Spring fine art preview

Photo credit: Courtesy of the Alan Woolfson; private collection, England. Photo: Les Bernstien

Spring arrives with a feeling of renewal - and this is especially true in New York's museums and galleries. In our special spring arts preview, we look backward and forward with a number of exciting retrospectives as well as several solo shows showcasing artists who are focused on the future.

• 'German Expressionism: The Graphic Impulse'
MoMA, March 27-July 11
Featuring more than 250 works by 30 artists, this wide-ranging exhibition looks at Expressionism from the movement's infancy in 1905 to the late 1920s.

• 'Richard Serra Drawing: A Retrospective'
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, April 13-Aug. 28
While Serra is best known for his sculpture work, this retrospective highlights his drawings, which are also an important part of his practice.

• 'Breaking Ground: The Whitney's Founding Collection'
The Whitney Museum of American Art, April 28-Sept. 18
Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney started collecting nearly 100 years ago. "Breaking Ground" takes a look back at some of her acquisitions.

• Affordable Art Fair
7W 34th Street, May 5-8
This biannual art fair features works by up-and-comers as well as established artists priced in the $100 to $10,000 range.

• 'Francis Alys: A Story of Deception'
MoMA & MoMA P.S. 1, May 8-Aug. 1
MoMA and its Long Island City outpost host this sweeping retrospective of Francis Alys - an artist whose work attempts to challenge political and social norms.

• 'Nancy Grossman: Heads'
MoMA P.S.1, May 22-Aug. 15
"Heads" is composed of Nancy Grossman's leather-wrapped head sculptures, which are said to be metaphorical self-portraits.

• 'Gustav Metzger: Historic Photographs'
New Museum, May 19-July 3
Metzger's "Historic Photographs" series features sculptural installations that depict critical historical moments.

• 'Ryoji Ikedae: The Transfinite'
Park Avenue Armory, May 20-June 11
Ikedae uses sound and images to create an installation in which the viewer can feel fully submerged.

• 'Cory Archangel: Pro Tools'
The Whitney Museum of American Art, May 26-Sept. 11
Archangel's work synthesizes media from drawings to video games to create pieces that plumb the possibilities of new media as an art form.

• 'Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities'
Museum of Art and Design, June 7-Sept. 18
"Otherworldly" brings together small-scale hand-built re-creations of artificial environments by a variety of artists. Pictured above: "Canal St. Cross-Section (detail)," Alan Wolfson, 2009-2010.

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