Just because it’s winter in Boston doesn’t mean you need to hibernate and stay indoors until spring arrives. From new stage shows to pop music concerts and everything in between, there are plenty of fun things to do in and around Boston and New England this season. Here are 50 fun events to check out this winter.
CLASSICAL CONCERTS
BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA The BSO’s big-ticket item in the near future is undoubtedly the concert performance of Korngold’s “Die tote Stadt,” presented in collaboration with Boston Lyric Opera and featuring Christine Goerke and Brandon Jovanovich in leading roles under the baton of music director Andris Nelsons (Jan. 30 and Feb. 1). Other coming attractions include Herbert Blomstedt conducting symphonies by Schubert and Brahms (Feb. 13-15); Giancarlo Guerrero leading a dramatic program of Gabriela Ortiz and Tchaikovsky with cellist Alban Gerhardt and vocal ensemble The Crossing (Feb. 27-March 1); the BSO debut of South Korean conductor Eun Sun Kim (March 6-8); and an orchestra tribute to John Coltrane arranged and curated by BSO composer chair Carlos Simon (March 21 and 22). Symphony Hall. 617-266-1200, www.bso.org
BOSTON YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAS Under the direction of Federico Cortese, BYSO routinely punches above its weight with regard to repertoire, and the annual opera in concert is a reliable highlight. The young players tackle Verdi’s “Don Carlo,” a sweeping epic of love and duty amidst the terrors of the Spanish Inquisition, in a production stage-directed by Joshua Major with tenor Bruce Sledge in the title role. Jan. 26, 3 p.m., Sanders Theatre, Harvard University. 617-353-3348, www.bysoweb.org
BLUE HERON The sterling early-music focused vocal ensemble stages a 15th-century Mass by Johannes Regis, notable for being one of the first pieces to be based on “L’homme armé”, an explosively popular song of the late Middle Ages. Feb. 1, 3 p.m. First Church in Cambridge. 617-960-7956, www.blueheron.org
NEW GALLERY CONCERT SERIES This small but mighty local series, now in its 25th season, marries contemporary music and visual art. February’s “Rekindle” program includes a world premiere from violinist Abigale Reisman, a new composition by Anthony R. Green, and an appearance by saxophonist Jonathan Suazo and his band alongside the playful paintings of Emily Parent. Feb. 1, 7 p.m. Pickman Hall, Longy School of Music, Cambridge. www.newgalleryconcertseries.org
BROOKLYN RIDER The intrepid Grammy-nominated string quartet makes its Isabella Stewart Gardner museum debut with a spread of music from four centuries; Purcell, Mozart, Brahms, Arvo Pärt, and Betsy Jolas. Feb. 9, 1:30 p.m. Calderwood Hall, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. 617-566-1401, www.gardnermuseum.org
STAVE SESSIONS Think of it as Celebrity Series’s fringe festival; unpredictable, experimental, and always a lot of fun. This year’s lineup includes vocalist Courtney Swain of artistic rock band Bent Knee, two-cello string quartet Owls, cellist/vocalist Seth Parker Woods, and brass quartet The Westerlies. Good luck picking just one! Hope you don’t have to. Feb. 11-14. Crystal Ballroom, Somerville. 617-482-6661, www.celebrityseries.org
BOSTON PHILHARMONIC British soprano Claire Booth joins the Philharmonic and conductor Benjamin Zander for Strauss’s pensive “Four Last Songs” and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, with its final movement depicting a child’s vision of heaven (Feb. 16). Then, the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra takes its own run at a monumental Mahler symphony, the tragic and towering Symphony No. 6 (March 2). Symphony Hall. 617-236-0999, www.bostonphil.org
VÍKINGUR ÓLAFSSON AND YUJA WANG These two pianists are top-shelf recitalists and orchestral soloists on their own, so what happens when they share the stage? With a four-hands program that covers ground from Berio to Brubeck before the grand finale of Rachmaninoff’s “Symphonic Dances” arranged for two pianos, you can expect the timbers to tremble. Feb. 21, 8 p.m. Symphony Hall. 617-482-6661, www.celebrityseries.org
