Things to Do This Week in Boston

THEATER

Our Class
Tadeusz Słobodzianek’s play, based on the true story of a pogrom in a Polish village in 1941, returns to the stage via Arlekin Players. Słobodzianek examines the pogrom through the eyes of a group of 10 schoolchildren, half Jewish and half Catholic. Igor Golyak directs this new production, already a critical success off-Broadway.
$84.50-$155, Friday, June 13 through June 22, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont St., Boston

Mrs. Warren’s Profession
New York City theater company Bedlam takes on another work from George Bernard Shaw, one so controversial in its time that the whole cast of its 1905 American premiere was arrested. That’s because Mrs. Warren’s profession is a brothel madam, and her rise to prominence cast a bit too stark a light on Victorian moral hypocrisy.
$81-$97, Thursday, May 29 through June 22, Central Square Theater, 450 Mass. Ave., Cambridge

T: An MBTA Musical
This oh-so-local comedy musical is back again. The plot: three ordinary commuters, frustrated by the T for reasons frequent riders don’t need to have explained, come upon a map that will lead them to the man in charge. But what will it take to get to him?
$35-$45, through June 15, The Rockwell, 255 Elm St., Somerville

Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
American Repertory Theater hosts this musical rom-com production from English company Kiln Theatre. The couple: a British man, Dougal, who’s travelled to New York City for the second wedding of a father he doesn’t know very well, and an American, Kate, the sister of the bride, whose initial offer to pick up Dougal at the airport turs into a longer adventure.
$35-$150, through June 29, Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St., Cambridge

Hello, Dolly!
It doesn’t get more classic Broadway than this 1964 musical about a plucky matchmaker (Aimee Doherty) in turn of the 20th century New York City. Dolly prides herself on her skills, but her latest client presents a problem: she wants him for herself. Fortunately, she’s clever and charming enough to make it happen—eventually.
$30-$86, through June 22, Lyric Stage Company, 140 Clarendon St., Boston

The Light in the Piazza
The Huntington’s Artistic Director, Loretta Greco, helms this original production of Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas’ period musical, set in postwar Italy. An American mom, Margaret, has travelled there with her daughter Clara, hoping to expose her to the beauty of the country—but Clara soon becomes more interested in a particular Italian boy.
$29-$185, through June 15, The Huntington Theater, 264 Huntington Ave., Boston

MOVIES

Materialists
Dakota Johnson stars in writer-director Celine Song’s rom-com as a matchmaker caught between a wealthy client who looks perfect on paper (Pedro Pascal) and an old flame (Chris Evans) who knows her better but hasn’t done much with his own life. But is that really such a bad thing?
$12-$16, opens Friday, June 16, Somerville Theater, 55 Davis Sq., Somerville

Noir City Boston
The Film Noir Foundation presents another fine selection of classics from the dark side of 20^th century life, opening with 1944’s Raymond Chandler adaptation Murder, My Sweet and 1947’s Out of the Past, starring the powerhouse trio of Robert Mitchum, Kirk Douglas, and Jane Greer. Cinema scholar Foster Hirsch provides introductions to these and most of the other screenings.
$13-$15, Friday through Monday, June 13-16, Brattle Theater, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge

The Phoenician Scheme
Despite the best efforts of some pranksters to replace him with AI, Wes Anderson continues to pump out movies at an increasingly rapid pace— the delightfully convoluted The Phoenician Scheme, starring Benicio del Toro as shifty businessman and arms dealer Anatole “Zsa-Zsa” Korda, is his fourth already this decade.
$12-$16, Somerville Theater, 55 Davis Sq., Somerville

The Life of Chuck
Based on Stephen King’s non-horror novella of the same name, Mike Flanagan’s decades-spanning character study in reverse stars Tom Hiddleston as Chuck, a regular guy with a regular life. If that doesn’t sound Stephen King enough for you, don’t worry—there’s a bit more going on than that.
$15-$17, Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline

Pavements
Even among their eclectic peers, ’90s indie-rock icons Pavement were not an ordinary band, and Alex Ross Perry has not created an ordinary documentary about them, opting instead to embark on a set of projects—a musical, a biopic, and even a museum—that blur the line between fiction and reality.
$13-$15, through June 12, Brattle Theater, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge

Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning
The indefatigable Tom Cruise returns for the eighth time as super spy Ethan Hunt. Immediately following the previous installment, Dead Reckoning Part One, Final Reckoning resumes Hunt’s quest to stop the assassin Gabriel Martinelli (Esai Morales) from acquiring a powerful AI called the Entity. Catch it here in IMAX.
$12.69-$25.18, AMC Boston Common, 175 Tremont St., Boston

