Each week, we search New York City for the most exciting and thought-provoking shows, screenings, and events. See them below. 

Monday, September 30–Sunday, October 27

David Benjamin Sherry, LeConte Glacier. Photo courtesy of the artist, the Bridge Initiative, and the Alaska Whale Foundation.

1. David Benjamin Sherry Billboard on Lafayette Street

On the heels of last week’s UN Climate Change Summit, David Benjamin Sherry is unveiling the first in a series of billboards that look to raise awareness of the risks posed by global warming. Going up in Soho, the billboard shows a photograph of the LeConte Glacier and asks viewers to “imagine a future where your children will only see this in an image.” Sherry shot the picture during a July 2018 expedition to Alaska with the Bridge Initiative and the Alaska Whale Foundation. A show of the artist’s jewel-tone-tinted landscape photographs, titled “American Monuments,” is also on view at Salon 94 Bowery through October 26.

Location: Lafayette Street, south of Canal
Price: Free
Time: 24/7

—Sarah Cascone

Tuesday, October 1

The Best American Comics 2019. Courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

2. “The Best American Comics 2019 Panel With Bill Kartalopoulos” at the Strand

New York Comic Con hits the Javits Center this weekend, and you can gear up for the big event with a panel discussion on the 2019 edition of The Best American Comics compendium. Series editor Bill Kartalpoulos will moderate with a panel female comic artists, E.A. Bethea, Xia Gordon, Laura Lannes, Leslie Stein, and Laura Weinstein. Buying a ticket to the event gets you either a $15 gift certificate to the store or, for $25, a signed copy of the book.

Location: The Strand, 828 Broadway at East 12th Street
Price: $15–25
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

3. “Lonnie Bunch in Conversation With Gayle King” at the Apollo Theater

Lonnie G. Bunch III, the founding director of National Museum of African American History and Culture and the newly appointed secretary of the Smithsonian, has written a new book—titled A Fool’s Errand: Creating the National Museum of African American History and Culture in the Age of Bush, Obama, and Trump—about the challenges of opening the hugely popular institution. He’ll talk with Gayle King, anchor of CBS This Morning, about his personal and professional journey.

Location: The Apollo Theater, 253 West 125th Street
Price: Free with RSVP
Time: 7:30 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Tuesday, October 1–Tuesday, October 15

Gail Albert Halaban, photo of Peter Daverington’s Bald Eagle, Audubon Mural Project. Photo courtesy of Aperture.

4. “Audubon Mural Project: Photographs by Gail Albert Halaban” at Aperture

Way uptown, in the northern reaches of Harlem and in Washington Heights, you might notice a proliferation of bird-themed murals on the security gates of local bodegas, barbershops, and other businesses. Each artwork represents one of the 314 species of North American birds that are currently threatened by global warming. The Audubon Mural Project was started by local art gallery Gitler & _____ in 2014 and has completed 117 murals to date. This year, fashion maven Jill Fairchild commissioned artist Gail Albert Halaban to document the existing murals, which will soon begin to fade due to exposure to the elements.

Location: Aperture, 547 West 27th Street, 4th floor
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception Thursday, October 3, 7 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–10:30 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Wednesday October 2

Marilyn Minter, RESIST FLAG (2017), part of the “Pledges of Allegiance” project commissioned by Creative Time. Courtesy of Creative Time.

5. “Swing Left Cocktail Reception” at Marilyn Minter’s Studio

A bevy of art world A-listers—Glenn Ligon, Laurie Simmons, Richard Prince, Kimberly Drew, Gina Nanni, Stanley Whitney, Cindy Sherman, Cecily Brown, and Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn—are co-hosting a cocktail reception at Marilyn Minter’s studio for Swing Left, a grassroots political organization working to defeat Donald Trump.

Location: Marilyn Minter’s Studio, address provided with RSVP
Price: $175–500
Time: 6:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Courtesy of Roz Chast, Neil Goldberg.

6. “The Extraordinary in the Ordinary With Roz Chast & Neil Goldberg” at the Museum of the City of New York

Cartoonist Roz Chast and video artist and photographer Neil Goldberg, both of whom draw on the trials and tribulations of every day life in New York City for artistic inspiration, will give presentations about their work, followed by a conversation with author and former NPR host Jacki Lyden.

