This Fall’s Must-See Gallery Shows in New York

Margot Samel is dedicating her September exhibition slot to a singular and institutionally recognized perspective with “Guess What, I’m Still Here,” a solo show featuring works from the estate of Hungarian Roma artist Mara Oláh (1945-2020), also known as Omara. Oláh’s self-taught practice—spanning drawing, painting, collage and photography—has garnered increasing institutional attention in recent years, accelerated by her inclusion in the first Roma Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2007. Marking the first exhibition of her work in the United States, the show presents bold paintings of people around her alongside her emotional “Written Photographs,” each offering candid and intimate glimpses into Roma life and powerful storytelling about her experience as a Roma woman in Hungary. Notably, Oláh began her artistic journey at the age of forty-three with no formal training, discovering in art a therapeutic means to confront her own traumas while pursuing a relentless commitment to empathy and human understanding. Her work shares the reality of the Roma community with a broader audience, challenging stereotypes and rehumanizing their perception. Having grown up in a community scarred by both Nazi and postwar persecution, Oláh’s determination to thrive amid discrimination shaped both her identity and her art. While poverty, segregation, lack of medical access and extreme prejudice are daily realities reflected in her work, her oeuvre ultimately stands as a deeply personal and defiantly political celebration of Roma strength and dignity, transforming lived experience into art that insists on visibility, humanity and survival.