Music-related art exhibits are all the rage this year in New York City. Last week alone, three exhibits opened that are leaving music fans swooning – Leonard Cohen at the Jewish Museum, Play It Loud at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die at the Museum of Arts and Design. Each show strikes a different chord, but all merit investigation.

To make things simpler for all the music lovers out there, we’ve put together a guide to 7 exhibits we recommend hitting up. You may want to pace yourselves, although, we’re guessing once word gets out some of these shows might approach David Bowie Is levels of popularity.

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Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything

The Jewish Museum
Through September 8, 2019

The Leonard Cohen exhibit at the Jewish Museum is a tearjerker. Organized by The Musée d’art contemporain in Montréal (MAC), A Crack in Everything pays homage to the late great Canadian-born novelist/poet/singer-songwriter who passed away in 2016 at the age of 82. An artist who looked inward for inspiration, Cohen’s writing and music spoke truth to the human condition. The show consists of commissioned works by a range of international artists inspired by Cohen’s life, work, and legacy. Not originally conceived as a post-mortem affair, Cohen was actually in on the exhibit’s initial planning phase and gave the concept his blessing. The show’s title, A Crack in Everything, is borrowed from the lyrics of “Anthem” a song from Cohen’s 1992 album The Future.

Those unfamiliar with Cohen may find the exhibit a bit esoteric. The show includes a broad stroke road map of his life compiled by Canadian author Chantal Ringuet. However, A Crack in Everything is less a history lesson, and more a mood piece. It captures Cohen’s essence as seen through the eyes of those he influenced. His wit, charm, and humor show through, but there is also an underpinning of darkness.

A Crack in Everything made its debut at the MAC in 2017 to rave reviews. The show in New York, which is the traveling version, is leaner than the original. It features 11 artworks and installations by 12 artists, as well as a listening room where visitors can hear covers of Cohen’s songs by Feist, Moby, The National with Sufjan Stevens, Jarvis Cocker, Julia Holter and more. Additionally, there is a room with a video projection of drawings by Cohen.

Among the show’s highlights is George Fok’s Passing Through (2017). A large-scale immersive installation, Fok creates an affecting audiovisual montage of concert footage, collective memories and emotional moments throughout Cohen’s five-decade-long career. Kara Blake’s multichannel video projection The Offerings (2017) is similarly mesmerizing. Also sourced from archival footage, Blake’s piece feels like the viewer is engaged in a conversation with Cohen. Kota Ezawa beautifully animates the opening of the 1965 documentary film Ladies and Gentlemen…Mr. Leonard Cohen for his commission Cohen 21 (2017). South African artist Candice Breitz delivers the most enchanting work in the show. Entitled I’m Your Man (A Portrait of Leonard Cohen) (2017), the multi-channel video installation features fans of Cohen performing the songs off I’m Your Man (1988) in a studio setting. Backing vocals for the piece are provided by the Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue Choir, an all-male choir from the congregation that Cohen belonged to.

Also of note is Canadian artists Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller’s contribution. Known for their sonic wizardry, the husband-and-wife team reprogrammed a vintage Wurlitzer organ for The Poetry Machine (2017). Visitors are invited to the press the organ’s keys in this interactive installation. Each key signals a recording of Cohen reading a poem from his Book of Longing.

A Crack in Everything is a must-see for Cohen fans. It’s engrossing and incredibly moving. The show is on view at the Jewish Museum through September 8, 2019. After New York, the exhibition heads to Kunstforeningen GL STRAND and Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen, Denmark (October 23, 2019 – March 8, 2020) and the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco (September 17, 2020 – January 3, 2021).

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Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Through October 1, 2019

The current instruments exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art simply rocks. Featuring instruments on loan from Eddie Van Halen, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, St. Vincent, Jack White, Lady Gaga and many more, Play It Loud is co-organized by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and explores historical developments in rock n’ roll through the tools that brought the music to life. On display are over 130 instruments dating from 1939 to 2017. Each instrument comes with a story detailing its role and/or significance in advancing the art form. In addition to an impressive array of musical implements and equipment, the show is boosted by a kickass soundtrack and an assortment of vintage posters and costumes. There are also videos featuring the likes of Jimmy Page, Tom Morello, and Eddie Van Halen talking about their favorite sonic artillery.

