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Recognizing a group show at a museum or nonprofit institution with a strong curatorial point of view or focused on a significant historical period.
“MONUMENTS”at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA and The Brick, Los Angeles (October 23, 2025–May 3, 2026)Curators: Hamza Walker, Kara Walker, and Bennett Simpson, with Hannah Burstein and Paula Kroll
Few exhibitions have the power to be decade-defining, but that is one way to describe “MONUMENTS.” A decade in the works, the show repositioned decommissioned Confederate monuments by placing them in spaces typically devoted to contemporary art. In MOCA’s galleries, the monuments were shown on the gallery floor as sculptural objects—many of them with graffiti still intact—rather than as elevated symbols of authority placed high above on pedestals, as they previously appeared in public settings. In showing the monuments this way, the show gave visitors a sense of what the statues’ true legacy means and how objects similar to them continue to shape US society.
With a sharp curatorial thesis that tackled a weighty concept, “MONUMENTS” also expertly placed these works in dialogue with the work of contemporary artists, including Bethany Collins, Julie Dash and Davóne Tines, Cauleen Smith, Torkwase Dyson, Andres Serrano, Martin Puryear, Nona Faustine, and Hank Willis Thomas, among others. Their varied stylistic approaches engaged with questions of monumentality, power, and who gets remembered in public spaces. At The Brick, cocurator Kara Walker presented Unmanned Drone (2023), for which she took apart a decommissioned equestrian statue of Stonewall Jackson and welded it back together in a fragmented way that acted as a metaphor for how we might piece together the fragments of history to create something new. Taken together, visitors could see how contemporary artists are essential in helping us navigate and process the unsettled debates around the toxic and pernicious histories that Confederate monuments embody.
Through these ambitious pairings, “MONUMENTS” displayed the unique capacity of art institutions to reframe history and bring it into productive friction with the present. A singular, once-in-a-generation exhibition, “MONUMENTS” is a study in what a thematic museum show can do.
Inaugural Hang of the David Geffen Galleriesat Los Angeles County Museum of ArtOpened May 4
While not a thematic exhibition in the traditional sense, the ARTnews Awards Jury felt that the hang that inaugurated LACMA’s David Geffen Galleries deserved a special commendation. LACMA’s at-times controversial building, designed by Peter Zumthor, presents a single floor spanning Wilshire Boulevard to hold the museum’s permanent collection. The aim was not to present one chronological narrative of art history but to think through how various eras, geographies, and styles can create commonalities when exhibited together. Key to the success of this hang was collaboration among the museum’s 15 curatorial departments. The curators’ work provides new insights into well-known works, spotlights lesser-known ones, and offers elegant juxtapositions.
“Into the Time Horizon”at the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno (November 15, 2025 – January 3, 2027)Curators: Apsara DiQuinzio, with Kolin Perry
“If the word we: 59th Carnegie International”at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (May 2, 2026–January 3, 2027)Curators: Ryan Inouye, Danielle A. Jackson, and Liz Park
“Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way”at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum (March 6–September 6, 2026); traveled to Des Moines Art Center (October 24, 2026–January 24, 2027)Curator: Andrea Alvarez
“Several Eternities in a Day: Form in the Age of Living Materials”at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (April 5, 2026–August 23, 2026)Curators: Pablo José Ramírez, with Jessi DiTillio