator for artists seeking to understand how the built environment can embody the complexities of urban existence and offer new ways of seeing and understanding one’s place in it.

A man with a yellow scarf stands by a table with bottles, a phone, and a charger, set against a textured gray background.

In Man with Face Creams and Phone Plug, a young South Asian man with downward-cast eyes stands with his belongings—electronics and toiletries that could be found in a suitcase—unceremoniously laid out on the table in front of him. This work is part of Salman Toor’s immigration series, which depicts scenes of Brown men throughout different chapters of the immigrant experience.

Toor describes the setting of this painting.