In 1980, a young artist named Jeff Koons staged his first solo show—an installation of vacuum cleaners and floor buffers in the window of the New Museum in New York. Then located in cramped premises on Fifth Avenue, the museum had launched its series of artists’ window displays the previous year. More projects followed at its next venue on Broadway, including Linda Montano’s monthly art/life counselling sessions (1984-91) and the neon Silence=Death sign by the AIDS activists ACT UP (1987).
Abandoned since 2002, the year the museum announced plans to build its current home at 235 Bowery, the format is now making a comeback. A new work by the Philadelphia-based artist Alex Da Corte will go on show this month in the storefront of the adjacent 231 building (Harvest Moon, 27 September-7 January 2018).
Meanwhile, parallel exhibitions for Kahlil Joseph and Petrit Halilaj will inaugurate the space’s new 8,000 sq. ft South Galleries, marking the completion of the first phase in the museum’s ongoing $80m expansion. The 40-year-old institution is also preserving its past, launching a redesigned digital archive on 27 September, as well as the archival exhibition Pursuing the Unpredictable (until 7 January 2018).