WINSOR MUSIC Director emerita Peggy Pearson begins the evening by taking the spotlight in J.S. Bach’s Concerto for Oboe d’amore. From there it’s onward through the centuries, tracing the legacy of Papa Bach from Mendelssohn (both Felix and Fanny) to Schumann (both Robert and Clara) to Kurt Weill, ending with a piece by Boston violinist/composer Shaw Pong Liu and a world premiere by the students of Winsor’s Opus 1 project. March 1, 7 p.m. St. Paul’s Church, Brookline. 781-999-2477, www.winsormusic.org
THE SEASONS As spring approaches, Boston Lyric Opera presents a new work co-conceived by playwright Sarah Ruhl (“Eurydice,” “The Clean House”) and countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, which draws on arias and instrumental pieces by Vivaldi — including “The Four Seasons” — to tell an original tale of passions amid climate chaos. Zack Winokur stage directs, with choreography by Pam Tanowitz and music direction by lutenist Stephen Stubbs. March 12-16. Emerson Paramount Center, Robert J. Orchard Stage. www.blo.org
– A.Z. Madonna
DANCE
MARK MORRIS DANCE GROUP: “THE LOOK OF LOVE” This evening-length 2022 piece pays tribute to the late Burt Bacharach and his longtime lyricist, Hal David. The music, arranged by MMDG musical collaborator Ethan Iverson, will be performed live by Broadway star Marcy Harriell and an ensemble of piano, trumpet, bass, and drums. The lineup includes “Walk on By,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” “Do You Know the Way to San Jose,” “Always Something There to Remind Me,” and “What the World Needs Now.” MMDG presented “The Look of Love” at Jacob’s Pillow in 2023, but this is the troupe’s first visit to Boston in six years. Jan. 23-26. Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre. www.globalartslive.org
OMAYRA AMAYA FLAMENCO DANCE COMPANY: “ANTES DEL FIN (BEFORE THE END)” Founded in 1994 by the daughter of flamenco dancers Olga and Curro Amaya, and based in Miami, the Omayra Amaya Flamenco Dance Company combines traditional and contemporary. Featuring live music and guest artists from Spain, its new 75-minute show, “Antes del fin (Before the End),” looks to explore the human condition. The company last performed here at Central Square’s Dance Complex in 2023. Jan. 31–Feb. 2. Arrow Street Arts, Cambridge. www.arrowstarts.org
CALEB TEICHER & CONRAD TAO: “COUNTERPOINT” In 2020, the Celebrity Series brought us tap prodigy Teicher and composer-pianist Tao in the thought-provoking “More Forever,” in which the pair just about kept time at bay. Now they’re back with “Counterpoint,” whose score includes music from George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” the Aria from Bach’s “Goldberg Variations,” stride piano from Art Tatum, and Arnold Schoenberg’s ironic take on the Viennese waltz. Feb. 7-8. Boston Arts Academy Theater. www.celebrityseries.org
TRINITY IRISH DANCE COMPANY: “JIG” Founded by Mark Howard in Chicago in 1990, this “Riverdance” precursor updates traditional Irish stepdancing. You might hear electric guitar alongside the fiddles; you might see stepdancing to pop songs, or dancers hitting the floor with sticks, or women singing a Scottish Gaelic waulking song to the accompaniment of body percussion. You can definitely expect the traditional footwork fireworks. Trinity made its Boston debut in 1998, Global Arts Live hasn’t presented the company here since 2016. Feb. 8 at 8 p.m. Berklee Performance Center. www.globalartslive.org
JENNY OLIVER AND STEPH DAVIS: “GRAY SPACE/BLUE SKIES” This free Neighborhood Arts offering from the Celebrity Series pairs dancer and choreographer Jenny Oliver with marimbist and composer Steph Davis for an afternoon of new choreography and commissioned music. Oliver serves as the head of Dance Performance at Tufts University; in 2019 her “Hot Water over Raised Fists” was presented at the Boston Canter for the Arts. Davis has been awarded residencies at the Goethe-Institut Boston and the Boston Center for the Arts and teaches music theory at Boston Conservatory; their work draws on traditions from across the African diaspora. Feb. 22 at 3 p.m. Free. Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center. www.celebrityseries.org
