Six Must-See NYC Art Shows This July

Rose Florence Anderson, author of The Rose Period newsletter, curates a monthly column for Elephant Magazine highlighting six standout exhibitions in New York City for July. The shows include Firelei Báez at Hauser & Wirth (through July 31), where Báez paints over colonial-era maps and archives, incorporating Caribbean folklore and Afrodiasporic cosmologies; a notable piece, River Mirror, is made from 111 book pages. Carol Rama (1918–2015) is also at Hauser & Wirth (through July 31), featuring her early transgressive works that were shut down for obscenity in 1945, including assemblages with car inner tubes. Lynette Yiadom-Boakye's 'Many A Moonlit Caveat' at Jack Shainman (through July 31) presents imaginary figures, with the title from her own writing. David Byrne and Saul Steinberg's 'Influence and Affinity' at Pace (through August 1) pairs Byrne's embroidered banners with Steinberg's drawings; Byrne arrived by bike. Fairfield Porter's 'What Everyone Knows' at the Art Students League (through August 18) is the first large-scale Porter show in NYC in 25 years, featuring 35 works and contextualizing him with contemporaries like Jackson Pollock and Frank O'Hara. 'Making Space: American Women Artists and the Century of Change' at Lincoln Glenn (through August 22) is the gallery's third annual summer show dedicated to women artists such as Louise Nevelson and Lois Dodd.