Image: National Academy of Design, New York
The National Academy of Design will open ‘Shelter from the Storm: An Artist’s Eye with Stan Allen and Polly Apfelbaum’ on September 17, 2026, presenting a collection-based exhibition organized by architect Stan Allen and visual artist Polly Apfelbaum. The public opening will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at the National Academy of Design, 519 West 26th Street, on the second floor in New York. The exhibition is described as the third and final presentation of the Academy’s 200th Anniversary year.
The project is part of ‘The Artist’s Eye,’ an ongoing exhibition series launched by the Academy in 1992. The series invites a National Academician to curate an exhibition around a chosen theme using works from the institution’s collection. ‘Shelter from the Storm’ marks the first edition since 2013 and introduces several departures from the series’ previous format: Allen and Apfelbaum are the first two National Academicians to co-curate the exhibition, Allen is the first architect to curate the series, and the presentation is the Academy’s first collection-only exhibition of this scale since its Chelsea galleries opened in 2023.
Allen and Apfelbaum’s collaboration draws on decades of dialogue and creative exchange between the pair, who are married. The Academy’s Exhibition Committee selected them for what the event materials describe as distinct but complementary approaches: Allen’s work is grounded in spatial politics and architectural design, while Apfelbaum’s practice is associated with material experimentation and vibrant abstraction. Their curatorial approach reframes historic holdings through their own creative and conceptual practices rather than organizing the collection solely by medium or chronology.
The exhibition examines conflict, memory and resilience, both metaphorically and literally. Its historical scope includes the wars, slavery, displacement and violence against Native peoples, the Civil Rights Era, universal suffrage and the struggle for women’s rights, the atomic bomb, the Holocaust and the AIDS crisis. The Academy’s materials state that the artists represented in the collection lived through and responded to these histories as citizens, artists and individuals.
Works are brought into dialogue across categories including landscape, abstraction, architecture, figuration and cityscape. The stated aim is to identify emotional, symbolic and material connections across time and media, producing what the Academy calls a layered view of how artists and architects have navigated moments of upheaval in American history. The exhibition also emphasizes a plurality of experiences and responses rather than a single interpretation of the institution’s past.
Participating artists and architects include Pat Adams, Harmony Hammond, Richard Artschwager, Ralph Albert Blakelock, Jane Dickson, Louise Fishman, Charles Gaines, Shirley Jaffe, Robert Motherwell, Howardena Pindell, Faith Ringgold, Peter Saul, Joan Snyder, George Tooker, Esteban Vicente and Kay WalkingStick, among many others. The list also includes Matt Mullican and James Heath, identified separately from the National Academicians represented in the exhibition. Unless otherwise noted, the participating artists and architects are National Academicians, elected by their peers in recognition of contributions to art, architecture and culture in the United States. In most cases, the works on view are diploma works donated to the Academy upon election. The public opening is scheduled for Thursday, September 17, 2026, at the Academy’s New York address.
