August 2026 CITY NOTES

Well, we have been waiting for this for a long time! Nestled within the OMA-designed expansion, Oberon is an all-day restaurant and bar located inside the New Museum.

Operated by the Oberon Group—the team behind Rucola, Rhodora, Anais, and June—Oberon serves as both a neighborhood restaurant and a destination for the art community. Integral to the experience are ongoing collaborations with artists Ian Cheng, Minjae Kim, and Laurie Anderson, whose contributions are woven throughout the restaurant’s design, atmosphere, and programming.

Somssi is a new restaurant in Greenwich Village from the team behind Atoboy, Atomix, and NARO. A debut concept from Ahris Kim of NA:EUN Hospitality, the name “Somssi” (솜씨) reflects a sense of craft: skill shaped through time, instinct, and experience.The place is kind of Asian and kind of European, with knick knacks and lace curtains that suggest small-town Americana. It's interesting, and it works.

Somssi offers an approachable a la carte menu of shareable plates, drawing from Asian and European ingredients, techniques, and immigrant nostalgia. The experience is complemented by a thoughtful beverage program, featuring a well-traveled wine list, sake, and playful “little beverages.”

I think these are so fun and playful yet beautifully elegant!

Paper Icelandic poppy plant with 3 blooms and 1 bud in a beautiful aged terra cotta pot.

Approximately 24” tall. Pot measures 6.5" high and 7" in diameter

Fairfield Porter: What Everyone Knows is the first large-scale exhibition of the artist’s work in New York City in twenty-five years and the first ever at the Art Students League, where he studied from 1928–1930. Described by John Ashbery in 1983 as “perhaps the major American artist of this century,” Porter (1907–1975) remains an essential if still under-recognized figure whose paintings of shaded lawns, uncleared tables, and briny coasts are both lush and challenging, each motivated by Porter’s fundamental claim: “the real is specific.”

On view June 5–August 18, 2026, the exhibition brings together more than 35 works including key pieces on loan from the Parrish Art Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and private collections, alongside several works from the League’s permanent collection.

Try to get in to see this before it closes August 18th!