Jane Austen Wrecked My Life
Agathe (Camille Rutherford), the bookseller heroine of this comedy from director Laura Piani, dreams of publishing a book herself—and of finding love, Jane Austen style. When she lands an invitation to the Jane Austen Writers’ Residency, she winds up in a distinctly Austenian love triangle—but will she figure out how to get the ending she wants?
$15-$17, Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline

Hurry Up Tomorrow
The Weeknd stars in this thriller as an insomniac musician drawn into an existential rabbit hole by a young woman named Anima (Jenna Ortega), whose name is identical to Carl Jung’s term for a man’s feminine side. Directed by Trey Edward Shults, the film is a companion to the Weeknd’s new album of the same name, released in January.
$16.25-$18.75, Landmark Kendall Square Cinema, 355 Binney St., Cambridge

Friendship
The sheer goofiness of Tim Robinson’s characters in I Think You Should Leave usually prevents the Netflix series’ comedy from getting too dark, but Andrew DeYoung’s Friendship, in which Robinson stars as a lonely guy who longs to be friends with his new neighbor (Paul Rudd), makes no such guarantees.
$15-$17, Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline

Thunderbolts*
Marvel’s continued rummaging through the more obscure corners of its superhero pantheon has turned up this team of anti-heroes, brought to life by an all-star cast including Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, and Hannah John-Kamen. If you’re wondering what the asterisk in the title is for, you’ll just have to find out.
$15.98-$19.48, Alamo Drafthouse, 60 Seaport Blvd., Boston

Sinners
Michael B. Jordan doubles down as a pair of twin brothers in Ryan Coogler’s action horror flick, set in a version of the Jim Crow South plagued both by systemic racism and vampires—and if you think the latter might be a metaphor for the former, you might be right.
$12.99-$16.49, Alamo Drafthouse, 60 Seaport Blvd., Boston

The Wedding Banquet
The second film as writer and director for Andrew Ahn (Spa Night, Fire Island) tells the story of of a group of queer friends (Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone, Kelly Marie Tran, and Han Gi-chan) whose scheme involving an IVF treatment and a green card marriage goes awry when one of their grandmothers gets wind of the marriage an takes it a little too seriously.
$15-$17, Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline

ALSO

• The Best Restaurants in Boston’s North End
• The Ultimate Guide to Candlepin Bowling in and around Boston

Want to suggest an event? Email us.

TUESDAY (6/10/25)

MUSIC

Key Glock
With help from his cousin, the late Memphis rapper Young Dolph, Key Glock hit the ground running with his first two studio albums, 2017’s Yellow Tape and 2021’s Yellow Tape 2. The latter spawned his cold-as-ice hit “Ambition for Cash,” which utilizes autoharp and flute to surprisingly menacing effect as Glock boasts about his relentless work ethic.
$55.75, 8 p.m., Citizens House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St., Boston

WEDNESDAY (6/11/25)

MUSIC

Geordie Kieffer
Self-proclaimed “Godfather of Agro [sic] Pop” Geordie Kieffer plays the role of indie sleazebag so gleefully that it’s hard to tell whether his act is a joke. Perhaps the question is immaterial to him as long as he’s entertaining—and he rarely fails to be entertaining. His latest release is the six-song EP G-Spot.
$31-$147.50, 8 p.m., Brighton Music Hall, 158 Brighton Ave., Allston

BOOKS + READINGS

Michele Filgate
Have a hard time talking with your dad? Take heart—some of the most articulate people in the country feel the same way. Michele Filgate is in Cambridge to talk about her new essay collection What My Father and I Don’t Talk About: Sixteen Writers Break the Silence, accompanied by contributors Joanna Rakoff, Kelly McMaster, and Andre Dubus III.
$5-$32, 6 p.m., Brattle Theater, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge

THURSDAY (6/12/25)

MUSIC

Perfume Genius
After the avant-garde diversions of his last album as Perfume Genius, 2022’s Ugly Season, Mike Hadreas takes a sharp turn on his latest, Glory, turning in a collection of lush, subterranean Americana that often resembles a less chilly Sufjan Stevens.
$49.87, 8 p.m., Royale, 279 Tremont St., Boston

Dave East
Dave East came on the hip hop scene in the 2010s with a somewhat vintage East Coast style that set him apart from dominant trends like trap. Though he hasn’t released a solo album since 2023’s Fortune Favors the Bold, he’s stayed busy with collaborations like 2025’s The Final Call, with Ransom, and 2024’s Living Proof, with araabMUZIK. Note: this show has been rescheduled from April 20th.
$41.75, 8 p.m., Big Night Live, 110 Causeway St., Boston

