15 Women-Led Art Shows To See In New York This Fall

While New York Fashion Week has come to an end, for anyone whose eyes are still starved for beauty, there is a formidable list of ongoing women-led art happenings to fill your calendar.

The waterside Victorian cottage (now a museum), in a landmarked park on Staten Island that once belonged to photographer Alice Austen (1866–1952) and her partner, Gertrude Tate, inspired this group exhibition, plumbing the depths of lesbian artists' connection to the water. Among the artists included by curator Gemma Rolls-Bentley are Jenna Gribbon, Meryl Meisler, Joan E. Biren, and, of course, Austen.

There's always something slightly amiss in Sasha Gordon's work, where hyperrealistic self-portraits are dropped into surreal, absurd settings. Take, say, the image of a calm figure, her sneakers off and headphones on, methodically clipping her toenails in the park as a volcano explodes in the background. That they are painted with a distinctly luminous beauty only makes them that much more disquieting. Sitting in that discomfort is an essential part of the experience of enjoying Gordon's work.

The language of L.A.-based artist June Edmonds is vibrant color and repetitive pattern and rich texture, creating a singular, sacred geometry guided by her personal reflections on Black history. "The Sky Remains the Same," Edmonds's first major solo New York exhibition, draws inspiration from the ebe-amẹn , a powerful symbol of protection from the Kingdom of Benin.

The title of the Bay Area painter's solo show is "Brainwaves and Wavestorms"—fitting, since there is a rhythmic repetition that has an almost hypnotic effect on the eye in fantastical works like Superlunary Landscape With Orbiting Flowers and Repeat Stroke (2025) and Atomized Illumination (2025). The experience of them up close and at a distance is entirely different but equally engaging.

Myth, magical realism, and memory have all long found their way into the transportive work of Colombia-born, New York-based artist María Berrío. In her debut solo show, "Soliloquy of the Wounded Earth," Berrío's fantastical visual meanderings are large scale (which really allows the viewer to feel enveloped by them) and fuse watercolor with Japanese paper collage, giving them new dimension.