Arthur Jafa: I Am Tony at the New Museum

The New Museum on the Bowery is presenting Arthur Jafa: I Am Tony, running from September 25, 2026, to January 4, 2027. The show gives a museum devoted to contemporary art over to an artist whose practice is built around the moving image.

Jafa is known for work that draws on film, archival footage, music and photography, and sets them in motion through the rhythm of editing. He has also worked for years as a cinematographer, and that sense of the camera carries into his art. His pieces have appeared in museums and international exhibitions, and he is a prominent name in contemporary moving-image art.

The title, I Am Tony, is a first-person statement, and it frames the exhibition as a direct address to the viewer. The show is installed in the New Museum's galleries at 235 Bowery.

The New Museum has long focused on emerging and current directions in art, and its stacked-box building is a landmark of the Lower East Side. The neighborhood's galleries, cafés and shops make it easy to combine a visit with a walk through the area.

The exhibition has no particular connection to Japan, but it offers a chance to see a major moving-image artist's work gathered in one place. With a run that stretches into early January, there is time to fit it into an autumn or winter gallery itinerary.