Location: The Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue at East 103rd Street
Price: $40
Time: 6:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Thursday, October 3

Guests at the opening of “Henry Chalfant: Art Vs. Transit, 1977–1987” at the Bronx Museum of the Arts. Photo courtesy of the Bronx Museum of the Arts.

7. “The Bronx Museum of the Arts Ball” at the Bronx Museum

The Bronx Museum of the Arts is honoring Mickalene Thomas and local activist and collector Racqual Chevremont at its annual gala, being held on site at the museum for the first time in a decade. Bronx-based creative collective Ghetto Gastro is planning the dinner, which features local restaurants and chefs, and the Bronx Brewery is setting up a pop-up beer garden for the after party. The DJs will include photographer Stefan Ruiz and artist José Parlá, with dancing by B-Girl Rokafella and the Full Circle Souljahs. Guests will also have after-hours access to current exhibitions “Henry Chalfant: Art Vs. Transit, 1977–1987” and “The Life and Times of Alvin Baltrop.”

Location: Bronx Museum of the Arts, 1040 Grand Concourse, Bronx
Price: After party $350
Time: Dinner 6:30 p.m.; after party 8:30 p.m.–11 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Thursday, October 3–Sunday, October 6

Installation by Julia Sinelnikova at SATELLITE Art Show in Miami, 2018. Photo courtesy of SATELLITE Art Show.

8. SATELLITE Art Show at the Pfizer Building

Don’t miss the first full-fledged New York edition of Miami’s scrappy SATELLITE Art Show. Founded and run by artist Brian Whiteley, the fair is dedicated to keeping booth prices as low as possible, to provide emerging artists a chance to showcase their work to the public. Known for offering experiential art projects and performance art, the fair will include more than 40 presentations, including work from artists Kalup Linzy and Rachel Rampleman.

Location: Pfizer Building, 630 Flushing Avenue
Price: $10
Time: Thursday and Friday, 5 p.m.–12 a.m.; Saturday, 12 p.m.–12 a.m.; Sunday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Monica Bill Barnes. Photo courtesy of Arts Brookfield.

9. “Monica Bill Barnes & Company: Days Go By” at Brookfield Place

Arts Brookfield has commissioned a new, large-scale, site-specific performance from Monica Bill Barnes & Company, debuting this week at the Winter Garden in Brookfield Place. Many of the cast members are not actually dancers—including actor Danny Pudi (Abed on Community)—or even performers, creating a unique experience as the piece unfolds amid the comings and goings of real New Yorkers passing through the space. Audience members will each receive a pair of headphones to listen to the music, which largely features one-hit-wonders.

Location: Brookfield Place New York, 230 Vesey Street
Price: Free
Time: 7 p.m.–8 p.m.

—Nan Stewert

Thursday, October 3–Saturday, November 2

Leon Berkowitz, Big Bend No. II (Double Violet) (ca. 1976). Courtesy of Hollis Taggart.

10. “Thresholds of Perceptibility: The Color Field Paintings of Leon Berkowitz” at Hollis Taggart 

In the first Leon Berkowitz solo show since taking over exclusive representation of his estate in February, Hollis Taggart’s new show dedicated to the late Color Field painter highlights his distinct facility working with large swaths of color. In his largest paintings (measuring almost nine feet), Berkowitz’s deftness in managing the subtleties of each color is fully appreciated.

Location: Hollis Taggart, 521 West 26th Street
Price: Free
Time: Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

—Caroline Goldstein

Anthony Brunelli, Depot at Dusk (2017). Courtesy of Louis K. Meisel Gallery

11. “Anthony Brunelli: In Retrospect” at Louis K. Meisel Gallery

Anthony Brunelli, a pioneering member of the new generation of American photorealists, focuses on capturing panoramic cityscapes. In “Anthony Brunelli: In Retrospect,” Louis K. Meisel Gallery presents a survey of his work over the last 25 years from his earliest paintings of his hometown of Binghamton, New York, to his later exploration of scenes from Asia and Europe. The large scale and hyper-realistic nature of the works truly captivate the viewer and bring them into the scenes.

Location: Louis K. Meisel Gallery, 141 Prince Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–7 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Neha Jambhekar

Thursday, October 3–Saturday, November 16

Marc Yankus, Hudson on My Mind. Photo courtesy of ClampArt.

12. “Marc Yankus: New York Unseen” at ClampArt

Marc Yankus’s photographs of familiar places in New York City are strangely unsettling, but it takes a minute to put your finger on why: He’s stripped the streets of people and cars, transforming our bustling metropolis into a haunting ghost town.

