The New Museum - New Humans: Memories of the Future

The New Museum on the Bowery reopened to the public on March 21, 2026, after a two-year closure — the culmination of a decade-long expansion project. The expansion was led by architects Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas of OMA in collaboration with executive architect Cooper Robertson, and sits alongside the existing SANAA-designed building, completed in 2007. The result is a reconfiguration where two buildings, side by side, are designed to operate as one — as Shigematsu described it, "We thought less about designing a single object and more about designing a pair." The entire museum was given over to an inaugural exhibition titled "New Humans: Memories of the Future," featuring the work of more than 200 artists and thinkers, exploring how dramatic technological and societal changes have spurred new conceptions of what it means to be human. The show includes contemporary figures like Hito Steyerl, Wangechi Mutu, and Anicka Yi alongside 20th-century visionaries such as Hannah Höch and H.R. Giger, as well as new site-specific commissions.