New York Magazine

A twenty-foot-high looping, wobbly, abstract fusion of brightly colored aluminum by the Viennese artist Franz West.

In conjunction with Performa 09, a floor of the museum is dedicated to an evolving history of performance art, which will be updated as this year’s performances take place throughout the city.

Works from the museum’s expanding contemporary-art collection go on long- term view in 5,000 square feet of newly renovated space.

A survey of 150 years of sex and sexual imagery in film, television, advertising, and the Internet.

Loads of photographs of the works of the sixties conceptual and environmental artist, including the color images of her iconic 1982 feat, Wheatfield—A Confrontation, for which Denes planted a two-acre field of wheat in the Battery Park landfill.

An exquisite show composed almost entirely of paper and exploring the edgiest theme of all: love. Imagine if Van Gogh had had a child who became a genius in the art of origami.

New, uncharacteristically black-and-white photographs by the Yale graduate, who debuted in recent years with hyper-colored depictions of her conservative Christian family.

A presentation of human evolution, including the latest in genomic science, over 200 casts of hominid fossils, interactive displays, and video projections.

Charming ink and crayon drawings by the Inuit artist who subtly depicts the clash between Inuit and non-Inuit cultures in the far north of Canada.

Super-snazzy, super-shiny sculptures and wall works that harken back to the most recent art-market boom, when stuff like this ruled art fairs and auctions.

Warped and oily and way-too-appealing photographs, considering the sadistic things that appear to be happening to this British artist’s models.

The comics of Archie and his wholesome friends from Riverdale.

Eighty objects including plates, bowls, tea sets, and vases created by female artists.

A display of bubblegum prizes may seem a little out of place alongside antique furniture and silverware, but, really, what's more American for the American Wing than mementos of the national pastime?

A permanent kid- and adult-friendly interactive exhibit of more than 1,200 artifacts, artworks, and video clips that delve into every itty-bitty step of the process that goes into producing, promoting, and exhibiting motion pictures, television, and digital media. Visitors can create their own animations and also play any of fourteen classic video games: Donkey Kong! Ms. Pac-Man! Space Invaders! Frogger!

Provocative and often humorous examination of New York’s role in campaign strategies over the last 200 years.

Optically electric visions of prelapsarian bliss, postlapsarian sex, and some of the most vividly painted female genitalia in the history of art.

A whole floor is plastered with twelve-inch records of every musical genre and style. The show lends a whole new sound to the phrase “click-clack."

A divine two-venue exhibit of the rock-star artist who is now painting the manicured lawns and woods of his childhood in East Yorkshire.

A permanent installation by Judy Chicago incorporating a triangular table with 39 place settings, each dedicated to a prominent woman in history.

The music videos of Kalup Linzy—who loves to play dress-up—are among the standouts in the sizzling triennial of photography and video art.

Surprisingly beautiful and historically important photographs from myriad artists documenting the evolution of New York’s industrial waterfront from the twentieth century up to the present.

Burtynsky’s “Oil” series makes beautiful, almost abstract photographs of the petroleum economy’s most evocative locales: refineries, drilling sites, spidery Los Angeles highways.

The salacious artist visited annual bullfights in the Andalusian town of Ronda and has created eight fabulous new paintings, shedding his velvety light onto the bulls and the eighteenth-century attire that make the controversial event such a visual feast.

A crunchy forest of gnarled trees and rugged caves made of crinkled red paper.