ANIKAYA DANCE THEATER: “CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS” This 70-minute multimedia movement theater work from Boston-based ANIKAYA Dance Theater takes its name from a work by 12th-century Iranian poet Farid ud-Din Attar in which the birds of the world gather to decide who will be their sovereign. Directed by ANIKAYA founder and choreographer Wendy Jehlen in collaboration with an international ensemble of dancers-choreographers, “Conference of the Birds” will gather stories from modern-day refugees and other migrants. Feb. 27–March 9. Arrow Street Arts, Cambridge. www.arrowstarts.org
BOSTON BALLET: “SWAN LAKE” Distinctive features of artistic director Mikko Nissinen’s well-received version of the Tchaikovsky/Petipa classic include a prologue that depicts the abduction of Odette and the beginning of Rothbart’s curse transforming her into a swan, and then, in the final act, a brief duet in which Siegfried repents and Odette forgives. Created for the 2014 premiere, Robert Perdziola’s sets and costumes were inspired by the late Gothic and early Renaissance period. Boston Ballet last presented “Swan Lake” in 2022; it’s a measure of the work’s popularity that the company is giving this production 17 performances. Feb. 27-March 16. Citizens Opera House. www.bostonballet.org
WAMPANOAG NATION SINGERS & DANCERS “Please come prepared to dance and sing in the ways that you are able” is the message from the Wampanoag Nation Singers & Dancers, who “prefer to dance with the people instead of for the people” as they celebrate 12,000 years of ongoing Wampanoag and Eastern Woodlands culture. Wearing traditional dress, the performers will accompany themselves on water drums and handcrafted rattles as they reflect on our connections with the world around us. March 8 at 2 and 4 p.m. Free. Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center. www.celebrityseries.org
BOSTON DANCE THEATER: “RED IS A FEELING” The centerpiece of this evening of short dance works focusing on the color red is a new BDT commission by Iranian-Hispanic choreographer Roya Carreras Fereshtehnejad, who was diagnosed with two forms of cancer in her early 30s. Her piece “recalls the sensations where the experience of fighting for your life, holding on to each minute, and letting go all collide into the here and now.” Filling out the evening are BDT founder Jessie Jeanne Stinnett’s “Fifties,” which is set to pop tunes from that decade, and two works that the company presented here this past May, Itzhak Galili’s “If As If” and Marco Goecke’s “Firebird Pas de Deux.” March 14–15. Institute of Contemporary Art. www.globalartslive.org
BOSTON BALLET: “WINTER EXPERIENCE” Two very different works by George Balanchine bookend this attractive Boston Ballet bill. Set to Tchaikovsky’s Orchestral Suite No. 4, the serene, romantic “Mozartiana” is one of the master’s last works; the company hasn’t presented it here since 2003. “Symphony in Three Movements” is another animal altogether, jiving, jitterbugging, and lindy-hopping to World War II–era Stravinsky. In between we get Claudia Schreier’s “Slipstream,” which premiered on the company’s 2022 “choreograpHER” program, and “Vestris,” a seven-minute solo that Soviet choreographer Leonid Yakobson created for Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1969. March 20–30. Citizens Opera House. www.bostonballet.org
– Jeffrey Gantz
POP CONCERTS
070 SHAKE In 2023, this MC and singer-songwriter had her pop breakthrough with a gripping verse on the dark night chronicle “Escapism.” by the British belter RAYE. Last year, she released “Petrichor,” a dense yet expansive collection that shows off her to-the-bone lyricism and flair for veering into far-flung sonic territory. Jan. 29, 7 p.m. doors. House of Blues Boston. 888-693-2583, houseofblues.com/boston
SOMETHING IN THE WAY FEST Local label Run For Cover Records and concert promoter The Bowery Presents jointly celebrate their 20th anniversaries with a pair of all-day shows headlined by shoegaze titans Slowdive, emo stalwarts American Football, cavern-dwelling riffers Balance and Composure, and indie-rock revivalist Soccer Mommy. (Don’t miss Enumclaw, whose poppy 21st-century take on slacker-grunge will have even the crabbiest record-store-clerk type flying their flannel.) Main shows Feb. 1 and 2, 1:45 p.m., Roadrunner Boston; auxiliary shows Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 at The Sinclair, Cambridge. somethingintheway.net
