Modern Spotlight: Fred Wilson at MoMA PS1

MoMA PS1 in Long Island City has opened a new installment of Modern Spotlight, a series that premieres works from the Museum of Modern Art's collection at the Queens institution. This chapter is devoted to Fred Wilson and runs from November 5, 2026 through September 6, 2027. It is organized by Jody Graf, Associate Curator, and the series is made possible by Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis.

The work on view is the glass sculpture To Die Upon A Kiss, made in 2011. It measures roughly 70 by 68½ by 68½ inches (177.8 × 174 × 174 cm) and belongs to MoMA, a gift of Agnes Gund in honor of Maria Martin. Its title comes from the last lines spoken by Othello in Shakespeare's play, which unfolds in sixteenth-century Venice and follows a Black general toward a tragic end.

The sculpture grows out of Wilson's project for the 2003 Venice Biennale, where he was invited to represent the United States. There he drew on the many people of African descent who appear in artistic depictions of Venetian life across the centuries, even though their own first-person accounts are missing from the historical record. Working with glassblowers on the Venetian island of Murano, he produced elaborate chandeliers in black glass and titled each after a line from Othello's closing monologue.

Wilson is an artist known for examining how museums collect and display objects, and whose stories those institutions tell. Here, a material tied to Venetian luxury is turned black and joined to a line of Shakespeare, drawing attention to presences that history has recorded only from the outside.

MoMA PS1 is at 22-25 Jackson Avenue, Queens, and offers free admission for all. The site lists daily hours of 12 to 6 p.m. An Open House on November 7, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., celebrates Fred Wilson alongside several other presentations.