I love coming to the Central Park Zoo when I am visiting the Upper East Side. The zoo is a nice to just relax and reflect from the hustle and bustle of the City. On a quiet midweek day, there is nothing like going to the 2:00pm seal feeding at all times of the year. The seals get so excited and the humans like seeing the seals in their playful mood.
The seals can be very friendly and don’t mind humans around.
The seals like to reach out for attention.
The zoo is small so touring it will only take about an hour or so to see all the exhibitions. You have a choice of seeing the monkeys, the birds, the seals and the penguins. They finally moved the polar bear out of the zoo a few years ago and he always looked so bored with his life. He would give you a look like ‘get me out of here’.
The Central Park Zoo is set up with different exhibitions.
The smaller animals like the monkeys and the penguins look like they are having more fun in their enclosed homes with more room to move around. They always look at us as visitors in an amusing way like why are we so interested in them. It is an interesting interaction with the animals there to see their reaction to us.
The Monkey Island
The Monkey Island with the monkeys hiding that afternoon.
There is also more birds, amphibians and bats to see in other exhibitions around the zoo and smaller outside areas to view the smaller animals such as pandas and leopards that have finally been given space to roam around.
The Penguins are very playful all day long.
The Bird Sanctuary is another popular section of the zoo. There are all sorts of rare and exotic birds to see and watch in a copy of their native habitat. I thought they looked a little bored seeing the same birds day after day.
The birds have a lot of space to fly around but seemed a bit bored.
The pink Heron
The Bird Sanctuary
The parrot seemed a little bored.
The Birds feeding themselves.
In the small animal exhibition, the mongooses were putting on quite a show for all of us. It looked liked they were mating in front of the crowd.
The mongooses running around.
These two looked like they were mating.
It is a nice walk around the zoo and the perfect way to spend a sunny afternoon.
There is also a nice gift shop just outside the zoo and the Dancing Crane Cafe is the zoo restaurant which is over-priced and the food the few times I have tried it was mediocre. It is not like the cafe up at the Bronx Zoo that was pretty decent.
Don’t miss the hourly concert at Delacorte Clock when the animal sculptures dance to the music played. It is such an enjoyable experience.
History of the Zoo:
The Zoo was not originally part of the layout for Central Park when designed by Fredrick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux. A small menagerie developed on the edge of the park with exotic animals that had been donated to the park starting with a bear cub tied to a tree in 1859 and a monkey in 1860. Other animals came later including cranes, a peacock and a goldfish.
The original menagerie
In 1860, the American Zoological and Botanical Society wanted to create a zoo somewhere in New York City. In 1864, the zoo received a formal charter, making it the second publicly owned zoo behind the Philadelphia Zoo. Though a formal zoo had not yet been created, the menagerie, with its free admission and good location made it the most popular attraction in Central Park.
By the 1930’s, the menagerie had become run down and was not sufficient to hold the animals. In 1834, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia hired Robert Moses to head the unified Parks Department and a new more formal zoo was created. The new zoo was opened on December 2nd, 1934 and by 1936 over six million people had visited the zoo.
The eagle statues dotted the zoo.
By 1967, the zoo was again falling apart due to years of negligence and budget cuts. New York City’s fiscal crisis had affected the Parks System and conditions had gone downhill. In 1980, The Wildlife Conservatory (the former NY Zoological Society) signed a fifty year agreement in April of that year and started a renovation of the zoo from 1982 to its opening in 1988.
When the Zoo opened in August of 1988, the concept of the zoo had changed. The Wildlife Conservation Society had taken over the Queens Zoo, the Prospect Park Zoo in Brooklyn and already had possession of the Bronx Zoo and the direction of the society was toward conservation and care of animals while the Prospect Zoo was to be used as a Children’s Zoo and the Queens Zoo would concentrate on North American animals. The Children’s Zoo next to the Central Park Zoo went through its own renovation in the late 1990’s and is now called the Tisch Children’s Zoo after businessman, Laurence Tisch who had donated most of the money for the renovation.
The gardens make a big impact around all the exhibitions.
