New Museum Presents First US Survey of Arthur Jafa
The New Museum will present the first US museum survey exhibition of Arthur Jafa. Titled I Am Tony, the show opens September 24, 2026 and runs through January 31, 2027 across two floors of the newly expanded museum in New York. It features the premiere of new work alongside celebrated pieces including Love is the Message, The Message is Death (2016) and the Golden Lion-winning The White Album (2019), as well as recent paintings, large-scale video and film installations, and sculptural and photographic objects.
The Signal
The exhibition charts Jafa's nearly forty-year practice from his earliest films to recent video installations, mapping the evolution of a filmic language whose syncopations match the aspirations of Black popular music. For curators and collectors it signals sustained institutional focus on an artist whose work places the history of institutional violence against the backdrop of Black cultural ascension in American identity. The survey's scale across the expanded New Museum underscores Jafa's standing as one of the most influential artists of his generation.
- Artists: Arthur Jafa
- Museums: New Museum
- Locations: New York
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