There is so much for music lovers to drool over at this show. Among the highlights is Jimi Hendrix’s electric guitar “Love Drops,” Eric Clapton’s “Blackie,” Lady Gaga’s custom-designed Artpop Piano, Keith Moon’s “Pictures of Lily” drum set and a petite grand piano that belonged to Jerry Lee Lewis.

After Play It Loud’s run at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the exhibit will travel to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in November 2019.

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Bob Marley: Soul Rebel

ilon Art Gallery
Through May 25, 2019

Reggae fans, there’s a little something up in Harlem you might want to check out. On view at ilon Art Gallery is an exhibit of photographs of Bob Marley from the 1970s. Photojournalist David Burnett traveled to Jamaica on assignment for Time magazine “to visually capture the roots of reggae.” While there, he encountered a young Marley. A couple of years later, in 1977, Rolling Stone Magazine sent Burnett out to photograph Bob Marley and the Wailers on the Exodus tour through Europe, which was a pivotal time in Marley’s life. The show features 35 works by Burnett.

An award-winning photographer, Burnett has worked for Time, Life, Fortune, The New Yorker, and The New York Times Sunday Magazine documenting world leaders, international conflicts, and Olympic medalists.

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Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die: Punk Graphics, 1976–1986

Museum of Arts and Design
Through August 18, 2019

Punk rock is currently being celebrated at two museums in New York City. The posh Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) is hosting Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die, a show conceived by Andrew Blauvelt for the Cranbrook Art Museum. Blauvelt approaches the subject matter through a graphic design lens. The exhibit focuses on the visual language of punk and consists of flyers, posters, album covers, zines, and other ephemera. As for the New York run, artwork from the city’s punk scene, such as flyers from CBGBs, posters of The Ramones, as well as early issues of Punk magazine have been added.

In conjunction with the show, MAD is presenting an excellent film series. Entitled Global Punk, the lineup illustrates punk’s far-reaching influence and includes Jean-Marie Teno’s Bikutsi Water Blues (1988), Sarah Minter’s Nadie es Inocente (1986), Tetsuro Takeuchi’s Wild Zero (1999), and Derek Jarman’s Jubilee (1978).

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Punk Lust: Raw Provocation 1971-1985

Museum of Sex
Through November 30, 2019

The Museum of Sex seems like a more appropriate venue for a dive into the punk movement. Co-curated by culture critic Carlo McCormick, journalist/musician Vivien Goldman and the Museum of Sex’s Lissa Rivera, Punk Lust examines how Punk culture used the “language of sexuality” to goad and to resist societal norms, including challenging gender identity. The show brings together more than 300 artifacts, including clothing, artworks, film, and ephemera from a broad range of sources. Johnny Thunders leather jacket, a handmade New York Dolls t-shirt by Rita Daniels, a life-sized cutout of Iggy Pop, photos of the Dead Boys’s Stiv Bators, and a letter from noted groupie Sable Starr are among the items on display at this provocative show.

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Lee “Scratch” Perry: Mirror Master Futures Yard

Swiss Institute
through June 2, 2019

The art of legendary dub creator Lee “Scratch” Perry is the subject of a exhibit at the Swiss Institute. The show consists of a newly commissioned sculptural installation, as well as artworks produced by his Black Ark studio in Kingston, Jamaica in the 1990s, and in his Blue Ark studio in Switzerland. This is the first ever institutional exhibition for the musician. Expect to find some pretty trippy stuff – collages, rock formations, Black Madonna figurines, stuffed animals, mirror balls, CDs, drawings and more.

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Jazz: The Birth of Cool

Morrison Hotel Gallery
April 26 to May 12

Miles Davis, New York City 1958, © Don Hunstein, 1958

Jazz gets its due. Coming to Morrison Hotel is Jazz: The Birth of Cool, an exhibit devoted to luminaries of the movement. The show includes photographs of Miles Davis, Quincy Jones, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, and Thelonious Monk shot by the likes of Don Hunstein, Herman Leonard and Art Kane. Morrison Hotel, a gallery that specializes in music photography, hosts the show at its spaces in New York, Los Angeles, and Maui.