TIM HEIDECKER The prolific comedian gets serious on his latest album, “Slipping Away,” an unflinching look at middle age. It opens with the blithe-sounding yet uneasy dive into writer’s block “Well’s Running Dry,” and veers toward the brink with tracks like the heartbreaking “Hey, Would You Call My Mom For Me?” and the lonely “I Went Into Town.” Feb. 10, 8 p.m. Royale. 617-338-7699, royaleboston.com
LAUREN MAYBERRY “Vicious Creature,” the first solo album from the voice of electro-gloom collective CHVRCHES, flaunts her soprano’s versatility and vulnerability on cuts like the elliptical “Punch Drunk,” the mosh-pit-ready “Sorry, Etc,” and the shimmering Britpop throwback “Sunday Best.” Feb. 11, 8 p.m. Royale. 617-338-7699, royaleboston.com
KELSEA BALLERINI Boasting a twangy alto and a penchant for deftly exploring the gray zone between “pop” and “country,” this Tennessee-born singer-songwriter digs deep into her psyche on her 2024 album, “PATTERNS,” which includes the gently blooming growing-pains missive “Sorry Mom” and the anxiety-riddled breakup chronicle “WAIT!” Feb. 13, 7 p.m. TD Garden. 617-624-1000, tdgarden.com
LATIN MAFIA The genre-melding family band from Mexico City hit it big on TikTok in the early ‘20s with the sumptuous single “Ciudad de las Luces.” Their debut full-length “TODOS LOS DÍAS TODO EL DÍA,” released last year, showcases their omnivorous approach to music-making on heady, hooky songs that draw on reggaeton, Latin trap, new wave, and bedroom pop while spinning into their own orbits. Feb. 16, 7 p.m. doors. House of Blues Boston. 888-693-2583, houseofblues.com/boston
PINK SWEAT$ Reveling in sweetness and rooted in R&B classicism, this Philadelphia singer-songwriter crafts songs — like his latest single, the heart-eyed acoustic ballad “Coffee” — that are as comforting as the soft pants he’s named after. Feb. 17, 8 p.m. Shubert Theatre. 866-348-9738, bochcenter.org
KIM DEAL It came out at the tail end of 2024, but “Nobody Loves You More,” the debut solo full-length from this alt-rock legend, crash-landed into contention as one of the year’s best upon arrival. Deal’s rasp is familiar from college-radio staples like Pixies’ “Gigantic” and the Breeders’ “Cannonball,” but here she frames it in mirrorballs (the mournful slow dance “Are You Mine?”), brass bands (the loose-limbed “Coast”), and insistent samples (the scuzzed-out “Crystal Breath”). The album shows Deal spreading her creative wings in thrilling, daring fashion. March 10, 8 p.m. The Wilbur. 617-248-9700, thewilbur.com
DROPKICK MURPHYS The Boston brawlers’ annual run of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations includes a Saturday-afternoon family concert that benefits their charitable foundation The Claddagh Fund and a House of Blues throwdown on the holiday itself. March 14, 7 p.m., March 15, 2 and 7 p.m., and March 16, 6:45 p.m., at MGM Music Hall at Fenway; also March 17, 6 p.m., at House of Blues Boston. dropkickmurphys.com
TOMMY RICHMAN Last spring, this DMV-repping singer-songwriter lit up the charts with his blown-speakers boast “MILLION DOLLAR BABY.” “COYOTE,” his debut full-length, followed in the fall, and continues his explorations of lo-fi funk. March 21, 7 p.m. Paradise Rock Club. 617-562-8800, crossroadspresents.com
– Maura Johnston
THEATER
PETER PAN The well-known musical adaptation of Sir J.M. Barrie’s 1904 play, with additional material by indigenous dramatist Larissa Fasthorse. (Earlier versions of “Peter Pan” have been criticized for their stereotypical depictions of Native Americans.) Starring Nolan Almeida as Peter, the boy who refuses to grow up; Hawa Kamara as the intrepid Wendy; and Cody Garcia as the villainous pirate, Captain Hook. Directed by Lonny Price, with songs by Mark Charlap (music) and Carolyn Leigh (lyrics) that include “I’m Flying,” “I Won’t Grow Up,” “Neverland,” and “I Gotta Crow.” Jan. 21-Feb. 2. Broadway In Boston. At Citizens Opera House, Boston. Tickets at www.BroadwayInBoston.com