(This information was taken from both Wiki and the Central Park Zoo History)
The zoo has the most amazing view of Central Park South. This neighborhood lines the southern part of the park.
The entrance of the Bronx Zoo from the original entrance by Astor Court
The 125th Sign by the “Holiday Lights” event that evening
I have been coming to the Bronx Zoo since I was five years old, and I never really thought it changed that much over the years. I recently went to a Private Members Night last Fall (See Day One Hundred and in MywalkinManhattan.com) and realized that I had not been there since they opened the Congo Gorilla Forest exhibition and that was in the late 90’s. I had not been in the zoo for over twenty years. A lot has changed since I visited back in 1997. A lot of new exhibitions have opened and renovations made.
My blog on the Private Members Night at the Bronx Zoo on MywalkinManhattan.com:
The Zoo covers about 265 acres of the park in the middle of The Bronx. I took the time to walk all through the park and visiting all the exhibitions, riding on the train and on the monorail system looking over all the animals in their natural habitats set up by the zoo.
I revisited the Congo Gorilla Forest, the Worlds of Birds and Reptiles, exploring the African Plains that I rode past on the monorail system and walked through Jungle World. I really got to visit the park in more detail than I ever had before.
The one thing I really liked about the Zoo was I had never noticed the architecture of the buildings and fountains that I had passed when I was younger and had a real appreciation for them. Most had been around the turn of the last century when the philosophy of looking at animals was different. The graceful stone buildings have beautiful animal carvings all over them.
The Monkey House Building in the old section of the zoo
The best part was since it was a rather gloomy night out there were not that many members in the zoo so I got to ride the rides and walk through the Tree Top Maze with crowds behind me rushing the experience.
I finished the evening visiting the new Dinosaur exhibition and that was creepy. There were dinosaur replications hiding in the woods making sounds and looking at you as you passed. It had been a very popular exhibition that summer.
The Dinosaur display
For dinner that evening, I enjoyed the Dancing Crane Cafe, the main restaurant in the zoo. I was impressed that the food was really good. It was mostly kid staples like pizza and chicken fingers but everything was really fresh, and everything was cooked for us. I returned again for the “Holiday Lights” event in 2024, and the food was just as good as the first time (so many patrons online complain about this restaurant, and I think it very good for what it is).
The outside of the Dancing Crane Cafe during the holiday season at the Bronx Zoo
The inside of the Dancing Crane Cafe at holiday time
The Christmas tree at the Dancing Crane during the “Holiday Lights” event
I had the Chicken Fingers with French Fries, and it was a nice sized portion. The chicken was a generous portion that was almost a whole breast. The restaurant is pricey but every once in a while, it is a treat. The one thing I have to say about the place is the food is consistent and for a zoo it is pretty good. I thought the quality was excellent.
My Chicken Fingers dinner was really good
The Chicken was so well fried and tasted really good
The Fries were really good as well
I looked over the zoo with a fresh pair of eyes without the throngs of visitors that you normally see there. I enjoyed looking over the animals in a more natural habitat that a lot of zoos don’t offer.
The holiday display at the Bronx Zoo in 2024
The Holiday display in 2024 at the Bronx Zoo
Recently the Zoo has brought back the “Holiday Lights” event for the holidays. I was able to attend the last night of the event on a Sunday night and it was pretty special. In the era of COVID, it really cheered me up. In 2024, I visited the last weekend that the event took place, and it was nice to tour the park after hours and not a lot of people be there. The best time to come to this event is after Christmas. I came the last weekend it was open, and it was the best time to come with no crowds and plenty of time to walk around the park in the dark to enjoy the displays.
Almost all of the Zoo was decorated with lights and there was Christmas music playing the whole night. Even though the holidays had passed it still put me back into the mood.
The nautical display at the Bronx Zoo “Holiday Lights”
The Nautical scenes of the display
The “African” exhibit at the “Holiday Lights” event
The giraffes in the “African” event
The Elephants in the “African” section
The colorful frog in the “Magical Forest”
The colorful flowers in the “Magical Forest” at “Holiday Lights”
The forest of flowers
More Flowers
The tribe of Moose at the “Holiday Lights” event
Flock of Parrots in the woods
Path of Rhinos on display
Mother and baby frogs
The Frog family on display
Each of the trails had lighted tunnels that were a sensory excitement to walk through especially as it got darker.
