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The Barney Arts Digest

Posted

March 30, 2026

Announcements from the Department of Art & Art Professions

Painting of a magician wearing a suit and heels pointing his wand at a woman with wings on her head wearing a blue dress. She stands in a magicians box and her midsection is in a box separated from her body, an onlooker watches with surprise.

Ongoing Exhibitions

BFA Senior Honors Studio: The Magician's Choice on view until May 17, 2026.

The Magician's Choice is a group exhibition curated by 80WSE Director, Howie Chen, and features the artwork of nine BFA Studio Art Majors in the final year of their undergraduate studies at the New York University Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development’s Department of Art & Art Professions.

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MFA Class of 2026 | Thesis Part 1: Hoodwinked on view April 1–18, 2026.

Hoodwinked brings together five NYU MFA candidates in a game of barriers, overgrowth, decoys, fronts, and obstacles. Confronting our desperate times, each artist turns concealment into a generative act. Read more on Hyperallergic.

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BFA Senior Thesis Projects 2026 on view until May 8, 2026.

BFA Studio Art majors culminating thesis project featuring a wide range of ambitious work across media and forms.

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Five performers on stage surrounded by plywood boxes. Two are standing, two sit beside one another on a pair of boxes, and one woman sits in a chair with both hands on her knees.

An image from the play Fashion, written and directed by Amanda Horowitz.

Upcoming Events

BFA Visiting Artist Lecture: Felix Ho Yuen Chan on April 2, 2026.

Felix Ho Yuen Chan will speak about the monumental self portrait painted in Shanghai by the artist Chen Yifei in 1979, entitled Thinking of History at My Space (or, Duobu).

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BFA Visiting Artist Lecture: Amanda Horowitz on April 6, 2026.

Horowitz will discuss her recent play, Fashion, and lead a short performance-writing workshop for students using found text and collaborative writing techniques.

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Martha Schwendener and Alexander R. Galloway on The Society of the Screen: Vilém Flusser’s Radical Prescience on April 9, 2026.

Join us for a discussion between Martha Schwendener and Alexander R. Galloway on Schwendener's newly published book, The Society of the Screen: Vilém Flusser's Radical Prescience. There will be a short presentation and a discussion, followed by a Q+A session.

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25th Annual Richard Martin Thesis Symposium on April 10, 2026.

Presentations by MA Candidates in Costume Studies and a presentation by keynote speaker Elena Kanagy-Lou.

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Book Presentation of Trading Beauty: Market Histories from the Altar to the Gallery on April 10, 2026.

A lecture by Valentina Castellani followed by a conversation with Michael Cary, Director at Gagosian Gallery.

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The Creative Pivot: Studio to Screen on April 17, 2026.

A conversation between Art Therapy alum and Shark Tank Executive Producer Holly Jacob and Art Therapy Program Director Marygrace Berberian. Open to students, alumni, and faculty.

Headshot image of Elle, she has blond hair and is wearing a navy coat. She is smiling center frame and standing in front of greenery which is out of focus.

Elle Moody, VAA Alum

Alumni News

Elva Zhang ('25 VAA) spoke with Elle Moody ('16 VAA) about her work in shaping one of Texas’s most significant philanthropic institutions with a focus on access, equity, and long-term impact.

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Event of Interest

Art for the Living: Interviews with NYC-Based Women Artists is a conversation series curated by Steinhardt alumna and current NYU artist-in-residence Sonia Megías (MM ’12). This series features interviews with New York City–based women artists and is hosted by Steinhardt's Espacio de Culturas.

The front of the Barney Building

Open Calls

Touchstones is a public exhibition presented through WhiteBox Portable across the East Village: Tompkins Square Park, Two Boots Pizzeria, the Tompkins Square Library, and the Times Sq-42 St subway station. The project explores place as something constructed through lived experience, memory, and everyday ritual, while interrogating the forces that create barriers to belonging: displacement, gentrification, and lack of resource equity. 
Deadline: April 4, 2026.

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NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service (NYU Wagner) is pleased to announce Place & Purpose: Urban Life Through Your Lens, an open call for photography and accompanying exhibition. This open call and exhibit, centered on the role of the city—its communities and its infrastructure—invites participants and audiences at large to share their perspectives on urban life as captured through the visual medium of photography. 
Deadline: April 20, 2026.

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Art in Odd Places (AiOP) 2026: UTOPIAS, scheduled for September 26 & 27, 12-5pm on 14th Street, invites proposals that inhabit the city not as it is, but as it could be—transforming 14th Street into a living laboratory for collective dreams, radical care, and shared futures, as this festival has been doing for over two decades. 
Deadline: April 21, 2026.

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New  & Ongoing Shows

Richard MedinaThe More Loving One, Tempest Gallery, Ridgewood, NY. Until April 11, 2026.

Clare Kambhu, In the Light of Your Shadow, Tomayko Foundation, Pittsburgh, PA. Until April 17, 2026.

DD HerschleinSpite House, Matthew Brown Gallery, New York, NY. Until April 18, 2026. 

Clare KambhuManual Entry, Satchel Projects, New York, NY. Until April 25, 2026. 

Carol BoveCarol Bove, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY. Until August 2, 2026.

 

View full list of shows and exhibitions

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