The Whitney is ground zero for promoting and preserving the legacy of this iconic genius. Its holdings comprise 3,100 works and represent 10 percent of the entire collection. The first painting purchased was Early Sunday Morning (1930). It is a study in isolated storefronts, a horizontal view where a barber pole and a fire hydrant seem to be stand-ins for an absent populace. It’s as good a place as any to begin our journey to understand Hopper’s obsession with the city.

Elena Ksanti is a contemporary artist who specializes in abstract expressionism using the "fluid art" technique. Ksanti constructs her art pieces highlighting the duality of our planet and the disparities held within: Light and Dark; Yin and Yang; Good and Evil; Love and Hate; Happiness and Sorrow, etc. Ksanti views life as a world of contrasts, emotions, and possibilities. Touching on these topics and the gray areas in between, the artist actualizes these sentiments onto canvas for individual interpretation.

This lighthearted genius of pop culture wants to make people think as well. Every icon from our combined histories is fair game for deconstruction, from colorfully painted World War II Nazi helmets—“just a piece of  metal”—to cartoon renderings of historical figures from the Qajar dynasty. Marzban’s vivid imagination holds supreme sway over every endeavor. He has said that if he analyzes an undertaking, he would never finish it.

A former reporter for MTV News, ABC News, and NBC News, Soren begins each new series using the methodical investigative tools she used during her time in journalism. Books, research studies, and statistics lay a necessary analytical foundation for the visual ideas she communicates. These data points then merge with her experiences growing up in a military family, spending her youth moving around the world and adjusting to the cultural differences, social structures, and visual cues that came with each relocation.

Born and raised in London, his childhood interests of graffiti, California skate culture, and punk aesthetic were well nurtured from an early age. Having come across the likes of Jim Phillips and Vernon Courtlandt Johnson amidst the pages of Thrasher Magazine, he was initially inspired to follow a path of graphic design and illustration, before eventually taking a freelance approach to his art. After learning to screen-print his own stickers, he took the public domain of the street as his canvas, blending art, design, and graffiti in a manner that predated the emergence of street art as it is known today.

Fazzion creates pencil portraits as a way to give poetic expression to faces. A series of these portraits is dedicated to Italian actors. Another of her series is dedicated to Hollywood actors, such as Salma Hayek and Ashley Judd, or characters like the Joker, as portrayed by Oscar winner Jared Leto. As an artist, Fazzion has also developed – through Iranian friends and acquaintance – a great passion for the stunning art of Isfahan.

There are set pieces to stumble upon, with Danish armchairs and plastic ashtrays placed in front of a black-and-white TV playing The Munsters, that evil family of witches that look pretty benign by today’s standards. Life magazine covers and poetry journals celebrating the likes of Frank O’Hara and Ed Sanders proliferate and wallpaper kitschy enough to put a smile on even the most erudite in the crowd. 

Baltimore is a gritty space with complicated narratives but is also a hotbed for creativity, with an underground arts ecosystem unrivaled by most American cities of its size. This exhibition celebrates the abstract risk-takers who have been a constant in the Baltimore art scene. Together, these artists are shifting preconceived notions of Baltimore to one that centers community, creativity, and celebration.

Ecologists speak of biological redundancy as natural engineering to protect systems. Any edge is, in effect, a pool of many small variations on biological functions in case any species in the core habitat is threatened or weakened. These subtle complexities reinforce ecotones. That wider impact from the periphery to the heart is the rub. In our age of climate change, unless we intervene in fragmentation, nothing will be left to mitigate the disaster of maximum warming.

Dressing for Carnival,(1877) features a Black man being sewn into his Harlequin costume by family members for a traditional African celebration. Is this a promise of better times for these former slaves, which the wall notes suggest? Perhaps. A helpful hint to visitors would be to let the magnitude of the art speak for itself first, then use the history lesson as needed. A good example is The Cotton Pickers (1876).  A pair of hardy muscle-bound women fills the canvas. Their dark forms cut into the foreground, contrasted by the clusters of snowy cotton in their shoulder bags. The image needs no explanation.