The Real, Surreal, and Photoreal

Real, Surreal, and Photoreal takes a fresh look at how American and European artists have approached the idea of "the real" over more than a hundred years. Long before abstraction dominated the mid-century art world, Realism was the defining language of American painting, and this exhibition argues it never really went away; it simply kept transforming. Moving from the gritty city scenes of the Ashcan School through the unsettling dreamscapes of Surrealism to the exacting detail of Photorealism, the show traces a lineage that includes Magic Realism, Pop, Hyperrealism, and trompe l'oeil painting along the way.

On view are works by Realist portraitists John Currin and Fairfield Porter, Surrealist masters Salvador Dalí and Man Ray, painter Alex Katz, Long Island sculptor Carole A. Feuerman, and Ashcan School figures John French Sloan and William James Glackens, among others. Together, their work suggests that even as artistic movements diverge in style and intent, they share a common impulse to interpret and comment on the world as it's lived. At the Nassau County Museum of Art, November 22, 2025 through March 1, 2026, Real, Surreal, and Photoreal asks visitors to look more closely, at the art, at reality, and at the blurred territory in between.