June 4, 5-8 pm, the final First Thursday in DUMBO 

DUMBO’s galleries stay open late for a night of art, gallery openings, artist talks, and live performance. Visitors enjoy incredible views of the East River and the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges as they walk along the waterfront from one gallery to the next, Many spots for drinks and snacks. Free and open to the public! Click for Map and Directory. Preview below.

• NowHere Open Studios: Maiko Kikuchi at NowHere Studio Program (20 Jay St #434)
• BRIClab Contemporary Art Residency Works in Progress at BRIClab (20 Jay St #M04)
• Opening Reception: Split Impulse at Springs Projects (20 Jay St #311B)
• Opening Reception: Family and Friends at Platform Project Space (20 Jay St #319)
• Opening Reception: The Earth is Dreaming at New York Studio School Projects (20 Jay St #307)
• Opening Reception: Maferefún III, African Spirituality in Cuban Art at Cuban Art Space (20 Jay St #301)
• ROM’S 2025 Sketchbook Collection at Creatively Wild (98 Water St)
• Opening Reception + Activation: Beyond Dark Flow at SoRA Sanctuary Gallery (55 Washington St #736)
• Opening Reception: It’s Not About the Stairs at Main Window (1 Main St)

Friday, June 5: Guggenheim POP | 1960 to Now at the Guggenheim

Pop art is most closely associated with the United States: its most famous practitioners, including Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, were American, and the movement flourished in New York and along the East Coast. But it was a Brit who brought Pop to US audiences. Shortly after becoming a curator at the Guggenheim in 1962, the London-born Lawrence Alloway staged ‘Six Painters and the Object’, which highlighted work by Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, James Rosenquist and Jim Dine as well as Warhol and Lichtenstein. It was the first Pop exhibition in New York and the first milestone in the Guggenheim’s decades-long relationship with the movement. Above: Soft Shuttlecock” by Claes Oldenburg  Coosje van Bruggen

The Guggenheim now presents works from its collection that bottle the excitement of Pop art in the 1960s, while exploring its influence on contemporary artists such as Maurizio Cattelan, Alex Da Corte and Yayoi Kusama, whose Infinity Mirrored Room: Dancing Lights that Flew Up to the Universe (2019) is one of the few loans in this museum collections exhibition. Find out more from the Guggenheim’s website.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue at 88^thStreet, New York, NY Info

Saturday, June 6, 400pm: Pilot Light | Artist Walkthrough, at PPOW

Featuring new and recent works by Bre Andy, Praise Fuller, Gerald Lovell, Devin N. Morris, Nickola Pottinger, Curtis Talwst Santiago, and Taylor Simmons, the exhibition presents painting, sculpture, and multi-media installation. The resulting installation is shaped, not by spectacle, but by endurance: the slow, persistent force of faith, practice, and resiliency. In an art world where diversity can become a passing trend and visibility is often confused with care, Pilot Light insists on another measure of value outside the demands of immediacy, legibility, and consumption. Above: Taylor Simmons, Oh to be a stone in a river, run smooth by time, 2026

Named after a small but essential flame that continuously burns regardless of the conditions outside, the exhibition presents artists who embrace forms of creation that are deeply personal and life-sustaining. In Pilot Light, artistic practice is understood as a mode of caregiving, a commitment to one’s divination, one’s community, and the subtle but unwavering spark that makes creation possible in the first place.

P·P·O·W, 392 Broadway, New York, NY Info

Monday, June 8, 6pm: ZigZag | Celebrating 250 years of Friendship With Italy

250 years of friendship between Italy and the United States are explored through the eyes of Italian authors and illustrators — Felicita Sala, Emiliano Ponzi, and Riccardo Vecchio to name a few — alongside American voices including Mac Barnett and Maria Russo at the opening reception for the Zig Zag Festival, running fro June 8-12 in NYC. RSVP required [please scroll down]. Above: Illustration by Olympia Zagnoli

Starting from a selection of images they consider especially emblematic of the relationship between Italy and the United States, the participants will reflect on the dynamic exchange and enduring dialogue between the two countries. An original creative conversation introduced by a historical overview from  organizer Steven Guarnaccia, a long-time DART collaborator. The festival is organized by the Italian Cultural Institute of New York. Curated by Steven Guarnaccia and Hamelin, in collaboration with the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the festival aims to foster meaningful cultural exchange and inspire new perspectives on contemporary visual storytelling.

“With Zig Zag, we want to strengthen the role of the cultural bridge that the Bologna Children’s Book Fair has always played between Italy and the world, enhancing the historic and profound dialogue between Italy and the U.S. through the universal language of illustration and books,” says Elena Pasoli, director of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. “This project stems from the desire to create new opportunities for events and exchanges between publishers, authors, illustrators and cultural institutions, bringing together diverse visions and sensibilities at one of the great international crossroads of contemporary publishing.”

Project partners include Rizzoli Bookstore, Society of Illustrators, Salotto – Casa IED, SVA School of Visual Arts, and Sullaluna.nyc. Click [and scroll down] for a complete list of events.

The Italian Cultural Institute in New York, 686 Park Avenue, New York, NY