COMEDY

DUKES
The comedy duo of Jane Wickline (Saturday Night Live) and Liva Pierce, DUKES specializes in absurdist sketches for an era of apocalypticism. In one, they detail their plans for a night of rat hunting in New York City; in another, they huddle around a mushroom-shaped depression lamp for psychological warmth.
$36.50, 7:30 p.m., Crystal Ballroom, 55 Davis Sq., Somerville

Kate Berlant
Familiar as the anxiety-ridden character Shirley in the TV series A League of Their Own, Kate Berlant brings a devious energy to her standup. In this Just For Laughs clip, she perfoms an extended satire on middle class psychology, humblebragging about her privilege and lecturing her audience on how to handle their aggression.
$49.75-$70.75, 7:30 p.m., The Wilbur, 246 Tremont St., Boston

MOVIES

Hero Camp
LARPing, short for live action role-playing, is an immersive spin on games like Dungeons and Dragons in which players fully inhabit their characters and act out the game’s scenarios. Though it’s sometimes derided as terminally nerdy pursuit, this documentary shows its genuine creative and transformative power in the lives of three summer camp attendees.
Free, 7 p.m., Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville

BOOKS + READINGS

Lit Crawl Boston
Held by the Boston Book Festival, this evening of literary fun includes games, performances, “provocations,” and other amusements. Through activities like blackout poetry and interactive games, you’ll have as many opportunities to display your creativity as to hear and see the work of others, and with multiple options for each hour, you’ll be able to customize your experience.
Free, 6 p.m.-9 p.m., Union Square, Somerville

FRIDAY (6/13/25)

MUSIC

LOCASH
Nashville-based duo LOCASH scored their second number one country hit this past April with the sentimental 2024 single “Hometown Home,” an ode to blooming where you’re planted from their new album Bet the Farm. Their first number one was 2016’s “I Know Somebody.”
$19.75-$83.15, 8 p.m., Citizens House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St., Boston

Gordi
The undead have been good luck for this Australian folktronica singer-songwriter, who got crucial early exposure through licensing songs to The Vampire Diaries and The Walking Dead. Like Plasticine, her first studio album in five years, drops this August. On the already-released anthem “Peripheral Lover”, she demands first place treatment: “You need to give me something visceral, baby.”
$33.68, 8 p.m., Warehouse XI, 11 Sanborn Ct., Somerville

Greer
On tracks like “Had Enough”, from their new debut album Big Smile, Californian power pop act Greer resurrects the equally melodic and loud spirit of 90s bands like Superdrag. Big Smile was produced by Rob Schnapf, best known for his work with Elliott Smith, and there’s a bit of Smith’s sensbility here too, albeit filtered through a slacker lens.
$35.42, 8 p.m., The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge

COMEDY

Nemr: Extremely Unextremist
Nemr devotes a lot of his comedy to his experiences as a Lebanese American who’s spent a good amount of time in both countries. In this clip from his last special, No Bombing in Beiruit, he recounts his dad’s unusual reaction to his gift of an iPhone—suffice it to say that getting him to adopt the device was a bit of a process.
$50.25-$95.25, 7:30 p.m., The Wilbur, 246 Tremont St., Boston

Kindra Lansburg
This local comic went on record this year as a lover of bald men. Last fall, she posted some crowd work with a 13-year-old, telling the story of how, in a former life as a middle school health teacher, she fell for the band teacher—she didn’t say if he was bald, but it’s safe to assume.
$25.85, 7:30 p.m., White Bull Tavern, 1 Union St., Boston

VARIETY

The Poetry Brothel: Astro Poetica
This recurring, interactive evening of underground entertainment is back with a special astrology-themed program. You’ll experience poetry readings, live music, burlesque, the mystical arts, and more, with each of the performers playing an exotic character of their own invention.
$40-$81.88, 7 p.m.-11 p.m., Sonia, 10 Brookline St., Cambridge

SATURDAY (6/14/25)

FESTIVALS

Boston Pride Parade, Festival, and Block Party
2025’s Pride parade starts in Copley Square and meanders through downtown Boston before emptying onto the Common, where the festival takes place, with a diverse lineup including headliner Big Freedia. There’s also a 21+ block party at City Hall Plaza that stays open a bit later than the festival.
Free, 11 a.m.-8 p.m., various locations, downtown Boston

