New York State of Mind is the newest rotation of music photography at MASS MoCA. The exhibition provides a snapshot of New York from 1969 to 1999, a 30-year span that gave us Bob Gruen’s iconic image of revelers at Woodstock, before depicting clubs such as Max’s Kansas City where we see Johnny Thunders, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Joan Baez, and Bruce Springsteen. We then go downtown to the Bowery to see Alex Chilton, the Cramps, and Patti Smith before finding Television in St. Mark’s Place and Tom Waits presiding over Times Square. And don’t forget the outer boroughs, where Madonna had her first show on Long Island, and an uncharacteristic Joey Ramone walks the beach in Coney Island with a surfboard.

New York State of Mind is the fifth in a series of curated selections from a private collection of music photography. Past exhibitions include:

Musicians on Musicians curated by Wilco (2024–2025)

Deep Water (2023–2024)

How does your horn sound? (2020–2022)

The Bright and Hollow Sky (2019–2020)

Wilco’s Musicians on Musicians, as held at MASS MoCA on Friday June 28th through Sunday June 30th, 2024