The Brooklyn Museum is proud to announce the selection of more than two hundred artists for The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition, which will open on the occasion of the Museum’s 200th anniversary. This extensive group show highlights the remarkable creativity and diversity of Brooklyn’s artistic communities. Reflecting on a rich history of fostering creativity and championing artists of all backgrounds, the Museum’s bicentennial is an opportunity to honor the borough’s artistic heritage while looking ahead to its bright and creative future. Artists were selected through a collaborative effort led by esteemed Artist Committee members Jeffrey Gibson, Vik Muniz, Mickalene Thomas, and Fred Tomaselli, all of whom are Brooklyn Museum Artist Trustees. The selection process consisted of two phases: invitations from the Artist Committee and a public Open Call that garnered nearly 4,000 applications.
“For years artists have been asking us to organize a big Brooklyn artists exhibition, and now we’ve done it!” says Anne Pasternak, Shelby White and Leon Levy Director, Brooklyn Museum. “Brooklyn has more artists than anywhere, and we are thrilled to expand the ways we support the excellence of our incredible borough.”
The artworks selected for the exhibition reflect Brooklyn’s vibrant and dynamic art scene, spanning a wide range of artistic disciplines including drawing, painting, collage and assemblage, video, multimedia, installation, and sculpture. Throughout the exhibition’s run, a series of public programs will highlight selected artists whose practice involves performance.
Showcasing a snapshot of Brooklyn’s creative output over the past five years, the artists in this exhibition explore and challenge contemporary themes that resonate both locally and globally, such as migration, cross-cultural exchange, identity, history, and memory.
The presentation also highlights collective care, healing, joy, solidarity, uncertainty, and turbulence, intertwined with material experimentation.
Together, these works paint a rich portrait of what makes Brooklyn uniquely “Brooklyn”: a borough teeming with a vast diversity of people, vibrant and pulsing with energy and activity. The exhibition celebrates the inventiveness and innovation of Brooklyn’s artists, connected by mutual love and respect as collaborators, neighbors, friends, and family.