MUSIC

The Driver Era
For a few months after this brotherly Los Angeles pop duo spun themselves off from the band R5 in 2018, their only available recording was “Preacher Man,” which lent the track a certain mythic status for their fans. Their latest album, Obsession, toys with late yacht rock and other species of 80s pop sounds. Its most purely catchy cut: “The Weekend.”
$29.25-$52.65, 8 p.m., Leader Bank Pavilion, 290 Northern Ave., Boston

Dancing on the Charles
This long-running outdoor rave lands on Pride day in June, making it a great option either as an after party or just an alternate destination. DJs include Nice Nadine, D.O.S., Shane Gardener, Lyndsay Simon, WERME, and Trip Report.
$22.85-$45.70, 3:30 p.m.-11:30 p.m., American Legion Marsh Post #442, 198 Greenough Blvd., Cambridge

Gallant
After winning a Grammy for his stunning 2016 debut album Ology, this avant-garde R&B/soul singer-songwriter chose to continue evolving his artistry rather than capitalize on the hype with less challenging material. His third and most recent album, 2024’s Zinc., is gorgeous from beginning to end, awash in warm, fuzzy sounds and stirring harmonies.
$35.42, 8:30 p.m., The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge

COMEDY

Myq Kaplan
New Jersey native Myq Kaplan got his start in comedy as a student in Boston. An unabashedly geeky comic, he’s known for his rapid-fire delivery and witty rants. In this clip, from his 2023 special Live from the Universe, he explains why performing standup will never be as scary as high school.
$20-$25, 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., The Comedy Studio, 5 John F. Kennedy St., Cambridge

The Nova Show: Welcome to Camp Camp
The Nova Comedy Collective offer an ode to summer camp cinema for the latest edition of this variety show, mixing sketches, live music, and other amusement. All is well, we’re told, at the redundantly named camp—the weather’s been great, and “there hasn’t been a murder at Camp Camp in almost a year…”
$23-$32, 7 p.m., The Rockwell, 255 Elm St., Somerville

GOING OUT

Back Bay Shuffle
The Huntington Theater and Boston Lindy Hop invite you to leave the 2020s behind—they’ll be there when you get back—and return to the world of swing. Don’t know how to swing dance? No excuse! They’ll teach you, and even if you don’t get the hang of it, you’ll still have fun watching the seasoned dancers show off their skills.
$24.20, 7:30 p.m., Maso Studio, Huntington Theater, 264 Huntington Ave., Boston

FOOD + DRINK

GABFest
Craft beer from more than 25 different brewers, live music, DJs, food trucks—does more really need to be said? It’s a beer festival! Pro tip: you’ll have to spring a bit more for admission to Session 1, but you’ll get 15 drink tickets; the cheaper Session 2 will get you 10 tickets.
$40-$60, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. (Session 1) and 6 p.m.-1 a.m. (Session 2), The Great American Beer Hall, 142 Mystic Ave., Medford

SHOPPING

Select Outdoor Vintage Market
The official start of summer is just around the corner—are you fully prepared fashion-wise? This market features over 40 vendors, plus fun stuff like temporary tattoos, screen printing, and air brushing. If you’re feeling lucky, you can purchase a tote bag—you’ll have 10 minutes to fill it with anything you want from a curated clothing pile.
Free-$23.18, 12 p.m.-6 p.m., Time Out Market, 401 Park Dr., Boston

SUNDAY (6/15/25)

MUSIC

Saba
Still best known for his dreamy 2016 track “Photosynthesis,” Saba teamed up with fellow Chicagoan No I.D. for the recent release From the Private Collection of Saba and No I.D., a soulful, close-to-the-ground collection that feels as lived-in as the black-and-white neighborhood building captured on its cover photo.
$41.75, 8 p.m., Royale, 279 Tremont St., Boston

MONDAY (6/16/25)

MUSIC

James Blunt
2000s British pop heartthrob James Blunt is back to remind you that “You’re Beautiful” on this tour for the 20^th anniversary of his smash debut Back to Bedlam. Many Americans know him almost exclusively for that hit single, but he landed several more in his native United Kingdom and continental Europe, including 2013’s “Bonfire Heart.”
$67.75, 8 p.m., MGM Music Hall, 2 Lansdowne St., Boston

BOOKS + READINGS

Andy Husbands
WBUR’s Curated Cuisine series welcomes this local chef, whose Smoke Shop BBQ has been named Best Barbecue by this magazine four times, most recently in 2022. He’ll share invaluable tips for classing up your grilling game from his new Quick and Easy Burger Cookbook, co-written with Chris Hart and Andrea Pyenson.
$20-$30, 6:30 p.m., WBUR CitySpace, 890 Comm. Ave., Boston

