Leslie Wayne is best known for heavily dimensional abstract paintings built up out of oil and plastic, layered like geology. Her new show turns that same sensibility on the landscape itself: The Unintended Blues is a set of aerial paintings documenting rising sea levels — vulnerable US shorelines seen from above, and icebergs melting in the Arctic Circle — installed in the Upper Gallery at the Arts Center at Governors Island.

The practical details:

  • On view July 24 – Sept 27, 2026, Fridays through Sundays, noon–5 p.m.
  • The Arts Center at Governors Island, Upper Gallery — 110 Andes Rd., a few minutes’ walk from the ferry landing
  • Free and accessible to all
  • Two exceptions to the schedule: the gallery is closed Friday, Sept. 25, and opens early on Saturday, Sept. 26, 10:30 a.m.–5 p.m.
  • Presented by LMCC as part of the 2026 River to River Festival

Wayne is represented by Jack Shainman Gallery and has Guggenheim, Joan Mitchell, Pollock-Krasner, NYSCA, and NYFA awards behind her; the project also credits oceanographers and mariners who supplied reference photographs and donated used marine lines for the multimedia pieces. Alongside the paintings, additional multimedia work engages directly with present-day climate science.

Getting there is the only cost consideration. The Trust for Governors Island ferry leaves from the Battery Maritime Building, 10 South St. in Lower Manhattan — $5 round trip for adults, and free for children 12 and under, seniors 65 and over, NYCHA residents, IDNYC holders, and military servicemembers. It is also free for everyone on Saturdays and Sundays before 11 a.m., which pairs neatly with a noon gallery opening. Weekend ferries run every 15 minutes during peak hours (10 a.m.–6 p.m.); seasonal Brooklyn service from Pier 6 and Red Hook/Atlantic Basin runs weekends and holidays through Nov. 1. Bikes ride free.

The argument for going: this is a climate show that doesn’t lecture. Wayne paints what’s being lost at the scale of the water, and the last three weekends before it closes are Sept. 13, Sept. 19–20, and Sept. 26 — a free ferry, a free gallery, and a genuine body of painting rather than a photo wall.