The Circular tunnel
The other lighted tunnel offered a wonder in lights to walk through
All the trees were adorned with white lights and each of the sections of the park were decorated with a theme.
The Snowflake display in the park
There were elephants wondering through the paths, seals and penguins swimming through their displays and all sorts of tinkling snowmen and animals like bears, lions, tigers and giraffes lining the paths.
Various animals in white lights
The lightshow paths were lined with all sorts of light
The “Magical Musical Christmas Tree” and show at the “Holidays Lights” event
The musical show that takes place on a continuous basis. You have to see this show once. It is amazing show!
The nicest section that I almost missed was the musical Christmas tree in the old section of the park and the zebras on stilts.
The Illuminated puppets at the zoo during the “Holidays Lights” event
The original section of the park was decorated with multiple lights with contemporary Christmas music playing in the background. There were birds flying, reindeer being chased and seals leading the way for other animals.
The entrance of the zoo that evening
I was finally able to ride the Bug Carousel which was a little hokey but a lot of fun. I could see why the kids like it so much. There were plenty of adults who were also enjoying the complimentary ride. There was ice sculpture demonstrations, comics performing and all of the food outlets and gift shops were open to a somewhat limited crowd. We had timed tickets, so the crowd was rather small for such a big event.
The Rockefeller Fountain and Astor Court decorated for the holidays
The Totem Pole lit up and decorated for the holidays
I got there by 6:15pm and the park display was open until 9:30pm. By the time I left for the evening at 9:00pm, the park crowd had really thinned out and there were very few people walking around. Still it was nice to walk around and feel I had the whole park to myself. It was getting cool that evening but still a nice night to walk around. I will have to remember this for next year.
Leaving for the evening of the Lightshow at the Bronx Zoo for “Holiday Lights”
The History of The Bronx Zoo:
In 1895, a group made up of members of the Boone and Crockett Club founded the New York Zoological Society with the purpose of founding the zoo. The architectural team of Heins & LaFarge designed the original permanent buildings as a series of Beaux-Arts pavilions grouped around the sea lion pool.
The Astor Court Fountain during the “Holiday Lights” event
The Fountain at night
Jellyfish display by Astor Court
The Jellyfish lightshow inside one of the buildings
The Rockefeller Fountain was bought to the park in 1902 from another part of the park. It had been built in 1872 and was moved to the front of the zoo by the Rockefeller family and is now surrounded by a series of gardens as you enter the park from the parking lot.
The Rockefeller Fountain in Astor Court the night of “Holiday Lights”
When the zoo opened, it featured 843 animals in twenty-two exhibitions around the park. The zoo has been home to many exotic animals many being the first of their kind in a zoo. At various times in its history, the park has featured Komodo Dragons, Andean flamingos and a Sumatran rhinoceros.
Today the park is run by the Wildlife Conservation Society and is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The main exhibitions are the Congo Gorilla Forest, Jungle World, the Wild Asia Monorail, Madagascar!, Tiger Mountain, the African Plains, the World of Birds, the World of Reptiles and the Zoo Center. There are also various restaurants and snack shops throughout the park (that were closed the evening I went there), a carousel and a playground.
The Bronx Zoo Gift Shop the night of “Holidays Lights”
(This information on the park comes from Zoo history and Wiki)
Open: Sunday 11:00am-5:00pm/Monday 11:00am-6:00pm/ Tuesday and Wednesday Closed/Thursday-Saturday 11:00am-6:00pm
Café and Shops have various hours. Please check the website for these.
Fee: General $22.00/Seniors (65 and Older) $16.00/Students and Educators $12.00/Children under 12 are not admitted and Children under 16 years old must be accompanied by an adult. The museum is open on First Fridays from 6:00pm-9:00pm. Please visit the website for more information.
I visited the Neue Galerie for the first time after passing the building on the way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This interesting little gallery space has some interesting pieces to see and many decorative objects in the cases.
