Must-see exhibits on Long Island and in New York City

MoMA Reopens

(Oct. 21, Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd St., Manhattan)

MoMA is celebrating its 90th year, but it’s going to feel brand new when the doors reopen. New galleries have been built, and every work of art is being rearranged and rehung. The museum boasts 40,000 square feet of additional exhibition areas including free-to-visit ground floor galleries. Lounges, performance and educational spaces, where visitors can drop in and make art, are geared towards changing the museum experience. Opening highlights include a solo show of African-American artist Betye Saar, Latin American paintings, an exhibition partnering with the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the museum’s unparalleled collection of modern masterpieces by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Vincent van Gogh, Andy Warhol, Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock and more. 212-708-9400, moma.org

Abstract Climates: Helen Frankenthaler in Provincetown

(Through Oct. 27, Parrish Art Museum, 279 Montauk Hwy, Water Mill)

While Jackson Pollock dripped paint onto his canvases, Helen Frankenthaler was pouring hers. With thinned-down colors seeping into the fibers, the way wine would stain a tablecloth, she pioneered a new way of painting called “soak stain” and launched the Color Field movement. Frankenthaler puddled, squeegeed and even walked across canvases to create her signature abstractions, earning recognition as a 20th century master and breaking lots of glass ceilings along the way. On display will be 31 works made between 1950 and 1969, including monumental paintings like “Indian Summer,” glowing with sunset purple, deep ocean blue and rich, earthy brown, express ideas of nature without picturing it. 631-283-2118, parrishart.org

10th Anniversary Edition of Ray Johnson’s ‘A Book About Death’

(Sept. 14-Nov. 2, Islip Art Museum, 50 Irish Lane, East Islip)

Enigmatic, reclusive Long Island artist Ray Johnson wasn’t as famous as his friends Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, but he was a star to them. Withdrawn but deeply engaged, the conceptual artist invented his own genre, “mail art.” Sending drawings and collages filled with mystery, humor, blazing originality and sometimes dark observations to colleagues, he’d ask them to add their own art and return them. Synergies continue as more than 200 international artists respond with thousands of new artworks on postcards that are free for the taking. Visitors can become involved, mail some art and start their own collections. 631-224-5420, islipartmuseum.org

Vija Celmins: To Fix the Image in Memory

(Sept. 24-Jan. 12, The Met Breuer, 945 Madison Ave., Manhattan)

Not many artists get solo shows at The Met. Sag Harbor’s Vija Celmins fills two floors with 120 works spanning more than 50 years in this major retrospective. Her woodcut prints and monumental pencil drawings, made with minimal materials and countless hours of work, capture the vastness of the ocean, the depths of space or the details of spider webs. Celmins describes her process as “redescription.” Pondering her images is mesmerizing, meditative and moving. 212-731-1675, metmuseum.org

The Colmar Treasure

(Through Jan. 12, The Cloisters, 99 Margaret Corbin Dr., Fort Tryon Park, Manhattan)

This touching exhibition traces the lives and tragic death of a medieval Jewish family from Colmar, France, through treasures and heirlooms that were buried inside a wall more than 600 years ago. When plague struck in 1348 and scapegoats were sought, these valuables were hidden to protect them from a pogrom that massacred the town’s entire Jewish population, but their story endures. 212-923-3700, metmuseum.org

Abstract Expressionism Revisited

(Oct. 26-Dec. 30, Guild Hall Museum, 158 Main St., East Hampton)

Abstract Expressionists from the East End started a movement that swept the globe. The museum delves into its extensive collection to show iconic favorites and pieces that haven’t been seen in years by Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Willem and Elaine de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Grace Hartigan and more. 631-324-0806, guildhall.org

Hans Haacke: All Connected

(Oct. 24-Jan.26, New Museum, 235 Bowery)

Everyone’s a critic. Hans Haacke turned it into an art form, through works that question and critique politics, wealth and the art world. Haacke’s first New York retrospective in decades looks at his conceptual, sculptural, kinetic and environmental art. 212-219-1222, newmuseum.org

Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925-1945

(Feb. 14-May 17, Whitney Museum of American Art, 99 Gansevoort St.)

Art has often been used to rally support, as with a group of Mexican muralists in the wake of that country’s revolution. Their influence on American artists is examined through 200 works by 60 Mexican and American artists, with Diego Rivera at the forefront. 212-570-3600, whitney.org

‘Environmental Impact’

(Sept. 3-Dec. 13, Hofstra University Museum, Hempstead)

The nine international and local artists featured in this exhibit don’t just picture what’s happening to the environment. Activism meets art in works that document and affect environmental change, at times repurposing refuse as artistic materials. 516-463-5672, hofstra.edu/community/museum

Seen & Unseen: Photographs by Imogen Cunningham

(Oct 18-Dec. 29, Long Island Museum, 1200 Rte. 25A, Stony Brook)

While painting was dominated by Picasso and Matisse, Imogen Cunningham was one of the greats of a group of women who broke into the mainstream art world via photography. Her first major U.S. show in more than 20 years includes 60 crisp, elegant black-and-white images. 631-751-0066, longislandmuseum.org