Each week, we search New York City for the most exciting, and thought-provoking, shows, screenings, and events. See them below.
Monday, December 26
Left, Eva Hesse, Repetition Nineteen III (1968). © 2016 Estate of Eva Hesse. Courtesy Galerie Hauser & Wirth, Zurich. Right, David Hammons, Pray for America (1969). Photo Martin Seck. Digital Image © 2016 MoMA, N.Y.
1. Talking Together About Grief at the Museum of Modern Art
Whether you’re grieving the gifts you didn’t get this year, or lamenting the demise of American democracy, you can try to work it out by looking at some artworks in like-minded community. This time around, artist Paula Stuttman leads a discussion about grief by considering David Hammons’s Pray for America (1969) and Eva Hesse’s Repetition Nineteen III (1968). Speaking of grieving what’s lost, Hesse once said, speaking of the perishability of her materials, “Life doesn’t last; art doesn’t last. It doesn’t matter.”
Location: 11 West 53rd Street
Price: Free with museum admission
Time: 11:30 a.m.
—Brian Boucher
Tuesday, December 27
Judith Seligson, Signs of Struggle. Courtesy of Galerie Mourlot.
2. Hanukkah Party Celebrating “Judith Seligson: Drawing the Line” at Galerie Mourlot
At age 66, Judith Seligson is enjoying her largest solo show (on view through January 22) to date of her colorful geometric abstractions. The 50 recent paintings on view, however, are among her smallest works, some as minute as one or two inches across.
The artist considers this a feminist statement: “Men were making paintings that were physically overpowering,” Seligson said in her artist’s statement. “Why should the line between painting and not-painting (or not-so-great paintings) be drawn according to size?”
On the fourth night of Hannukah (which starts Christmas Eve and ends New Year’s Day this year), the gallery will host a party for Seligson replete with latkes, libations, and a menorah lighting.
Location: Galerie Mourlot, 16 East 79th Street, Second Floor
Price: Free
Time: 6:00 p.m.–8:30 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Sunday, December 31
Blue Marble ice cream. Courtesy of Blue Marble.
3. Free Blue Marble Ice Cream at the Museum of the City of New York
Stop by the Museum of the City of New York between Christmas and New Years, and you can score a free ice cream cone, while supplies last. Just be sure to ask for the holiday ice cream promotion—you can use the promo code “IScreamMuseum.”
Exhibitions include the museum’s new permanent display, “New York at Its Core,” which explores the city’s 400 year history; “Gay Gotham,” about New York’s vibrant queer community; and the seasonally-appropriate “Santa and the City,” which credits 19th-century New Yorkers for creating the Saint Nicholas we know today.
Location: Museum of the City of New York, 1220 5th Ave & 103rd Street
Price: Free with admission
Time: 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Monday, January 1
LOT, Flatiron Sky-Line. Courtesy of LOT.
4. LOT, Flatiron Sky-Line at North Flatiron Public Plaza
This temporary installation by New York- and Greece-based architecture firm LOT, features white hammocks hung beneath ten white powder-coated steel arches. The winner of the annual Flatiron Public Plaza Holiday Design Competition from the Van Alen Institute, the project offers comfortable (if chilly) seating by day, and is lit up by LEDs by night—offering Instagram-worthy photo opps at all hours.
Location: North Flatiron Public Plaza at Broadway, Fifth Avenue, and 23rd Street
Price: Free
Time: 9:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Sunday, January 29, 2017
Kerry James Marshall, Untitled (2014). Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
5. Exhibition Tour, “Kerry James Marshall: Mastry” at the Met Breuer
Enjoy a guided tour of the remarkable and critically acclaimed survey exhibition of the American artist Kerry James Marshall at the Met Breuer before it closes next month. Exploring a wide range of painting styles, the artist has dedicated his life to rectifying the absence of the black figure within Western art history, and to countering the stereotypical depiction of black people in American society.
Location: The Met Breuer, 945 Madison Avenue
Price: Free with admission
Time: Daily tours 12:30 p.m.–1:30 p.m.
—Henri Neuendorf
Through January 8, 2017
Cindy Sherman, Untitled (1979) in the International Center of Photography’s exhibition “Public, Private, Secret.” Courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures.
6. “Public, Private, Secret ” at the International Center for Photography (ICP)
“Public, Private, Secret,” was the inaugural show at the Museum’s new digs on the Bowery, the institution having moved from midtown Manhattan in 2014. Talk about a timely topic in our social-media obsessed society—the though-provoking show delves into the concept of privacy today and examines how contemporary self-identity is linked to public visibility. Organized by curator-in-residence Charlotte Cotton, along with ICP associate curator Pauline Vermare and assistant curator Marina Chao, it runs through January 8. Don’t miss it.
Location: 250 Bowery
Price: Adults $14, Seniors $12, Students $10, Members and children under 14 Free
Time: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m., Thursday 10:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m.
—Eileen Kinsella