The gallery space for special exhibitions on the third floor was closed when I visited and being an educator, I got a half price discount off the educator rate was a nice deal.
It was a thrill to finally see the famous Gustav Klimt painting of the “Woman in Gold” that had been such a controversial piece during the Nazi occupation in Germany. It’s beautiful detail work was very innovative then. After all the fighting over the painting it is nice to see that the family sold it to the museum to share it with the world. The gallery where the painting hangs has more works by Gustav Klimt and you can see the extent of his work along the walls of the gallery.
The ‘Woman in Gold’
The side galleries are full of all sorts of objects of art for the home such as chairs, silverware, dishware, clocks and decorative objects. There was a lot of items that still are contemporary in their fashion. The back gallery on the second floor is full of paintings by various German artists.
The Decorative Objects Gallery
The whole museum you can see in about an hour when the special galleries are closed. There is also Cafe Sabarsky on the main floor, a Viennese cafe the serves German food like sausages, salads and pastries. The restaurant is a little over-priced for what it is.
History of the Neue Galerie New York:
Neue Galerie New York is a museum devoted to early twentieth-century German and Austrian art and design. Located in a landmark mansion built in 1914 by the architectural firm of Carrere & Hastings, the museum offers a diverse program of exhibitions, lectures, films, concerts and other events. The second floor galleries are dedicated to a rotating selection of fine and decorative art from Vienna circa 1900, including work by fine artists Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka and decorative artists Josef Hoffmann, Koloman Moser and Adolf Loos. The third-floor galleries present German fine and decorative art of early twentieth century, including work by Max Beckmann, Ernest Ludwig Kirchner, Paul Klee and Marcel Breuer. The third floor is also the site for special exhibitions that focus on key individuals and movements, articulating a more complete vision of twentieth-century German and Austrian art (Neue Galerie New York History).
The Gustav Klimt Gallery
Neue Galerie New York was conceived by two men who enjoyed a close friendship over a period of nearly thirty years: art dealer and museum exhibition organizer Sege Sabarsky and businessman, philanthropist and art collector Ronald S. Lauder. Sabarsky and Lauder shared a passionate commitment to Modern German and Austrian art and dreamed of opening a museum to showcase the finest examples of this work. After Sabarsky died in 1996, Lauder carried on the vision of creating Neue Galerie New York as a tribute to his friend (Neue Galerie New York History).
The German art collection represents various movements of the early twentieth century: the Blaue Reiter and its circle (Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, August Macke, Franz Marc, Gabriele Munter) the Brucke (Erich Heckel, Ernest Ludwig Kirchner, Hermann Max Pechstein, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff), the Bauhaus (Lyonel Feininger, Paul Klee, Laszio Moholy-Nagy, Oskar Schlemmer), the Neue Schlichkeit (Otto Dix, George Grosz, Christian Schad) as well as applied arts from the German Werkbund (Peter Behrens) and the Bauhaus (Marianne Brandt, Marcel Breuer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Wilheim Wagenfeld) (Neue Galerie New York History).
Cafe Sabarsky located in a spectacular wood-paneled room on the ground floor has become a favorite spot for New Yorkers. Operated by acclaimed chef Kurt Gutenbrunner, it evokes the great fin-de-siecle cafes of Vienna. The Book Store fills the former library of the mansion and specializes in publications on fine art and architecture from Germany and Austria. The Design Store features objects based on original works by Marianne Brandt, Josef Hoffman, Adolf Loos and other major designers of the era (Neue Galerie New York).
I am finding more and more that the university art galleries are mounting very interesting and clever exhibitions and some as edgy as their large museum counterparts. I recently attended the ‘Art After Stonewall’ exhibition which is created as a two part exhibition with the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art to showcase the post Stonewall riots to the beginning of the AIDS crisis.
“Art After Stonewall” exhibition
The exhibition was an interesting mix of pictures, video, graphic paintings and posters and documentary work combined to show the mood of the times. Some of the most impressive works came from clips of documentaries on Andy Warhol’s ‘Factory Movies’, and the documentaries on ‘Tongues Untied’ and ‘Paris is Burning’ about the gay crisis about men of color and the racism that they faced even within the Gay Community.
