Visit the Velvet Underground Exhibition Coming to New York City

Trace the legacy of The Velvet Underground at “The Velvet Underground Experience,” coming to New York City this October. The immersive exhibition will feature six exclusive films, as well as a collection of portraits capturing landmark figures of New York’s 1960s underground scene, such as the members of The Velvet Underground, Allen Ginsberg, and Andy Warhol. Images captured by photographers who bore witness to the band’s career will also be on display, including works by Nat Finkelstein, Lisa Law and Steve Schapiro.

Moving from La Philharmonie de Paris back to its roots in New York, the exhibition is set to open on Oct. 10. Located at 718 Broadway, the exhibition will find its home in Greenwich Village for three months. The exhibition is structured into six main sections, allowing avid fans and newcomers to journey through the band’s life, starting from the childhoods of Lou Reed and John Cale, and extending into the band’s current impact on the art world. The banana album? That, of course, has its place, too.

“The exhibition,” said Christian Fevret and Carole Mirabello, the exhibition’s co-curators, “portrays the creative effervescence of the ‘60s NY from which the Velvet Underground emerged to achieve mythic status and change the face of pop culture.”

The Velvet Underground have inspired a myriad of covers and their iconic debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico, whose cover features a Warhol print of a banana, turned 50 turned 50 last year. Influencing all types of artists from the likes of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain to the film director/producer Todd Haynes, The Velvet Underground have reached through time as a model and inspiration for how creative fields intersect and interact.

You can find more information about the exhibition and purchase tickets here.

See the exhibition’s poster below and watch a 1976 performance of “Sister Ray” by Lou Reed further down.