Histories and futures crisscross in some of our favorite shows at the moment. Paper sculptures by Rejin Leys ensconce themselves in the past, installed throughout the historic King Manor Museum, while Christian Marclay imagines doors as portals for transformation in his film of the same name. And in the 1930s, Marian Spore Bush traversed the past and future with powerful symbolic paintings that look back at the First World War and forward to the looming World War II.
Meanwhile, Melissa R. Kerin writes about Tibetan shrines in art institutions in her incisive opinion piece, prompted by the Brooklyn Museum’s display of the Rubin Museum Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room. While Kerin addresses the problems with such displays, the Shrine Room is still well worth a visit. —Natalie Haddad, Reviews Editor
Marian Spore Bush: Life Afterlife, Works c. 1919–1945
Karma Gallery, 188 East 2nd Street, East Village, Manhattan
Through September 6
“Though [Spore Bush’s] automatic process might echo that of af Klint, Peavy, and others, defaulting to such comparisons defangs the art and erases its cultural context.” —NH
Rejin Leys: Touch Jamaica
King Manor Museum, 153-03 Jamaica Avenue, Queens
Through October 31
“Whereas a white cube induces you to suspend the broader context in favor of the here and now, Leys’s exhibition demands that you see these objects in relation to yourself and the larger world.” —Lisa Yin Zhang
Christian Marclay: Doors
Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Through April 12, 2026
“In Doors, Marclay makes visible the mindless, forgettable actions of life indoors … while exploring the ways that doors serve as charged metaphors and well-worn cinematic devices and tropes.” —Julie Schneider
Rubin Museum Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room
Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Through April 20, 2031
“Shrines have the potential to connect powerfully to a family’s history and ancestors, and their creation and maintenance are tied to a deep sense of cosmological order.” —Melissa R. Kerin