HAUNTED The premiere of a horror comedy, written and directed by Tara Moses, that focuses on Indigenous siblings Ash (Bradley Lewis) and Aaron (Chingwe Padraig Sullivan). Dead for two decades, they’ve been haunting the families who have attempted to move into their house. Now, they’re hoping for admission to the Spirit World while they’re wondering, according to press materials, “if they’ll ever be free from the shackles of racist stereotypes.” To relax, the siblings dance to the songs of Britney Spears and Mariah Carey. Jan. 24-Feb. 15. Company One Theatre in partnership with the Boston Public Library. At Rabb Hall, Boston Public Library. Tickets are “pay what you want,” at 617-292-7110 or www.companyone.org
THE PIANO LESSON In August Wilson’s Pulitzer-winning drama, two siblings are locked in a fierce contest of wills over what to do with the family’s antique piano, on which an ancestor had carved the faces of family members. Boy Willie (Omar Robinson) wants to use the money to purchase the land where their ancestors were enslaved. But Berniece (Jade Guerra), who sees the piano as a deeply meaningful part of the family’s history, wants to keep it. Directed by Christoper V. Edwards. Jan. 23-Feb. 13. Actors’ Shakespeare Project, in partnership with Hibernian Hall. At Hibernian Hall, Boston. Tickets at 617-241-2200 or ActorsShakespeareProject.org/Piano-Lesson
SPACE Created by LM Feldman and Larissa Lury, written by Feldman, and directed by Lury, “Space” was inspired by the true story of a group of skilled and experienced female pilots, known as the Mercury 13, who underwent rigorous training in a privately funded research project in the early 1960s to become astronauts in America’s first human spaceflight program. But they were denied the chance to become astronauts, because at that time, NASA refused to consider women as candidates. Jan. 30-Feb. 23. Central Square Theater, Cambridge. Tickets at 617-576-9278 x1 or CentralSquareTheater.org
THE GROVE The second play in Mfoniso Udofia’s nine-play Ufot Family Cycle, following a Huntington production late last year of “Sojourners,” the cycle’s origin story. Set in 2009, “The Grove” focuses on Adiaha Ufot (Abigail C. Onwunali), a young gay Nigerian-American who aspires to be a writer and faces a stark choice in her personal life: follow her heart or fulfill the desires of her tradition-minded parents, Abasiama (Patrice Johnson Chevannes) and Disciple (Joshua Olumide). Directed by Awoye Timpo, who helmed “The Bluest Eye” at the Huntington in 2022. Feb. 7-March 9. The Huntington. At Wimberly Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts. Tickets at 617-266-0800 or huntingtontheatre.org
THE ODYSSEY Playwright Kate Hamill is known for her contemporized, women-centered stage adaptations of 19th-century novels such as Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility” and “Pride and Prejudice.” With “The Odyssey,” Hamill goes back much further in time, to ancient Greece, for a reimagining of Homer’s epic poem about Odysseus (Wayne T. Carr) and his wife, Penelope (Andrus Nichols.) A premiere directed by Shana Cooper. Feb. 9-March 16. American Repertory Theater. At Loeb Drama Center, Cambridge. Tickets at 617-547-8300 or TicketServices@amrep.org
A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE Paul Daigneault has enlisted a blue-chip cast for the final production he’ll direct as artistic leader of SpeakEasy Stage Company, which he founded 33 years ago. A musical created by “Ragtime” collaborators Terrence McNally (book), Stephen Flaherty (music), and Lynn Ahrens (lyrics), “A Man of No Importance” stars Eddie Shields as Alfie, a closeted bus driver in 1964 Dublin who is involved with an amateur theater troupe housed in a local church. When Alfie proposes that the troupe stage Oscar Wilde’s racy “Salome” rather than its usual production of Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest,” church authorities try to shut it down. Cast also includes Aimee Doherty, Kerry A. Dowling, Jennifer Ellis, Will McGarrahan, Billy Meleady, Meagan Lewis Michelson, Keith Robinson, Rebekah Rae Robles, Eddie Shields, Sam Simahk, and Kathy St. George. With choreography by Ilyse Robbins and music direction by Paul S. Katz. Feb. 21-March 22. SpeakEasy Stage Company. At Roberts Studio Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts. 617-933-8600 or www.speakeasystage.com