The East Village Art Community from the 1980’s “Art After Stonewall”
Some of the photos of then fringe neighborhoods are funny to see as they have been gentrified beyond what anyone could have thought thirty years ago from the early 1980’s. The East Village of back then and of today are world’s apart.
The College did a good job mounting the show and telling the story that is both humorous and sad at the same time. Also, the Grey Gallery is small so you can get through the exhibition in about an hour.
The Grey Gallery exhibition “Art After Stonewall” This is a Keith Haring poster.
The most recent exhibition that I visited “Mudd Club 1978-1983: The Stephen Mass Papers” and the people who had visited the club at that time.
The Broadway Windows of the “The Mudd Club” exhibition in the NYU Broadway building.
In collaboration with NYU Fales Library and Special Collections, 80WSE Gallery presents an exhibition featuring materials from The Stephen Mass Papers, focusing on the legendary Mudd Club venue in New York City (1978-1983) through photographs and extensive notes. Located at the street-level Broadway Windows gallery and Project Space, the exhibition materializes the file structures of the archive and select visual documents contained within the collection.
The Broadway Windows of “The Mudd Club”.
The archival extracts provide rare insight into an important epicenter of downtown art, music, fashion, and culture at a transitional point in New York City and American life marked by rapid urban gentrification and the dawn of The Reagan Era. Within this atmosphere, post-punk musicians, independent designers, contemporary artists, and celebrities coalesced to animate the Mudd Club ‘cabaret’.
The Broadway windows of the “The Mudd Club”.
Acquired by Fales in 2019, the Stephen Mass Papers spans 16.75 Linear Feet in 24 manuscript boxes, 3 half manuscript boxes, 2 small flat boxes, 2 oversize flat boxes, 1 media box, 1 oversize folder in shared housing, and 1 sound reel in shared housing, including 33.92 Megabytes in 167 computer files, 1 sound tape reels , 1 videocassettes (u-matic), 10 audiocassettes, and 6 film reels.
The Broadway Windows of the “Mudd Club”.
“Stephen Mass is an entrepreneur who co-founded the Mudd Club located at 77 White Street in downtown New York City in 1978 along with art curator Diego Cortez and Anya Phillips. The venue became a focal point of the downtown music, art, and cultural scene in the late 20th century, showcasing the intersections of popular and avant-garde performance culture, gender and sexuality, celebrity culture, music, visual art, fashion, film, and nightlife.
The opening sign from the Grey Gallery on the NYU Campus.
The Stephen Mass Papers (inclusive dates 1940-2019, bulk dates 1978-2009) documents the founding and operation of the Mudd Club in New York City, Mass’s other entrepreneurial ventures in New York, and his nightclubs and restaurants in Berlin, as well as his personal life and family history. Consisting of both paper and electronic formats, the collection includes extensive notebooks and notes containing the planning and working notes for Mass’s various endeavors, financial and legal documents, promotional materials for events (such as posters, flyers, and newsletters), ephemera (differentiated from promotional material, as promotional material Mass collected from other clubs or organizations), press coverage, and photographic materials such as prints, negatives, and slides.”
The Grey Gallery exhibition of the “Mudd Club 1978-1983: The Stephen Mass Papers”.
—Fales Library and Special Collections
The Fales Library & Special Collections comprises 350,000 volumes of book and print items, over 11,000 linear feet of archive and manuscript materials, and about 90,000 audiovisual elements.
In 2024, the Grey Gallery moved to its new home at 18 Cooper Square and has a whole new contemporary look to it.
The history of the Grey Gallery on the NYU Campus.
Works from the permanent collection at the new “Grey Gallery” at 18 Cooper Square.
The front of the gallery for the “Americans in Paris” exhibition
I was invited to a new exhibition open to students at NYU “American’s in Paris”, an exhibition of American artists who had been living and creating their art in the City of Lights after WWII until the 1960’s.
The sign for the “American in Paris” exhibition.
The entrance to the new Grey Galleries.
The back Galleries for the “Americans in Paris” exhibition.
