Your Guide to Art Excursions Outside NYC This Fall

Looking for an art getaway to take a break from the frenzy of fall in New York City? We recommend a few of the many compelling, perplexing, and engaging art exhibitions on view across Upstate New York, Long Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey this season, compiled below by our team of writers and editors. At the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, contemporary women artists including Cecilia Vicuña and Wendy Red Star respond to 19th-century painter Susie Barstow, whose work was inspired by the nearby Hudson River. Also along the Hudson River banks, the Hessel Museum of Art hosts the work of over 100 artists in an exploration of Native self-determination through performance art and theater. Elsewhere outside the city, pay a visit to Raven Halfmoon’s first solo show, the art of Syrian textiles, Tibetan thangkas, and more — and enjoy the fall scenery along the way.

In 1933, Alexander Calder moved from Paris to Roxbury, Connecticut, and so began a Modernist renaissance in the state. Within a decade, Connecticut was home to creators such as Paul Cadmus, Louise Bourgeois, and André Masson. Arshile Gorky came soon after, followed by Josef and Anni Albers. Picasso’s first US retrospective took place there, as well as the world premiere of the opera Four Saints in Three Acts, written by Gertrude Stein and designed by Florine Stettheimer. This exhibition shines a spotlight on Connecticut’s creative legacy, too often overshadowed by New York City.

The Bruce Museum1 Museum Drive, Greenwich, ConnecticutSeptember 23–January 7, 2024

In honor of its 124th anniversary, the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art has curated a selection of works from its permanent collection, spanning the 1800s through today, focusing specifically on works by women of African descent. This exhibition is part of the museum’s broader initiative to center women artists and artists of color, featuring works by Beverly Buchanan, Betty Blayton, Nellie Mae Rowe, and Amalia Amaki, among others.

Vassar College124 Raymond Avenue, Poughkeepsie, New YorkSeptember 29–January 28, 2024

This exhibition celebrates Syrian textile traditions that date back to antiquity. It also includes scholarship by archaeologists and conservators in an effort to preserve a body of knowledge that might be threatened by Syria’s ongoing civil war.

Katonah Museum of Art134 Jay Street, Katonah, New YorkOctober 15–January 28, 2024

Erika Verzutti’s first survey show in the United States encompasses more than 60 sculptures that speak to the Brazilian artist’s technical craftsmanship and boundless imagination. Recurring motifs and textures, like the distinctive fingerprint shapes that dot what are perhaps her most recognizable wall reliefs, are visited and revisited across a wide spectrum of materials — from wax and ceramic to papier-mâché and oil pigments.

Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College33 Garden Road, Annandale-On-Hudson, New YorkThrough October 15

This video exhibition, curated by Noah Khoshbin, examines evocative performance works from the last two decades of Galindo’s career. Based in Guatemala, her poetic body art takes a critical view of the violence embedded in contemporary socioeconomic power structures and gives voice to the unheard histories suppressed by the state.

The Watermill Center39 Watermill Towd Road, Water Mill, New YorkThrough October 15

The exhibition pays tribute to unsung 19th-century luminary landscape painter Susie Barstow, placing her oeuvre in dialogue with the work of contemporary women artists including Wendy Red Star, Cecilia Vicuña, Kay WalkingStick, Ebony G. Patterson, and Anna Plesset.

Thomas Cole National Historic Site218 Spring Street, Catskill, New YorkThrough October 29

Guest curator David Hartt presents a collection of 19th-century photographs and prints from the Olana’s archive, which contemplates the relationship between human construction and the natural world. This curatorial framing fittingly contextualizes the historic site, formerly the primary house of Hudson River School painter Frederic Church.

Olana State Historic Site5720 State Route 9G, Hudson, New YorkThrough October 29

In celebration of the Parrish Art Museum’s 125th anniversary, the museum invited local East End artists to choose works from the museum’s collection to be shown alongside their own. Highlighting the deep-rooted community among the local artists, this exhibition reveals the possibility of nuanced perspectives found within a shared source of inspiration.

Parrish Art Museum279 Montauk Highway, Water Mill, New YorkOctober 29–February 18, 2024

Throughout his decades-long career, Perelman has dedicated his mixed-media practice to examinations of color interaction, geometry, and patterning and has been celebrated for his organized displays of cast resin sculptures encasing both found and manufactured objects. This exhibition offers a deeper understanding of the artist’s fascination with precision by showcasing never-before-seen studies, drawings, and raw materials from his studio.

