What Is Arthur Jafa’s “I Am Tony” at the New Museum, and How Do You Visit?

Short answer

Arthur Jafa: I Am Tony is a survey of the artist’s films, photography, paintings, sculpture and installations at the New Museum in New York, on view from September 24, 2026 to January 3, 2027. It occupies the third and fourth floors. Start with the relationship between images and music, then use the museum’s context to ask how Jafa represents Black life in America. The museum is closed on Mondays; Thursday admission from 7 to 9 pm is pay what you wish, with advance reservations required.

What should you know before visiting?

• Venue: New Museum, 235 Bowery, New York.
• Exhibition dates: September 24, 2026 to January 3, 2027.
• Location inside: third and fourth floors.
• Regular hours: Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday through Sunday, 11 am to 6 pm; Thursday, 11 am to 9 pm. Closed Monday.
• Admission: adults $28; seniors 65+ $24; students $19; visitors with disabilities $22, with a complimentary care partner; visitors 18 and under free. Visitors under 12 must be accompanied by an adult.
• Thursday evenings: pay what you wish, 7 to 9 pm. Reserve online; a limited number of onsite tickets may be offered, but availability is not guaranteed.
• Curators: Massimiliano Gioni and Gary Carrion-Murayari, with Calvin Wang.
• Visit information checked October 12, 2026. This guide uses published museum materials, not a firsthand visit. Check the current visit page before making plans.

Why is the exhibition called I Am Tony?

The title refers to jazz drummer Tony Williams. According to the New Museum, the exhibition follows Jafa’s film language through rhythms and textures connected to the aspirations of Black popular music. The title is an entry into the relationship between sound and image, not a claim that every work is about Williams.

Jafa was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, in 1960. The museum describes a career of nearly four decades, including cinematography and work across several visual media. Its account places the history of institutional violence against Black communities alongside the prominence of Black music, culture and entertainment in American life.

This context matters because it gives you something more precise to consider than whether a moving image looks familiar. Ask what changes when an image is placed beside another image or heard with a particular piece of music. What seems to connect them, and what remains difficult to reconcile?

Which works does the museum name?

The exhibition includes Love is the Message, The Message is Death (2016) and The White Album (2019), alongside new work, recent paintings, video and film installations, sculptural objects and photographs. These named films provide starting points, not a complete checklist or a prescribed route through the galleries.

The museum’s July press release also identifies Monster (1988), a self-portrait made with a camera held up to a mirror. Its description draws attention to both the artist and the camera that makes the image. That gives you a concrete question to take into the exhibition: what happens when the means of producing an image becomes part of what the image shows?

For a different New York approach to images and imaginative worlds, the Saya Woolfalk guide at the Bronx Museum offers a separate example. It is related reading, not a recommendation to treat both museums as one itinerary.

How can you look without reducing a film to a single message?

Try separating three things: what you recognize, how the images are arranged, and what the sound changes. These are editorial looking prompts, not instructions from Jafa or the museum.

First, identify one transition between images. Describe what changes without deciding immediately what it means. Is the connection visual, emotional, historical, or something you cannot yet name?

Next, attend to sound. Ask whether it seems to join the images, pull against them, or change how long an image stays with you. You do not need to recognize every musical reference to begin observing this relationship.

Finally, read the available exhibition context and return to the work. Which observation becomes clearer? Which interpretation now needs revising? Avoid assuming that a familiar image has the same meaning in every setting.

This is one use of cultural mediation: context supports attention without replacing the encounter with a ready-made answer. In Antre, adaptive cultural mediation names our own approach to adjusting context to a person’s question. Here, one visitor might begin with music and another with the source of an image. The term belongs to Antre; it is not the New Museum’s description of this exhibition.

What does the museum mean by images placed in proximity?

The museum explains that Jafa builds a visual archive across histories and areas of culture, then collages, montages and rearranges the material into “affective proximities.” Its press release says Jafa borrows this term from his friend and collaborator John Akomfrah.

Keep that attribution intact. The phrase is not a slogan invented for this guide. It offers a way to ask about the relationships created by bringing images together, rather than treating each image as an isolated piece of content.

The museum connects this process to how race is communicated and experienced through contemporary media. Looking at form does not mean putting that history aside. A transition, a rhythm or a juxtaposition can be where formal decisions and cultural context meet.

How do tickets and accessibility work?

Use the museum’s free and discounted admission page to check eligibility before buying. Some community and affiliate offers require identification and in-person collection. The museum says ticket sales are final and non-refundable. Members do not need advance admission tickets.

The entrance at 235 Bowery is wheelchair accessible. Elevators serve gallery levels, but the museum specifies that art installed in the North building stairwell between the third and fourth floors is not wheelchair accessible. Do not assume that access to the two floors establishes access to every intervening space.

Manual wheelchairs and portable gallery stools are available without charge, subject to availability. Seating throughout the museum is limited. The accessibility page also describes screen-reader-compatible exhibition texts in its Bloomberg Connects guide, translatable into multiple languages. That does not establish Spanish subtitles or translated audio for every film.

For another distinct New York exhibition, see the Joseph Cohen guide in Tribeca. Painting offers a different pace of looking; neither guide assumes you have visited the other venue.

FAQ

Is I Am Tony free?

General adult admission is $28. Visitors 18 and under are free, and eligible groups have additional offers. Thursday evenings from 7 to 9 pm are pay what you wish, not unrestricted free admission.

Can I visit on Monday?

No. The New Museum’s regular schedule lists Monday as closed.

When does the exhibition end?

January 3, 2027. Check the museum’s current schedule before a holiday visit.

Why does the title mention Tony?

It refers to jazz drummer Tony Williams. The museum connects the exhibition to the rhythm and textures of Black popular music.

Is the exhibition accessible in Spanish?

The museum says its digital exhibition texts can be translated into multiple languages. Check the guide for the text you need; the source does not confirm Spanish subtitles or audio for every work.

Sources

• New Museum: exhibition, dates, floors and named works.
• New Museum: July 16, 2026 press release, Monster and affective proximities.
• New Museum: hours and admission.
• New Museum: free and discounted admission and ticket conditions.
• New Museum: accessibility and digital exhibition texts.

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