Sometimes it seems like the art world has a short attention span, skipping from one trend to the next, so it’s satisfying to find exhibitions that hold onto histories and memories. In different ways, the shows below all maintain a connection with the past. For artists Candida Alvarez and Thomas Holton, this may mean summoning childhood memories and cultural traditions or looking back on tender and casual moments among family. For other artists, such as those included in Queer Lineages at the Wallach Art Gallery, drawing on the past involves learning from artistic precursors who broke down boundaries. Or, if you’re squeezing in a late-summer trip upstate, you could be exploring a fascinating history of mushrooms and the equally fascinating story of a renegade mycologist. —Natalie Haddad, Reviews Editor
Candida Alvarez: Circle, Point, Hoop
El Museo del Barrio, 1230 Fifth Avenue, East Harlem, Manhattan
Through August 3
“Throughout [Alvarez’s] oeuvre, abstraction and representation bleed into one another in the same way that memories momentarily coagulate into images before dissolving again.” —NH
Thomas Holton: The Lams of Ludlow Street
Baxter St. Camera Club, 154 Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
Through August 13
“These photos reveal the beauty emergent from a lifestyle of frequenting businesses run by those of the mother culture, of scrimping and upcycling, and of dutiful ingenuity.” —Lisa Yin Zhang
Homage: Queer Lineages on Video
Wallach Art Gallery, 615 West 129th Street, 6th Floor, Manhattanville, Manhattan
Through October 19
“In Homage: Queer Lineages on Video, artists draw upon the legacies of folks who opened the doors we now get to walk through.” —Daniel Larkin
Outcasts: Mary Banning’s World of Mushrooms
New York State Museum, 222 Madison Avenue, Albany, New York
Through January 4, 2026
“Not only was [Banning] one of the first women to put a name to an entire group, or taxon, of fungus, but a full 23 of the 175 species she records in the manuscript were unknown in the field at the time” —Alexis Clements
