Gallery Met Presents Super Duper, a New Exhibition of Works by More than 20 Contemporary Artists Imagining a Superhero for Our Time
The exhibition coincides with the Metropolitan Opera premiere of the new opera The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Curated by Dodie Kazanjian and Donatien Grau, Super Duper opens September 21 throughout the Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY (September 16, 2025)—Gallery Met is pleased to announce Super Duper, an ambitious exhibition curated by Dodie Kazanjian and philologist Donatien Grau. Coinciding with the company premiere of Mason Bates’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay—a new opera based on Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel set in the 1940s amid the rise of fascism in Europe—Super Duper draws on the opera’s story of two aspiring Jewish comic-book creators who invent a superhero to fight tyranny and inspire hope. The exhibition reflects how the superhero, a cultural archetype born in America and embraced worldwide, might be reinvented in our own time.
Opening simultaneously with the opera’s premiere on September 21, Super Duper brings together more than 20 artists from multiple generations, each contributing a new work that reimagines what superheroes might mean today. The only case of pre-existing work are two pieces by legendary comic artist Art Spiegelman, who has long explored courage in the face of rising fascism. Collectively, these works probe a provocative question: What does a superhero look like in our time?
From Jamian Juliano-Villani’s irreverent visions to Toyin Ojih Odutola’s moving portraiture, Rashid Johnson’s layered symbolism, and Maurizio Cattelan’s brilliant wit, the exhibition offers deeply personal responses to the theme. Super Duper features works by Joe Bradley, Maurizio Cattelan, Paul Chan, Roz Chast, Ian Cheng, George Condo, John Currin, Hadi Falapishi, Rachel Feinstein, Cy Gavin, Sally Han, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Rashid Johnson, Jamian Juliano-Villani, Ella Kruglyanskaya, Eddie Martinez, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Anna Park, Nicolas Party, pascALEjandro, Rachel Rose, Julian Schnabel, Dana Schutz, Art Spiegelman, and Anna Weyant.
Installed throughout the grand spaces of the Metropolitan Opera House, Super Duper transforms the building into a contemporary cabinet of wonders, where art, opera, and the mythos of the superhero converge.
Read more at the website below.
