Thursday, October 13–Monday, November 14

Faiza Butt, Morphosis (2016). Courtesy of Sapar Contemporary.

1. “Hidden in Plain Sight” at Sapar Contemporary
It’s your last chance to see this five-person show, thoughtfully curated by Dallas Contemporary director of exhibitions and senior curator Justine Ludwig. The subtle, camouflaged works convery subversive imagery, such as Parastou Forouhar‘s gorgeously-intricate interlocking patterns, which obscure the fact that her faceless figures are locked in a violent struggle. 

Don’t miss Faiza Butt’s astonishing portraits, painstakingly-rendered in a pointillist style inspired by the Mughal miniturist tradition, or the wallpaper-eque floral designs of Tsang Kin-Wah, formed from nasty Internet comments.

Location: Sapar Contemporary, 9 North Moore Street
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 11:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Friday, November 4–Saturday, January 7

Mark Rothko,Untitled (Rust, Blacks on Plum), 1962. Courtesy of photographer Hickey Robertson/Pace Gallery.

2. “Rothko: Dark Palette” at Pace Gallery
Mark Rothko’s dark paintings represent a fascinating subsection of his famed sectional color field works. In conjunction with the exhibition, the gallery is releasing a book on the subject featuring writings by the artist and his son Christopher Rothko. The show features loans from institutions such as the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond. 

Location: Pace Gallery, 510 West 25th Street
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Thursday, November 10

Marilyn Minter. Photo J Grassi/Patrickmcmullan.com.

3. Marilyn Minter in Conversation at the Brooklyn Museum
Get ready for a set of quick conversations—just 10 minutes each!—between beloved painter Marilyn Minter and a host of artists and musicians who inspire her timed to her new retrospective, “Pretty/Dirty,” at the Brooklyn Museum.

The roster: Sarah Nicole Prickett (founder of Adult Magazine), Johanna Fateman (musician, of Le Tigre), Richard Hell (punk pioneer), Lorna Simpson (artist), Ryan McGinley (photographer), Jayson Musson (artist), Mary Heilmann (artist), Shea Spencer (photographer and producer), and Abigail DeAtley (director of development at Planned Parenthood of New York City).

Location: The Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway
Price: $16, includes museum admission
Time: 6:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m.

–Brian Boucher

Promotional image for Flipping the Script: Saving NYC as a Place Where Artists Can Thrive. Courtesy of Wide Open Arts.

4. Flipping the Script: Saving NYC as a Place Where Artists Can Thrive at NeueHouse
artnet News’ own Christian Viveros-Fauné will be moderating a panel featuring arts entrepreneur Danielle Jackson, artist Caroline Woolard, and writer Felix Salmon, along with artnet News’ National Art Critic Ben Davis. The event is hosted by Andrew Edlin and the Outsider Art Fair. Come for the conversation, and stay for the solution to real estate woes.

Location: NeueHouse, 110 East 25th Street
Price: Free with RSVP
Time: 6:45 p.m.–8:00 p.m.

—Kathleen Massara

Friday, November 11

Shaun Leonardo, I Can’t Breathe. Courtesy Cooper Union.

5. Shaun Leonardo, I Can’t Breathe at Cooper Union

In the wake of police killings of black men and boys like Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, and Tamir Rice, artist Shaun Leonardo leads a performance in the form of a self-defense class. Participants will learn techniques like how to relieve the pressure of a choke-hold, and will alternate in the roles of aggressor and defender.

Location: Cooper Union, 41 Cooper Square
Price: Free with registration
Time: 6:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m.

–Brian Boucher

Kurt Schwerdtfeger, Reflektorische Farblichtspiele (Reflecting Color-Light-Play), 1922. (Shot by Rudolf Jüdes, 1966). Courtesy of the Schwerdtfeger Estate

6. Kurt Schwerdtfeger’s Reflektorische Farblichtspiele at Microscope Gallery
If you’ve managed to catch “Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016”—an exhibition at New York’s Whitney Museum that explores the manipulation of cinematic from the perspective of a long artistic century—you’re in luck. But if you haven’t seen it, you’re also in luck. (It’s still there, after all, to be seen.) Why? There is some added value to be found in Bushwick. Microscope Gallery, in partnership with the Whitney, is hosting “Dreamlands: Expanded” (October 31, 2016–January 15, 2017), a series that puns on its appended status by showing works of expanded cinema.

Friday will feature Kurt Schwerdtfeger’s Reflektorische Farblichtspiele (Reflecting Color-Light-Play), a short from 1922 that was originally shown in the home of Wassily Kandinsky. A sort of cinematic-sculpture object, it features performers (Lary 7, Bradley Eros, Rachael Guma, and Joel Schlemowitz) who “activate cardboard shapes and a switchboard of colored lights to form a complex.” It’s also, according to Microscope’s site, a seminal work of the Weimar Bauhaus movement. And its exhibition is a rarity: it was last performed in 1966.

Location: Microscope Gallery, 1329 Willoughby Avenue, #2B, Brooklyn
Price: $15
Time: 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, November 12

Ensamble Studio, Structures of Landscape, Beartooth Portal at Tippet Rise Art Center. Courtesy of photographer Iwan Baan and Tippet Rise Art Center.

7. In Our Time: A Year of Architecture in a Day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
An impressive selection of architects, curators, theorists, photographers, and filmmakers gather at the Met to discuss the year’s developments in contemporary design and architectural practice. Wolfgang Tillmans, Miranda July, Yves Béhar, Elizabeth Diller of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and Dan Barasch and James Ramsey of the Lowline are all on the docket.

Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue
Price: Free with museum admission
Time: 10:30 a.m.–6:00 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

SeMA Biennale Mediocrity Seoul. Courtesy Seoul Museum of Art.

8. “CTRL+ART” at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center 
CTRL+ART, decribed as “a culture lab on imagined futures” is behind a group pop-up show at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. It features more than 40 artists and scholars working in technology, who believe that knowing what the future holds is not a question of speculation but instead agency. Included in the lineup are New Museum incubator NEW INC‘s Taeyoon Choi and Lisa Park.

Location: Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, 477 Broadway
Price: Free
Time: 11:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m.

—Eileen Kinsella