Location: ClampArt, 247 West 29th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Thursday, October 3–Monday, January 13

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Tightrope Walker (1908-19). Image courtesy of the Neue Galerie, New York

13. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner at Neue Galerie

This major overview of the German Expressionist’s career will span from 1907 to 1937, exploring several distinct phases associated with the main cities where he lived and worked, including Dresden, Berlin, and Davos. The exhibition will concentrate on the artist’s use of color across media and will include paintings, decorative works, drawings, and prints, and was made possible with the help of loans from public and private collections worldwide.

Location: Neue Galerie, 1048 Fifth Avenue
Price: General admission $25; seniors $16; students and educators $12; visitors with disabilities $12; free first fridays, 6 p.m.–9 p.m.
Time: Thursday through Monday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.; Tuesday and Wednesday closed

—Eileen Kinsella

Friday, October 4–Sunday, October 6

Jennifer Rubell, Happy Birthday (2019), film excerpt. Courtesy of the artist.

14. “Taste of Priceless” at Spring Studios

Mastercard is venturing into the pop-up exhibition scene with an experiential art installation featuring work by big-name artists, all shown inside a site-specific installation by Monika Bravo. The half-hour-long experience will include Marilyn Minter’s video Green Pink Caviar, which went on tour with Madonna; designer Daniel Lismore as a living sculpture; and a new multi-sensory film-based piece by Jennifer Rubell, titled Happy Birthday. At the end, guests will be treated to the “taste of priceless”—a nod to the company’s long-running ad campaign—in the form of two bespoke macarons from Kreëmart founder Raphaël Castoriano. Ticket sales will go toward funding school lunch programs across the US.

Location: Spring Studios, 6 Saint Johns Lane
Price: $10
Time: Friday, 6 p.m.–9 p.m., Saturday, 12 p.m.–11 p.m., Sunday, 12 p.m.–7 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Downtown Brooklyn Arts Festival. Photo courtesy of Downtown Brooklyn Partnership

15. “Downtown Brooklyn Arts Festival” at the Plaza

A host of local arts organizations are among the groups participating in this weekend’s Downtown Brooklyn Arts Festival, including BRIC, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, and Urban Glass. Stop by the main stage at the Plaza for live dance, music, and other performances, or visit venues around the Brooklyn Cultural District to enjoy exhibitions, film screenings, classes, and other activities.

Location: The Plaza at 300 Ashland, Brooklyn
Price: Free
Time: Times vary by location; main stage Friday, 5 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.–9 p.m.; Sunday, 12 p.m.–5 p.m.

—Tanner West

Friday, October 4–Sunday, January 12, 2020

John Singer Sargent, Sybil Sassoon, later Marchioness of Cholmondeley (1912). Photo courtesy of the Morgan Library & Museum, private collection.

16. “John Singer Sargent: Portraits in Charcoal” at the Morgan Library & Museum

Famed American portraitist John Singer Sargent actually stopped painting the large-scale oils for which he is best known back in 1907. For the last 18 years of his life, he did his portrait commissions in charcoal, an under-appreciated facet of his practice that gets its first dedicated exhibition at the Morgan. The show’s curator, Richard Ormond, will give a lecture about Sargent’s change in mediums at 6:30 p.m. on the show’s opening night (tickets $20).

Location: The Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Avenue
Price: $22
Time: Tuesday–Thursday, 10:30 a.m.–5 p.m.; Friday, 10:30 a.m.–9 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Opening Saturday, October 5 

Marian Zazeela, 22 – 28 VIII 75 (1975). Photo by Bill Jacobson Studio, New York, ©Marian Zazeela.

17. “Marian Zazeela” at Dia:Beacon

Together with La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela has become known for her large-scale light and sound installations, but Dia is focusing on her lesser-known works on paper, with a selection of some 30 works mainly from the 1960s and ’70s.

Location: Dia:Beacon, 3 Beekman Street
Price: General admission $15; students and seniors $12; members and children under 12, free
Time: Through October 31, Thursday–Monday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.; November–March, Thursday–Monday, 11 a.m.–4 p.m.;

—Sarah Cascone

Saturday, October 5–Sunday, November 3

Carly Ries, Floribunda/Peach Rose, from Lesbian Lust: Volume 5, Number 5 (1993/2018). Courtesy of the artist.

