The Peninsula New York Introduces New York Urban Contexts | 1980 - 2025, A Contemporary Art Presentation

The Peninsula New York is proud to present New York Urban Contexts | 1980–2025, a contemporary art presentation featuring 12 works by five New York artists that bring the city’s dynamic creative scene to life. In dialogue with the hotel’s celebrated Keith Haring installations, the presentation charts the city’s artistic evolution from downtown experimentation and early media innovation to street-based aesthetics and today’s boundary-pushing techniques.

On view in the hotel’s lobby from now through May 2026, the presentation unfolds as a constellation of works highlighting both continuity and transformation across generations, positioning the city as a vibrant site of cultural exchange, reinvention, and production.

Featured Artists

New York Urban Contexts | 1980–2025 features artists whose practices offer distinct perspectives on the city’s evolving landscape. Together, these artists illuminate dialogues, transformation, and exchanges that have defined the city’s art scene over the past four decades.

• Dan Asher’s six untitled works from the 1980s and 1990s feature expressive, masklike portraits in graphite, oil, and tempera. Created during the early 1980s, these works probe the intersections of the personal, psychological, and public.
• JPW3’s Luv (2018), made with oil pastel, acrylic, spray paint and wax on canvas, transforms everyday objects into dense sculptural and painted compositions. Through repetition and appropriation, the work reflects the visual residue of metropolitan life.
• Kosuke Kawahara contributes three works from 2023 – 2025, incorporating oil color, urethane, spray paint, and sutured found fabrics. These layered, site-responsive paintings and drawings examine growth, decay, perception, and human behavior within shifting urban conditions.
• Servane Mary’s New York City Trip (2025) an acrylic on canvas, blends historical imagery with abstraction to explore questions of identity, representation, and the emotional resonance of images in contemporary culture.
• After Jean Michel Basquiat’s King Alphonso (1982-83) is a screenprint featuring his iconic three-pronged crown above a stylized Afro-Caribbean visage. Surrounded by frenetic scribbles and bold marks, the work reflects Basquiat’s recurring themes of power, identity, and self-authorship, and was created in collaboration with the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. 

Art Programming

In tandem with the launch of the exhibition, The Peninsula New York will also offer a series of programs designed to engage both guests and the broader community. As part of the hotel’s Peninsula Academy, guests will have the opportunity to meet the four featured artists, participate in a curator-led tour of the exhibition and the acclaimed Martos Art Gallery, and gain unique insights into the creative processes behind the works on display. In collaboration with students from The Art Students League of New York, the hotel will also host a curator-led discussion and studio visits with the artists, reflecting its commitment to supporting emerging local talent.

In May, guests and community members will have an additional opportunity to connect with the exhibited artworks at an intimate panel discussion and cocktail reception in Gotham Lounge with the curator and artists.

“New York Urban Contexts reflects the energy and evolution of the city’s artistic scene across generations,” says Samir Ibrahim, Managing Director, The Peninsula New York. “Art is central to the experience of cultural immersion we offer at The Peninsula, and this exhibition invites guests and local residents to alike to participate in this distinctive aspect of our city’s character.”

In keeping with the longstanding commitment to art across all Peninsula Hotels, the exhibition will be followed by the next iteration of The Peninsula's global Art in Resonance program, which returns to Hong Kong in the spring. For inquiries regarding the exhibition, programming or The Peninsula New York, please visit www.peninsula.com/new-york.

About The Peninsula New York
The Peninsula New York is ideally located on Fifth Avenue and 55th Street, in the heart of New York City's most prestigious shopping, cultural, and business neighborhood, in Midtown Manhattan. A 23 story, 1905 landmark building, The Peninsula New York features 219 newly renovated spacious and luxurious guest rooms and suites, decorated in a classic, contemporary style with art nouveau accents. For additional information on The Peninsula New York, please visit www.peninsula.com/newyork.

About The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited (Stock Code: 45)
Incorporated in 1866 and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited is the holding company of a group which is engaged in the ownership, development, and management of prestigious hotels and commercial and residential properties in key locations in Greater China, Europe, United States and Asia, as well as the operation of the Peak Tram, retail and other services. The Peninsula Hotels portfolio comprises The Peninsula Hong Kong, The Peninsula Shanghai, The Peninsula Beijing, The Peninsula London, The Peninsula Paris, The Peninsula Istanbul, The Peninsula New York, The Peninsula Chicago, The Peninsula Beverly Hills, The Peninsula Tokyo, The Peninsula Bangkok and The Peninsula Manila. The property portfolio of the group includes The Repulse Bay Complex, The Peak Tower and St. John’s Building in Hong Kong, and 21 avenue Kléber in Paris, France. The Peak Tram, Retail and Others portfolio of the group includes The Peak Tram in Hong Kong; The Quail in Carmel, California; Peninsula Clubs and Consultancy Services, Peninsula Merchandising, and Tai Pan Laundry in Hong Kong.

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