WHERE WE BELONG A one-person play, written by Madeline Sayet and directed by Tara Moses, about Achokayis, described as “an indigenous theatre-maker who journeys across international borders, personal history, and cultural legacies in search of a place to belong.” Feb. 28-March 23. Umbrella Stage Company. At Umbrella Arts Center, Concord. Tickets at 978-371-0820 or TheUmbrellaArts.org/WWB
ART After the wealthy, smoothly polished Serge (Michael Kaye) pays more than $100,000 for a work of art — or is it? — that consists entirely of a blank white canvas, he shows it to his friends Marc (John Kuntz) and Yvan (Remo Airaldi). Their reactions — and his reactions to their reactions — put their friendship and their values to a major test. This play by French dramatist Yasmina Reza, probably best-known for “God of Carnage,” is directed by Courtney O’Connor from a translation by Christopher Hampton. Feb. 21-March 16. Lyric Stage Company of Boston. Tickets at 617-585-5678 or lyricstage.com
PARADE A musical inspired by the 1913 case of Leo Frank, the Jewish superintendent of a pencil factory who was wrongfully accused of murdering 13-year-old Mary Phagan. With sensationalistic newspaper coverage fanning the flames of antisemitism, Frank was convicted and sent to prison. Then, in 1915, he was kidnapped by a mob and lynched. Featuring Max Chernin as Leo Frank; Talia Suskauer as Leo’s wife Lucille; and Olivia Goosman, currently a student at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee. With music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, and a book by Alfred Uhry. Directed by Michael Arden. March 11-23. At Emerson Colonial Theatre, Boston. Tickets at 888-616-0272 or www.emersoncolonialtheatre.com
– Don Aucoin
VISUAL ARTS
FUTURE FOSSILS A hindsight view of our current moment from the far-flung future, this exhibition brings together a stellar roster of artists — Ai Weiwei, Nari Ward, Rachel Whiteread, Sanford Biggers — to imagine what might remain of the fractured world we now live in when all we know is gone. Jan. 23-April 13. MassArt Art Museum, 621 Huntington Ave.. 617-879-7333, maam.massart.edu
OHAN BREIDING: BELLY OF A GLACIER In 2019, Iceland built a memorial marking the death of the Okjökull glacier, the first of many funereal events held for glaciers worldwide as ice continues to puddle away amid ongoing climate change. As they melt, history is unleashed: millennia of geological events preserved in their strata reveal themselves, from natural disaster marked by deposits of volcanic ash all the way up to man-made impacts like industrial residue. Breiding, an Icelander, presents a documentary film and photographic installation that mourns the melting glaciers, and explores the faint hope around efforts to preserve them. Feb. 1-Dec. 14. Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, 1040 Mass MoCA Way, North Adams. 413-662-2111, massmoca.org
SOVEREIGN MEMORY: PHOTOGRAPHY, REMEMBRANCE, AND DISPLACED HISTORIES Photography and modernity go hand in hand — the upheavals of a world remade first by colonialism and then industrialization ran right into the new technology, able to capture it firsthand. This exhibition seizes on the medium’s ability to record, but also deceive and reshape collective memory — and, finally, through these artists’ various pieces, be stitched together into something resembling whole. Feb. 7-June 1. The Davis Museum at Wellesley College, 106 Central St., Wellesley. 781-283-2051, www1.wellesley.edu/davismuseum
WITNESSING HUMANITY: THE ART OF JOHN WILSON Bostonians might be most familiar with Wilson, born and raised in Roxbury, through “Eternal Presence,” the monumental, enigmatic bust that’s stood sentinel-like at the National Center of Afro-American Artists (NCAAA) in Roxbury since 1987. But Wilson, who died in 2015, spent decades before and after crafting socially conscious work around the pervasive issue of racial injustice in America that he experienced all his life. This exhibition, co-organized with New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, is the most substantial display of Wilson’s oeuvre ever assembled, and an opportunity for Boston to reckon with a powerful voice that echoes through generations of its social history. Feb. 8-June 22. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 465 Huntington Ave. 617-267-9300, www.mfa.org