Ongoing

OUTDOORS

Kayak and Paddleboard Rentals at Community Boating
You’ve seen the river from the city more times than you could count, but have you ever seen the city from the river? Rent a vessel, explore the Charles River basin and esplanade lagoon system at your leisure, and take in a view of Boston like no other.
$40, through October 31, Community Boating, 21 David G Mugar Way, Boston

SHOPPING

Courtesy

SoWa Open Market
This popular Sunday event features more than 250 farmers and vendors selling their own food, jewelry, clothing, household items, art, and more, plus special performances and events, a chance to check out the nearby open studios of dozens of local artists, and a rotating selection of food trucks.
Free, Sundays rain or shine through October 26, 11 a.m-5 p.m., 500 Harrison Ave., Boston

Copley Square Farmers Market
The Boston area has no shortage of farmers markets in the warmer months, but Copley Square hosts the largest, offering a cornucopia of local produce, meats, dairy, baked goods, and prepared meals, as well as some non-edible products. It opens for the season this Friday, May 16.
Free, Tuesdays and Fridays through November 25, Copley Square, 227-230 Dartmouth St., Boston

FITNESS

Seaport Sweat
Get a little closer to your best self with the help of these outdoor classes, taking place Monday through Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings until the end of summer. The regular weekday schedule features Pilates, yoga, Zumba, athletic conditioning, and more; some of Saturday’s rotating classes include dance cardio/sculpting workout Sculpt That Sass, the high-intensity Broncore Bootcamp, “endorphin boosting” mainstay Booty by Brabants, and the kickboxing-inspired Kick It By Eliza. New this year: the Sweatapalooza.
Free, Monday, May 5 through September 30, Seaport Common, 85 Northern Ave., Boston

ATTRACTIONS

Blue Man Group
They’re hardly the newest act on the scene, but there’s still nothing like Blue Man Group, that trio of funny, expressive bald dudes who don’t seem to know how to talk but do seem to know how to make percussion instruments out of just about anything—and Boston is one of just a handful of cities with their own Blue Man chapter performing in apparent perpetuity.
$49-$150, Charles Playhouse, 74 Warrenton St., Boston

Courtesy

Museum of Ice Cream
Yes, you can eat as much ice cream as you want at the Museum of Ice Cream, but there’s a lot more to this escapist wonderland, billed as “a place free from distractions, expectations, and inhibitions.” There are several colorful, slightly surreal spaces to explore at your leisure, including the Diner, Creamliner (an imaginary airplane interior), Hall of Freezers, Carnival, and Sprinkle Pool.
$25-$51, 121 Seaport Blvd., Boston

Courtesy Museum of Illusions

Museum of Illusions
Experience the delights of confusing your brain at this new downtown attraction, featuring a set of images, installations, and “illusion rooms” designed to make reality feel a little less normal—and to provide some fun and crazy photo ops for the Gram.
$38, 200 State St., Boston

View Boston
If you’ve got visitors and you want to give them a killer 360-degree view of the city, or if you just want a peep yourself, you can hardly do better than View Boston, at the top of the Prudential Center. You can spring for a guided tour or just take it in yourself. The view isn’t all you’ll find up there—there’s also a restaurant, The Beacon, and Stratus, a cocktail bar, which is decked out for the holidays. Higher-level ticket packages include a sample drink.
$29.99-59.99, open daily, 10 a.m.-10 p.m., Prudential Center, 800 Boylston St., Boston

The Innovation Trail
This tour focuses not on colonial and revolutionary Boston—that’s been thoroughly covered—but on the city’s history, down to the present, as a hub of science, medicine, and technology. You can arrange for a private tour via an online form or opt for a self-guided experience whenever you want.
Free (self-guided), starts in Central Square, Cambridge or Downtown Crossing, Boston

WNDR Museum
This Downtown Crossing gallery space is hitting the ground running with iconic Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s Let’s Survive Forever and more than 20 other immersive installations, including The Wisdom Project, where visitors can add their own response to the question “What do you know for sure?,” and WNDR’s signature Light Floor, which changes in response to visitors’ movement.
$32-$38, 500 Washington St., Boston

ART + EXHIBITIONS (Ongoing)

Making History: 200 Years of American Art from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
This exhibition highlights the important contributions of American artists from marginalized groups, placing them alongside well-known figures like Edward Hopper, Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam, and Stuart Davis to create a more complete perspective on art’s role in shaping American identity.
$25, Saturday, June 14 through September 21, Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St., Salem

