MoMA PS1's 'Hard Art' Examines Black Abstraction Across Three Generations

Key facts

• Hard Art opens November 5, 2026, at MoMA PS1, 22–25 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, Queens.
• The exhibition features more than 40 artists across three generations, covering Black abstraction in the U.S. from 1969 to the present.
• It is organized by Connie Butler, MoMA PS1's Agnes Gund Director, with Sheldon Gooch, Curatorial Associate, and research support from June Kitahara.
• Historical reference exhibitions include Frank Bowling's 5 + 1 (1969), The DeLuxe Show (Houston, 1971, organized by Peter Bradley), and Afro-American Abstraction (PS1, 1980, curated by April Kingsley).
• The title Hard Art derives from Peter Bradley's description of The DeLuxe Show.
• Historical artists include Frank Bowling, Peter Bradley, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Ed Clark, Melvin Edwards, Joe Overstreet, and Raymond Saunders.
• Contemporary artists include Torkwase Dyson, Nikita Gale, Suzanne Jackson, Rindon Johnson, Caroline Kent, Carolyn Lazard, Eric N. Mack, Charisse Pearlina Weston, and SoiL Thornton.
• Torkwase Dyson creates a new commission—a freestanding architectural environment in the museum's double-height gallery; Carolyn Lazard contributes a new moving-image work.
• An illustrated publication will include essays by Butler, Aria Dean, Jessica Bell Brown, Torkwase Dyson, Rindon Johnson, and Erich Kessel, plus an illustrated chronology.
• Admission to MoMA PS1 is free.