SARAH CWYNAR Using film, video, photography, and installation, Cwynar creates dizzying cascades of overlapping images that capture —and critique — the contemporary reality of an image-saturated consumer culture in hyperdrive. Art imitates life: Her work is as disorienting as it is seductive, a dark mirror to the smartphone-and-social media world that dominates contemporary society. Her show at the ICA will feature a brand-new two-part photo installation in collaboration with — how else to put it? — the whims of search-engine algorithms. Feb. 13-Aug. 3. Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, 25 Harbor Shore Drive. 617-478-3100, icaboston.org
WATERS OF THE ABYSS: AN INTERSECTION OF SPIRIT AND FREEDOM A full-scale “takeover” of the Gardner Museum by Fabiola Jean Louis — which means all three of the Gardner’s temporary exhibition spaces, including its billboard-size facade commission, will be in her hands — this show plumbs the depths of Haitian liberation, Vodou faith, and the artist’s roots in all of it. Feb. 27-May 25. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 25 Evans Way. 617-566-1401, www.isgm.org
EDVARD MUNCH: TECHNICALLY SPEAKING I know, I know: “The Scream,” right? There’s no getting around the cultural oversaturation of Munch’s most famous work, but recent efforts have done much to broaden our understanding of Norway’s most-loved artist beyond his all-time smash hit. In the summer of 2023, “Edvard Munch: Trembling Earth,” the Clark Art Institute’s voluminous presentation of the artist’s deep affinities with — and anxieties for — the natural world opened a universe of difference for all but the most devoted Munch fan. “Technically Speaking,” at Harvard, takes a different tack, exploring the artist’s material genius and almost manic enthusiasm for media across painting, drawing, and every manner of printing. With it, a view of an artist too long seen as one-note broadens. March 7-July 27. Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge. 617-495-9400, harvardartmuseums.org
NATIVE PROSPECTS: INDIGENEITY AND LANDSCAPE PAINTING Thomas Cole, the de facto leader of the Hudson River School of painters, depicted the American landscape with both the deep affection he felt for its majestic beauty and the anxiety that gripped him as 19th-century industry advanced deeper into its unspoiled heart. This exhibition presents Cole’s visions alongside historic and contemporary works by Native American artists, bringing Indigenous perspective, and its vital import to the land and its preservation, to the fore. March 8-July 6. Farnsworth Art Museum, 16 Museum St., Rockland, Maine. 207-596-6457, farnsworthmuseum.org
J.M.W. TURNER: ROMANCE AND REALITY Conceived to mark the beloved, bombastic British painter’s 250th birthday, this exhibition at the Yale Center for British Art brings together dozens of works from the Yale collection, which is the richest in North America. Comprising an array of Turner’s beguiling watercolors alongside major oil paintings such as “Dort or Dordrecht: The Dort Packet-Boat from Rotterdam Becalmed,” 1818 (he had a knack for titles), it’s the biggest airing of the Yale collection in more than 30 years. March 29-July 27. Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel St., New Haven. 877-274-8278, britishart.yale.edu
VAN GOGH: THE ROULIN FAMILY PORTRAITS Vincent van Gogh met few successes in his short, unhappy life, but between 1888 and 1889, he might have been as content as he’d ever been. That time, spent in the Southern French town of Arles, was where he found peace and satisfaction in the genuine friendship of Joseph Roulin and his wife and three children. Van Gogh’s portraits of them reflect an artist, who was struggling with his mental health, in a moment of rare safety and calm. A collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the show brings together some 20 portraits made in that moment, and a glimpse of a famously tortured artist momentarily calmed. March 30-Sept. 7. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 465 Huntington Ave. 617-267-9300, www.mfa.org
– Murray Whyte
Don Aucoin can be reached at donald.aucoin@globe.com. Follow him @GlobeAucoin. Matt Juul can be reached at matthew.juul@globe.com. A.Z. Madonna can be reached at az.madonna@globe.com. Follow her @knitandlisten. Murray Whyte can be reached at murray.whyte@globe.com.