Monsters of the Deep: Between Imagination and Science
Tracing our understanding of whales through prints dating from the 1500s through the 1800s, the MIT Museum explores the process, informed both by scientific study and amateur observation, that brought the enormous creatures up from the quasi-mythical depths of the human imagination and into the light of day.
$18, through January 1, 2026, MIT Museum, 314 Main St., Bldg. E-28, Cambridge

Boston Public Art Triennial
This sprawling indoor and outdoor art show will be held every three years. The highly varied, eye-popping works on display for 2025, from a mix of local, national, and international artists, are strewn across town, but easily accessible via the T over the course of a day—check the map for full details.
Free, through October 31, various locations, Boston area

List Projects 32: Elif Saydam
With frequent references to the traditions of manuscript illumination and miniature painting, Berlin-based artist Elif Saydam takes an interest in how we project our fantasies on banal, everyday places like gas stations and convenience stores, as well as the objects they contain, from bathroom stalls to sponges.
Free, Thursday, June 5 through August 31, MIT List Visual Arts Center, 20 Ames St., Bldg. E15-109, Cambridge

GENERATIONS
Three local artists, L’Merchie Frazier, Daniela Rivera, and Wen-ti Tsen, recipients of the first Wagner Arts Fellowship, take the spotlight. There’s something here for every taste, from Frazier’s narratively rich mixed-media quilts to Rivera’s challenging geometric sculptures to Tsen’s Hopper-esque realist paintings.
Free, through November 30, MassArt Art Museum, 621 Huntington Ave., Boston

The Solomon Collection: Dürer to Degas and Beyond
Collectors Arthur K. and Mariot F. Solomon recently made a large bequest to Harvard Art Museums, and you’ll get to see 135 of those works here, by major artists like Goya, Dürer, Monet, Degas, Cézanne, Henry Moore, Anthony Caro, Jules Olitski, and many others
Free, through August 17, Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

Chiharu Shiota: Home Less Home
The Institute of Contemporary Art’s enormous Watershed annex hosts two installations from Berlin-based Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota: a site-specific version of 2015’s Accumulation—Searching for the Destination and the new commission Home Less Home. Both works repurpose everyday objects like suitcases, papers, and furniture to convey the experience of migration and the meaning of home.
Free, through September 1, ICA Watershed, 256 Marginal St., East Boston

Jung Yeondoo: Building Dreams
At a time of increasing social atomization, multimedia artist Jung Yeondoo has made it his project to break the ice with the people in his vicinity, photographing folks in his hometown of Seoul and asking them about their inner lives. Often capturing his subjects in their home or workplace, he has a knack for finding the idealism hidden in ordinary life.
$25, through January 26, 2026, Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St., Salem

Castaway: The Afterlife of Plastic
These photographs from Mexico City-based art collective TRES may seem to depict eccentric pieces of handcrafted sculpture or perhaps even jewelry, but they’re actually pictures of plastic debris from the ocean, altered by miniscule creatures of the phylum Bryozoa. TRES’ original charts and maps help to contextualize the phenomenon.
$15, through June 26, 2025, Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, 11 Divinity Ave., Cambridge

The Visionary Art of Minnie Evans
The 20th century Black North Carolinian artist Minnie Evans fused a passion for religion and mythology with close studies of her material surroundings. Though mystical and dreamlike, her art is also haunted by history—specifically, the white supremacist coup that took place in her hometown, Wilmington, when she was six years old.
$27, through October 26, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston

Qi Baishi: Inspiration in Ink
Born in the Qing dynasty and dying under Communist rule, Qi Baishi, sometimes called “the Picasso of China,” was recognized as an innovator whose lively, charming depictions of animals and plants pushed the well-worn tradition of nature scenes toward modernity. Almost 40 of his works are on display here, most on loan from China.
$27, through September 28, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston

Eric Antoniou: Rock to Baroque
Over a 40-year career, local photographer Eric Antoniou has captured some of popular music’s biggest stars on tour in Boston, including David Bowie, Madonna, Donna Summer, the Rolling Stones, B.B. King, U2, Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, and many more. This exhibition serves as a companion to his new book, Rock to Baroque.
Free, through June 30, Panopticon Gallery, 502c Comm. Ave., Boston 

Luis Arnías: Slow Loops
Interdisciplinary artist Luis Arnías offers a pair of 16mm film meditations on Black life and history. Bisagras focuses on two important sites on both sides of the transatlantic slave trade; the still-in-progress Noise Cloud shows how public parks gained an even greater importance as gathering spaces for people of all races in the turbulent year 2020.
Free, through July 19, Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts, 551 Tremont St., Boston