The works of the artist “Kimber Smith” in the “American in Paris” exhibition.
The exhibition “American’s in Paris” with artist Joan Mitchell’s work.
The exhibition “American’s in Paris” work by artist Ed Clark.
The works of artist Henry Cousin’s in the exhibition “American’s in Paris”.
The galleries of the Grey Art Galleries
Peter Saul’s “Man in Electric Chair”
“Man in Electric Chair”
The Jazz band entertaining us at the opening of the “Americans in Paris” exhibition.
As an Alumnus of NYU, I now come for the exhibitions and just enjoy myself. I came in for the newest exhibition.
The exhibition in 2024 was “Make Way for Berthe Weill”: Art Dealer of the Parisian Avant-Garde
The main sign from the exhibition
(from the Grey Gallery website)
Make Way for Berthe Weill: Art Dealer of the Parisian Avant-Garde surveys the groundbreaking career of the first woman modern art dealer. Berthe Weill (1865–1951) championed many fledgling masters of modern art early on—such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Amedeo Modigliani—as well as numerous others who did not achieve wide acclaim. Yet her role in early 20th century modernism has been omitted from most historical accounts.
The exhibition will feature some 110 paintings, drawings, prints, and sculpture—many of which were shown at her gallery during the first four decades of the 20th century. Examining Weill’s contributions to the history of modernism as a gallerist, a passionate advocate of contemporary art, and a Jewish woman, it brings to light the remarkable achievements of a singular figure who overcame sexism, antisemitism, and economic struggles in her quest to promote emerging artists (From the NYU-Grey Gallery website).
The timeline of her career
The gallery that night
The art featured were artists promoted by the art dealer
The artwork by female artist Emilie Charmy
The work by artist Mark Chagall
One of my favorite pieces in the show by Mark Chagall
The Mission of the Grey Art Gallery:
The Grey Art Gallery is New York University’s fine arts museum, located on historic Washington Square Park in New York City’s Greenwich Village. As a university art museum, the Grey Art Gallery functions to collect, preserve, study, document, interpret and exhibit the evidence of human culture. While these goals are common to all museums, the Grey distinguishes itself by emphasizing art’s historical, cultural and social contexts, with experimentation and interpretation as integral parts of the programmatic planning. Thus, in addition to being a place to view the objects of material culture, the Gallery serves as a museum-laboratory in which a broader view of an object’s environment enriches our understanding of its contribution to civilization (NYU Grey Gallery History)
The History of the Grey Art Gallery at New York University:
The Grey Art Gallery is located within New York University’s Silver Center-the site of NYU’s original home, the legendary University Building (1835-1892). Winslow homer, Daniel Huntington, Samuel Colt, George Innes and Henry James all lived and worked there, as did Professor F.B.Morse, who established the first academic fine arts department in America on the site now occupied by the Grey Art Gallery.
Demolished in 1892, the original building was replaced by the Main Building (renamed the Silver Center in 2002). Here was located, from 1927 to 1942, A. E. Gallatin’s Museum of Living Art, NYU’s first art museum and the first institution in this country to exhibit work by Picasso, Leger, Miro, Mondrian, Arp and members of the American Abstract Artists group. Gallatin aspired to create a forum for intellectual exchange, a place where artists would congregate to acquaint themselves with the latest developments in contemporary art. In 1975, with a generous gift from Mrs. Abby Weed Grey, the Museum’s original space was renovated, office and a collection storage facility were added and the doors were reopened as the Grey Art Gallery (Museum history).
Exhibitions organized by the Grey Art Gallery encompass aspects of all the visual arts: painting, sculpture, drawing and printmaking, photography, architecture and decorative arts, video, film and performance. In addition to originating its own exhibitions, some of which travel throughout the United States and abroad, the Gallery hosts traveling exhibitions. Award-winning scholarly publications, distributed worldwide are published by the Grey Art Gallery. In conjunction with its exhibitions, the Grey also sponsors public programs including lectures, symposia, panel discussions and films (Museum history).
The new Gallery is at 18 Cooper Square.
(This was taken from the Museum’s website).
