New York’s museum season gains a landmark this November. MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, Queens, opens Hard Art on November 5, 2026, a major exhibition examining the legacy of abstract painting by Black artists in the United States from 1969 to today.
The exhibition features more than forty artists and juxtaposes historical paintings by practitioners who came to prominence in the 1970s with recent, conceptually driven practices that incorporate sculpture, video, sound and painting. Organized thematically, it traces the legacy of three generations, including Frank Bowling, Mark Bradford, Peter Bradley, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Ed Clark, Melvin Edwards, Jennie C. Jones, Joe Overstreet and Raymond Saunders, alongside new and recent works by Aria Dean, Torkwase Dyson, Nikita Gale, Suzanne Jackson, Rindon Johnson, Caroline Kent, Carolyn Lazard, Eric N. Mack, Charisse Pearlina Weston and SoiL Thornton, among others.
Together, these cross-generational conversations emphasize the enduring relevance and increasing urgency of abstraction in shaping the current political imaginary. The exhibition is organized by Connie Butler, MoMA PS1’s Agnes Gund Director, with Sheldon Gooch, Curatorial Associate, and is accompanied by a fully illustrated publication.
Admission to MoMA PS1 is free, one more reason to cross the East River this fall and spend a slow afternoon with five decades of bold, restless painting at 22-25 Jackson Avenue.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