Aileen Erickson: Changing Seasons, Save Travels
If you’ve ever brought a rock, piece of driftwood, or bit of seaglass home from the beach, you might understand why Aileen Erickson felt so compelled to paint her own beach finds in this series. Rendered in a cartoon-like fashion within thick black lines, these objects become containers of memory, gaining in symbolic depth what they lose in spatial depth.
Free, through July 19, Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts, 551 Tremont St., Boston

Christian Marclay: Doors
It took Christian Marclay over 10 years to carefully craft this video piece out of hundreds of clips of people opening and closing doors in films, resulting in a surreal journey between cinematic universes. For Marclay, doors evoke a “fear and anxiety we associate with the unknown, but also anticipation and potential.”
$20, through September 1, Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Dr., Boston

Stanley Whitney: How High the Moon
How High the Moon traces the 50-year career of abstract painter Stanley Whitney, showing his early work and the wide-ranging inspirations, from jazz to quilts to architecture, informing the joyfully pulsing grids of color that made him a late in life success in the early 2000s.
$20, through September 1, Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Dr., Boston

Vincent Van Gogh’s Camille Roulin, November–December 1888, from the MFA’s “Van Gogh: The Roulin Family Portraits.” / Photo by Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Van Gogh: The Roulin Family Portraits
Featuring around 20 works by Van Gogh, this exhibition, the first of its kind, focuses on the famous post-impressionist’s close and creatively generative relationship with his neighbors in Arles, France, the Roulins, who had the sort of ordinary family life he dreamed of but never achieved.
$34,through September 7, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston

Leonora Carrington: Dream Weaver
This is the first New England exhibition for Surrealist painter Leonora Carrington, spanning 60 years of her career, most of which she spent as a British expatriate in Mexico. Carrington’s drolly bizarre and mysterious works, equally amusing and unsettling, brought a gothic sensibility to the typical Surrealist fascination with dreams, mythology, and the unconscious.
Free, through June 1, Rose Art Museum, 415 South St., Waltham

Edvard Munch, “Two Human Beings (The Lonely Ones),” 1906–08. Oil on canvas. Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, The Philip and Lynn Straus Collection.

Edvard Munch: Technically Speaking
While The Scream made Edvard Munch a household name in art history, its fame has come somewhat at the expense of the rest of his large and remarkable oeuvre. Featuring around 70 works, many from Harvard Art Museums’ own collection, this exhibition highlights the emotive Norwegian expressionist’s innovations in materials and techniques.
Free, through July 27, Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

Free as they want to be: Artists Committed to Memory
Harvard’s Cooper Gallery casts a spotlight on the role of photography and film in shaping our cultural memory of slavery and the post-emancipation era, from the work of 19th century photographer James Presley Ball to the reflections of contemporary figures like William Earle Williams and Omar Victor Diop.
Free, through June 30, Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art, 102 Mount Auburn St., Cambridge

Pedro Gómez-Egaña: The Great Learning
Columbian artist Pedro Gómez-Egaña’s first American museum exhibition explores our contemporary experience of time, as he puts it, “in an age when contrasting temporalities coexist with an intensity that often feels irreconcilable.” To convey the idea, he transposes this fracture of time into a space whose solidity is constantly interrupted, multiplied, and otherwise messed with.
Free, through July 27, MIT List Visual Arts Center, 20 Ames St., Bldg. E15-109, Cambridge

Believers: Artists and the Shakers
Known for their celibacy, their craftsmanship, and not often much else, the monastic and pacifist Shakers, only two of whom remain, are a benignly mysterious presence in American religion. Building on a previous ICA show, this exhibition brings together 10 artists reflecting on the gap between the Shakers’ ideals and their place in the popular imagination.
$20, through August 3, Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Dr., Boston

Courtesy

ImPRINTING: The Artist’s Brain
Artist Beatie Wolfe created this “sonic self-portrait” in the form of a “thinking cap” that broadcasts the activity of different parts of the human brain. At listening station, you can pick up a phone receiver and hear for yourself. The data, encoded in glass inside the cap, could be preserved for as long as 10,000 years.
$31, through December 31, Museum of Science, 1 Science Park, Boston

John Wilson, The Young Americans: Gabrielle (detail), 1975. Colored crayon and charcoal on paper. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. © Estate of John Wilson.