Enjoying a evening at the Grey Gallery
The new exhibition in the spring of 2025 was ‘Anonymous was a Woman’ , an execution on the ‘Anonymous was a Woman’s and the great programs effects on mid-Career female artists in the Unit.
The information sign in the front gallery
The entrance of the gallery the night of the exhibition
The entrance to the Grey Art Museum
This was the sign inside for the exhibition
The inside gallery at the start of the show showcasing the collection on display
The main gallery at Grey Gallery
These were the pieces from the show that I found most impressive:
One of the more unusual paintings from the exhibition ‘Monalisa’ by artist Ida Applebroog
The sign for ‘Monalisa’ by Artist Ida Applebroog
The sculpture ‘Rom’s Delhi’ by artist Judy Pfaff
The sign for ‘Rom’s Delhi’
The painting ‘Svati: Now and Then’ by Artist Chita Ganesh
The sign for ‘Svanti: Now and Then’
The sculpture ‘Untitled #1242’ by Artist Petah Coyne
The sign for the sculpture
The sculpture ‘Bones 2000’ by Artist Polly Apfelbaum
The sign for the sculpture
The painting ‘Flamethrower’ by Artist Carrie Moyer
The sign for the painting
The crowd at the end of the evening at the
‘Opening Night’
This unusual sculpture in the middle of the room
Astor Court at the end of the evening at the Grey gallery
I recently attended the ‘Irrititja Kuwaiti Tjungu‘ exhibition on Aboriginal art. It was a very interesting look at Native Art from Australia. This exhibition opened in February of 2026 and the artists were in attendance to talk about their works.
Irriṯitja Kuwarri Tjungu celebrates fifty years of Papunya Tula Artists. It features nearly 120 paintings, including some of the most iconic works of Indigenous Australian art. Rather than being arranged chronologically, the paintings are displayed according to Indigenous principles of genealogy, place, and ancestral travels. In doing so, the show reveals the deep, ongoing relationship between Aboriginal artists, the places they paint, and Tjukurrpa, which exists in a constant state of past and present together—or, in Pintupi, irrititja kuwarri tjungu.
The exhibition also recognizes the long association between Papunya Tula Artists and New York University forged by Professor Emeritus of Anthropology Fred Myers. Since 1973 Myers has served as one of the movement’s most prominent international advocates. His continued involvement with the community brought the exhibition Icons of the Desert to the Grey Art Museum in 2009. While that exhibition showcased early works from Papunya, Irrititja Kuwarri Tjungu honors and extends the legacy of the company’s founding artists.
The promotion sign for the exhibition
The art exhibition in the main gallery
Some of the works in the main gallery
(from the NYU/Grey Gallery website):
Fifty years ago, a painting movement emerged at Papunya in Australia’s Central Desert. It arose with such force and conviction that one could be forgiven for thinking it had existed forever, as though etched from the earth by the slow passage of time. In fact, formed in the aftermath of colonization, the enduring art movement is as much a product of recent historical circumstances as the ancient traditions on which it draws.
Now widely recognized in global contemporary art, painting at Papunya began in 1971 when a small group of Aboriginal men in the community started to represent once-secret ancestral designs of ceremony and ritual, using acrylic paint on scraps of cardboard, linoleum, and Masonite. Their seemingly abstract paintings revealed living ancestral connections known as Tjukurrpa (Dreaming), which fueled powerful artistic experiments with color, line, and space. The following year, in an act of unprecedented corporate sovereignty, the artists formed Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd., the first Aboriginal-owned arts enterprise in Australia. The company’s economic success has allowed generations of men and women artists to stay on their ancestral lands, and continues to provide vital opportunities for local community development.
These were some of my favorite pieces of art from the exhibition:
One of the pieces I admired in the exhibit
‘The Men’s Dreaming at Iloilo’
I thought this colorful work was interesting
The work ‘Lupuinga’
I loved the powerful colors of this painting
The ‘Karilywarra’ work is very colorful
This painting I thought would be interesting in textiles
The painting ‘Travels of Kutungu from Papunnga to Muruntji’
Visiting a Museum: The Unique, Unusual, Obscure and Historical 