Each week, we search for the most exciting and thought-provoking shows, screenings, and events. In light of the global health crisis, we are currently highlighting events in person and digitally, as well as in-person exhibitions open in the New York area. See our picks from around the world below. (Times are all EST unless otherwise noted.)

Tuesday, April 13

Deborah Willis, Brian Palmer, and Nona Faustine. Photo courtesy of SVA.

1. “Photography and Racial Justice: Honoring the Work of Maurice Berger” at the School of Visual Arts

This Zoom event honors historian, curator, and critic Maurice Berger, who died last April. Artist, author, and curator Deborah Willis; photographer and journalist Brian Palmer; and photographer Nona Faustine will speak about the role of photography in the ongoing quest for racial justice, a key theme in Berger’s work.

Price: Free with registration
Time: 6:30 p.m.–9 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Wednesday, April 14

Judith F. Baca/Image courtesy of the SPARC Archives (SPARCinLA.org); Sandra Jackson-Dumont by Rebecca Shear; Pilar Tompkins Rivas by Monica Orozco.

2. Stories from “The Great Wall of Los Angeles”: Judy Baca in Conversation

Following the recent news that the forthcoming Lucas Museum of Narrative art acquired the archive of Judy Baca’s monumental mural The History of California, the museum is hosting a virtual seminar to discuss. The mural, one of the longest in the world, tells the story of Los Angeles throughout the decades, and is a community hallmark. The artist will discuss the stories behind the creation with museum director Sandra Jackson-Dumont and chief curator Pilar Tompkins Rivas.

Price: Free with registration

Time: 8 p.m. EST

—Caroline Goldstein

Thursday, April 15–Sunday, May 16

Rebecca Goyette, Fortuna’s Wheel (2019). Courtesy of Freight + Volume, New York.

3. “Rebecca Goyette: My Snake Is Bigger Than Your Snake” at Freight + Volume, New York

When Rebecca Goyette sold her late father’s home in New England in 2018, she was dressed in red with a giant lobster-shaped purse, and the buyer was wearing a novelty t-shirt that read “My Snake Is Bigger Than Your Snake.” That encounter with “the Snake Man” became a starting point for her current show, where she co-stars as “the Lobster Queen.” The works on view include colorful watercolor pencil drawings; a ceramic replica of the property in Townsend, Massachusetts; and a short film inspired by leaving her childhood home for good.

Location: Freight + Volume, 97 Allen Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Wednesday–Sunday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Friday, April 16

Susan Unterberg. Photo courtesy of Anonymous Was a Woman.

4. “Art Table Annual Benefit” in New York

Art Table goes virtual with its annual benefit luncheon, this year honoring Susan Unterberg, the artist-philanthropist founder of the Anonymous Was a Woman grant program, and collector and journalist Barbara Tober. The program will include remarks by Amy Sherald, Shinique Smith, and Michele Oka Doner, plus a “special message” from the Guerrilla Girls.

Price: $150 for members, $200 for non-members
Time: 12 p.m.–1 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Wade Guyton. Image courtesy the artist and ArtCenter College of Design.

5. “Wade Guyton Talk” at the ArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena

Ahead of an upcoming show at Matthew Marks’s Los Angeles Gallery, artist Wade Guyton will discuss his work with scanners and digital inkjet technology . This Zoom event is the final talk in the ArtCenter College of Design’s spring graduate seminar lecture series.

Price: Free with RSVP
Time: 10:30 a.m. (PST) 1:30 p.m. (EST)

—Eileen Kinsella

Saturday, April 17

The mysterious image that announced the mysterious group show at Tramps. Photo courtesy Tramps.

6. “It’s Not What You Think It Is” at Tramps, New York

A few days ago, the Instagram account for Tramps, a Chinatown gallery in a mall wedged under the Manhattan Bridge, posted a picture of a slice of baklava. In the caption, there was the name of a group show, “its not what you think it is,” that would open at some point in April 2021. The next day came another post, this time an image of Jerry’s apartment on Seinfeld, and now a date: “opening April 17 most likely.” So, in lieu of any solid details on the exhibition that’s opening (… most likely?) at Tramps Saturday, we’ll leave you with the full artist list, which points to just how epic this show will be: Talia Chetrit, Spencer Sweeney, Satoshi Kojima, Romeo Klein, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Peter Doig, Matt Sweeney, Matthew Higgs, Marie Karlberg, Lizzi Bougatsos, John Kelsey, Haley Wollens, Hadi Fallahpisheh, Florian Krewer, Dylan Solomon Kraus, Chloe Sevigny, Brian Degraw, Avena Gallagher, Aurel Schmidt, and Alastair Mackinven.