Witnessing Humanity: The Art of John Wilson
Throughout his career, Roxbury-born artist John Wilson documented the impacts of racism on Black communities and individuals with defiant power and dignity. Co-organized with the Met in New York, this is the largest exhibition his work to date, with 110 pieces on display, including paintings, drawings, sculptures, and prints, spanning 60 years.
$27, through June 22, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston

Wonders of Creation: Art, Science, and Innovation in the Islamic World
Bringing together works from an international assortment of 20 lenders, this show investigates the exchange between art and science in Islamic societies from the Middle Ages to the present, with special reference to the concept of wonder in the work of medieval scholar Zakariyya al-Qazwini. Its 170 works range from scientific instruments to maps to paintings to reputedly demon-repelling “magic bowls.”
Free, through June 1, McMullen Museum of Art, 2101 Comm. Ave., Brighton

Portraits from the ICA Collection
The ICA shares recent acquisitions from artists like Rania Matar, Aliza Nisenbaum, and Didier William, as well as popular longtime holdings by Marlene Dumas, Nan Goldin, Alice Neel, and others, creating a complex, multimedia portrait of portraiture itself, in all its many purposes and effects.
$20, through January 4, 2026, Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Dr., Boston

Landscape and Labor: Dutch Works on Paper in Van Gogh’s Time
The Museum of Fine Arts examines the Hague School artists of the 19th century Netherlands, whose commitment to scenes of everyday rural life, partly a nostalgic reaction to the rise of industrialism, had a decisive influence on Van Gogh’s earthy early work.
$27, through June 22, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston

Robert Frank: Mary’s Book
Revealing a more intimate side of the Swiss American photographer, Mary’s Book focuses on a photo scrapbook Robert Frank made in 1949 for his eventual first wife, Mary Lockspeiser. Crucial to the experience of these images are Frank’s poetic inscriptions, which add a personal touch to a set of pictures with few human figures.
$27, through June 22, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston

Sea Monsters: Wonders of Nature and Imagination
Using historic illustrations, maps, artifacts, and specimens, this exhibition explores the exotic marine beasts cooked up in the dreams of sailors and bards down the centuries, as well as the real-life creatures, like the giant squid, whose scarcely believable existence inspired many of these legends.
$15, through June 26, 2026, Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge

Titanic: the Artifact Exhibition
Although Robert Ballad, the leader of the team that discovered the wreck of the Titanic, hoped no one would ever go back look for cool stuff there, people totally did. This show, offering a fascinating and intimate glimpse into the famous ocean liner’s lost world, is the first chance Bostonians have had in several years to view these objects.
$39.50-$65, through June 1, The Castle at Park Plaza, 130 Columbus Ave., Boston

Hugh Hayden, Hedges, 2019. Sculpted wood, lumber, hardware, mirror, and carpet. / Hugh Hayden; Courtesy of the Shed Open Call and Lisson Gallery. Photo by Mark Waldhauser Photograph by Mark Waldhauser.

Hugh Hayden: Home Work
Artist Hugh Hayden‘s first New England exhibition is now at Brandeis University’s Rose Art Museum. The surrealist sculptor’s show explores the complexities of the American Dream through unsettling transformations of everyday objects. Taking up 7,000 square feet of gallery space, the exhibition turns familiar items like tables and school desks into challenging artworks. The centerpiece, “Hedges (2019),” features a model suburban house with branches bursting through its walls, placed in a mirrored infinity room that creates endless reflections. Through these works, Hayden comments on both psychological barriers and social inequalities that make the American Dream nearly impossible to achieve for so many today. —JACI CONRY
Rose Art Museum, through June 1, 415 South St., Waltham, 781-736-3434.

The elusive narwhal with its magnificent spiral tooth has inspired art, legend, and cultural practice for centuries. / Glenn Williams, Narwhal Tusk Research

Narwhal: Revealing an Arctic Legend
Instantly recognizable among cetaceans for its remarkably long horn, the narwhal is unlike any other sea creature, seemingly ripped from the pages of a fanciful medieval world map. Not satisfied to stop at the narwhal’s mere oddness, this Smithsonian exhibition dives deep into its changing artic world, with input from scientists and members of the Inuit communities who’ve known it the longest.
$25, through June 15, Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St., Salem

The Salem Witch Trials 1692
Even when the story of the Salem Witch Trials is told with accuracy, the distance of centuries can make it hard to imagine. With this ongoing exhibition, the Peabody Essex Museum tries to close that gap a bit, bringing the timeline and context of the infamous miscarriage of justice to life through original documents and artifacts.
$25, ongoing, Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St., Salem

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