The arts calendar for 2024 is positively stacked. There’s “The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, an exhibition showcasing paintings, sculptures, and photographs to chronicle the famous artistic and social movement; the de Young’s show with Taiwanese-American artist Lee Mingwei, who is known for his installations that call for audience participation; and “O’Keeffe and Moore,” a celebration (and juxtaposition) of two major modernist artists at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. And that’s just in Q1. It’s a lot to keep track of, but fear not: we’ve put together a list of the highlights of this year in New York City, Los Angeles, and beyond. Consider this your grab-bag guide to the can’t-miss exhibitions of the season, and check back often—we’ll be updating this list as more events roll in throughout the year.
Ebecho Muslimova: Rumors at Mendes Wood and Whispers at Bernheim
The visual artist Ebecho Muslimova transfers all of her deepest emotions into a lively, rollicking character who appears, in some form, in all of her works. Named Fatebe, the character is “a surrogate self, or a self-device,” as Muslimova, who was born in Russia and now lives between New York and Mexico City, described it in a recent interview. “She allows me to flatten out certain emotional or mental experiences that are formless because they are in my own interior.” The artist is translating those feelings into a dual show being held on two different continents. First, there’s “Rumors” at Mendes Wood in São Paulo, which debuted on May 25th; next up is “Whispers” opening at Bernheim Gallery in Zurich on June 7th. Each of the eight pieces on view will have a corresponding “sister painting in the other city, like a game of telephone, or a long-distance romance,” a press release from Muslimova reads. Fatebe is up to her old hijinks again in the new exhibition: paintings depict the character nude, flashing her crotch beneath a tent, or using a shovel attached to her head to stack a pile of rocks. As seen above, she also has the power to transcend the metaphysical. “Rumors” will show at Mendes Wood through October 8; “Whispers” runs until July 26 at Bernheim.