The Neuberger Museum of Art at SUNY Purchase College735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, New YorkThrough November 5

This exhibition offers a fresh perspective on two classic subjects: still life and portraiture. These modern-day masters use new technologies, such as photography and video, to capture scenes that are especially poignant in the 21st century while taking inspiration from Renaissance and Baroque predecessors.

Art on Hulfish at Princeton University Art Museum11 Hulfish Street, Princeton, New JerseyThrough November 5

Centering the work of artists from Native American, First Nations, Métis, Inuit, and Alaska Native descent, this exhibition employs humor as an act of resistance to acknowledge the historical and ongoing dispossession of Native peoples, while also celebrating the innovation of contemporary Native artists practicing today.

Hessel Museum of Art at Bard College33 Garden Road, Annandale-on-Hudson, New YorkThrough November 26

You may be thinking, “Why do we need another Warhol show?” But, like the man himself, Andy Warhol: Shadows is an enigma: an almost banal repetition of something intangible. Commissioned by Dia, Warhol’s Shadows series (1978–79) brings the Pop legend surprisingly close to abstraction and in doing so adds another dimension to his complex legacy. It’s a reminder that there was more than meets the eye to a man who famously called himself “a deeply superficial person.”

Dia Beacon3 Beekman Street, Beacon, New YorkNovember 2023–Ongoing

The Yale Center for British Art, currently closed for conservation work, is one of the foremost institutions for British art in the United States. This exhibition features over 50 artworks from the museum’s collection, showcasing landscape and portraiture across four centuries with works by William Hogarth, Gwen John, Angelica Kauffman, Joseph Mallord William Turner, and others.

Yale University Art Gallery1111 Chapel Street, New Haven, ConnecticutThrough December 3

A collection of thangka, traditional Tibetan paintings which are transportable objects typically used for educational and devotional purposes, is the highlight of this exhibition of Buddhist art.

The Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College815 North Broadway, Saratoga Springs, New YorkThrough December 10

Canadian artist Michael Snow, who passed away earlier this year, carved out a long career of creating mind-bending films, paintings, sound installations, performances, and photographs. He often employed hyperbole and humor to critique capitalism and point out the absurdity of daily life under its overbearing presence. This survey exhibition showcases work Snow made across decades, highlighting his experimentation, not only in his messaging, but also in his manipulation of medium.

The School, Jack Shainman Gallery25 Broad Street, Kinderhook, New YorkThrough December 16

Paula Wilson’s solo exhibition interweaves different media in the interest of dissolving the boundaries that delineate art from the ordinary. Informed by her experience as a biracial Black American woman, Wilson’s paintings, collages, prints, and video works examine the accepted contradictions of the world we live in.

The Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College815 North Broadway, Saratoga Springs, New YorkThrough December 30

Caddo Nation painter and sculptor Raven Halfmoon’s solo exhibition consists of both new and past works that are monumental in scale and rife with symbolism. Sampling from myriad Indigenous and Aboriginal traditions and aesthetics, Halfmoon’s stoneware sculptures reference her matrilineal heritage as well as traditions and histories of the Caddo Nation through portraiture, handmade impressions in clay, recurring imagery, and deeply intentional glazes and color choices.

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum258 Main Street, Ridgefield, ConnecticutThrough January 7, 2024

This exhibition features a collection of commissioned works by leading 20th-century photographer and painter Edward Steichen, specifically a series he painted for a wealthy New York couple in which he matched figures from their inner circle with botanical metaphors.

Hudson River Museum511 Warburton Avenue, Yonkers, New YorkThrough February 18, 2024

This exhibition celebrates the institution’s six-year anniversary and its ongoing relationship with Michelangelo Pistoletto, a renowned Italian artist known for championing the Arte Povera movement. It features a new series of work that draws inspiration from New York’s Statue of Liberty as a symbol of inclusivity and multiculturalism.

Magazzino Italian Art2700 Route 9, Cold Spring, New YorkThrough June 24, 2024

Lakshmi Rivera Amin (she/her) is a writer and artist based in New York City. She currently works as Hyperallergic's editorial coordinator. More by Lakshmi Rivera Amin