18. “Carly Ries: CENTERFOLD” at ZH Projects

In Ries’s “CENTERFOLD” series, scans of vintage girl-on-girl porn magazines are cropped to isolate interlaced body parts and curious background props, imbuing in the material a sense of intimacy that belies its original context. Interspersed with the artist’s own photos of flowers and spare still-lifes, the work revels in the beauty of forms—and shows us it’s possible to do so empathically.

Location: ZH Projects, 195 Calyer Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 7 p.m.–9 p.m.

—Taylor Dafoe 

Saturday, October 5–Sunday, February 23, 2020

J.M.E. Turner, Whitby (circa 1824). Courtesy of Tate Britain.

19. “J.M.W. Turner: Watercolors From the Tate” at the Mystic Seaport Museum 

Somehow, Connecticut’s Mystic Seaport Museum has scored a loan of no less than 97 watercolors from Tate Britain, part of the Turner Bequest of 30,600 works donated by JMW Turner to Great Britain upon his death in 1851. The show will include the painter’s famous seascapes, but also his domestic interiors, architectural reliefs, and pastoral landscapes.

Location: Mystic Seaport Museum, 75 Greenmanville Avenue, Mystic, Connecticut
Price: General admission $28.95; seniors $26.95, youth ages 13–17 $24.95; children 3–12 $18.95; members and children under 3, free
Time: 9 a.m.–5 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Through Sunday, October 6

Margaret Bourke-White, photograph from “Franklin Roosevelt’s Wild West,” LIFE, November 23 (1936). Photo ©LIFE Picture Collection, Meredith Corporation.

20. “LIFE: Six Women Photographers” at the New-York Historical Society

The New-York Historical Society spotlights six women photographers who worked for LIFE magazine between the late 1930s and the early ’70s, helping shape American culture and identity, and define the boundaries of modern photojournalism. Featuring some 70 images by Margaret Bourke-White, Hansel Mieth, Marie Hansen, Martha Holmes, Nina Leen, and Lisa Larsen, the exhibition examines their legacies and documentation of what LIFE editor-in-chief Henry Luce called the “American Century.”

Location: New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West at Richard Gilder Way (West 77th Street)
Price: General admission $21
Time: Tuesday–Thursday and Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m.–8 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

—Nan Stewert

Sunday, October 6–Sunday, February 16, 2020

Nicolas Moufarrege, title unknown, 1984. Image and work courtesy Nabil Moufarrej and Gulnar “Nouna” Mufarrij, Shreveport, Louisiana.

21. “Nicolas Moufarrege: Recognize My Sign” at the Queens Museum

During a career that lasted just over 10 years, Nicolas Moufarrege created an eclectic and poignant body of work centered on tapestries and embroidered paintings incorporating imagery ranging from Arabic calligraphy, to Islamic tilework, to western Pop artists. But what made his work special was his ability to weave these disparate visual reference points—most of which he encountered firsthand while living between Egypt, Beirut, Paris, and New York—into deeply personal reflections on human conflict, cultural assimilation, and queer life.

Location: New York City Building, Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Price: $8 Adults; $4 Seniors; Free for children aged 18 and under
Time: Wednesday–Sunday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.

—Tim Schneider

Through Saturday, October 12

Illustration from Detective Comics #742, page 12, The Honored Dead (2000). Script by Greg Rucka, pencils by Shawn Martinbrough, inks by Steve Mitchell, and letters by Todd Klein. Courtesy of the Society of Illustrators.

22. “Illustrating Batman: Eighty Years of Comics and Pop Culture” at the Society of Illustrators

This show featuring original Batman illustrations by such comic book greats as Frank Miller, Bob Kane, and Jim Lee is actually one of a quartet of shows dedicated to the Dark Knight currently on view at the Society of Illustrators.

Location: The Society of Illustrators, 128 East 63rd Street
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday and Thursday, 10 a.m.–8 p.m.; Wednesday and Friday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Through Sunday, October 20

Courtesy of Company Gallery

23. “Raúl de Nieves: As Far As UUU Take Me” at Company Gallery

A burst of color awaits you in the Lower East Side. Mexican artist Raúl de Nieves transforms the gallery into a hallucinatory place of worship through the use of a suspended, stained-glass ceiling and rainbow- beaded sculptures and masks. Catch it before it closes on October 20th!

Location: Company Gallery, 88 Eldridge Street, fifth floor
Price: Free
Time: Wednesday–Sunday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.

—Cristina Cruz