Location: Tramps, 75 East Broadway, 2nd Floor, New York
Price: Free
Time: TBA, but likely throughout the day, and perhaps into the night

—Nate Freeman

Through Saturday, April 17

Chloe Wise, Love in the Time of Hydroxychloroquine (2021). Photo courtesy of Almine Rech, New York.

7. “Chloe Wise: Thank You for the Nice Fire” at Almine Rech, New York

I first saw Chloe Wise’s work at the 2014 Brucennial, which included the very first piece she ever showed in New York. Titled Star of Larry David, it was a polyurethane cast of  strips of bacon arranged in a six-pointed star. But while Wise has always had a way with sculpture, especially ones involving food, her paintings sometimes had a bit of a labored quality. I say “had,” because Wise’s current show at Almine Rech shows a remarkable growth in painterly ability, which the artist attributes to an exceptionally productive year in the studio courtesy of lockdown. Her latest paintings look effortless, with a new artistic maturity. And fans of Wise’s sculpture rest assured, her caesar salad chandelier and wall sconces are as quirkily delightful as you’d expect them to be.

Location: Almine Rech, 39 East 78th Street, 2nd Floor, New York
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

“Izumi Kato” at Perrotin. Photo courtesy of Perrotin.

8. “Izumi Kato” at Perrotin, New York

For the artist’s first New York gallery exhibition in five years, Izumi Kato has populated two floors of Perrotin with new sculptures, paintings, and installations embodying the uncanny, totemic beings that have become his calling card. The works play on a continuing friction Kato sees as endemic to his native Japan: the clash between kawaii (the cultural drive toward cuteness) and a growing body of trauma extending from postwar reconstruction to the 2011 Fukushima atomic catastrophe. Kato channels the tension into his figures’ unsettled forms (oversized heads, impossible configurations of limbs) and varied materials (soft vinyl with wood, delicate cloth with chains), leaving viewers to try to reconcile opposing forces that allow no easy conclusions.

Location: Perrotin, 130 Orchard Street, New  York
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Tim Schneider

Saturday, April 17

The Rockaway Hotel. Photo by Kyle Knodell.

9. “Lilac Jam” at the Rockaway Hotel, New York

The Rockaway Hotel is launching a new monthly series of live performances called with an evening hosted by British artist Zoe Buckman in the capacity as a member of the Wide Awakes Collective. In a culture-starved city where live performance has only recently been reinstated, it’s sure to be celebratory evening of creativity. This week’s event is already booked, but an evening at the Rockaway Hotel is definitely on any post-vaccine summer to-do list.

Location: The Rockaway Hotel, 108-10 Rockaway Beach Drive, Rockaway Park, New York
Price: Free with dinner reservations
Time: 7 p.m.–9 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Through Friday, April 23

Colin Hunt, Many-Worlds Interpretation (H.C.H.M.) (2021). Photo ©Colin Hunt, courtesy of the artist and Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York.

10. “Colin Hunt: So Much Remains to Be” at Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York

Colin Hunt’s egg tempera panel paintings are at once photorealist and surreal, merging the human body with nature. He paints the silhouettes of human figures set against idyllic landscapes, but where the body would be, instead there is a strange, altered view of the surroundings, almost as if representing a portal where a person once stood.

Location: Hirschl & Adler Modern, Fuller Building, 41 East 57th Street, 9th Floor, New York
Price: Free
Time: Monday–Friday, 9:30 a.m.–5:15 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Through Sunday, May 2

“XX” at LatchKey Gallery. Photo courtesy of LatchKey Gallery.

11. “XX” at LatchKey Gallery, New York

LatchKey Gallery has an exhibition of Latinx female abstractionists. In art history, abstraction is generally centered on white men of the 20th century. This grouping of artists, which includes Beverly Acha, C.J. Chueca, Edra Soto, Ivelisse Jimenez, Marisol Martinez and Victoria Martinez, is not only groundbreaking, but rebellious in spirit. A percentage of the sales from this exhibition will support the Lower East Side Girls Club.

Location: LatchKey Gallery, 323 Canal Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Friday and Saturday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.; Tuesday–Thursday, by appointment

—Cristina Cruz

Through Saturday, May 8

Anna Park, Hero Mentality (2021). Courtesy of Half Gallery.

12. “Anna Park: Pluck Me Tender” at Half Gallery, New York

Anna Park’s monumental, charcoal works on paper are on view at Half Gallery’s New York location. This is the artist’s first solo show in the city. Aesthetically, Park’s works check off so many boxes. They are free-form compositions, chaotic scenes exploding into abstracted graffiti, a visual representation of jazz. This is one worth leaving the comfort of your quarantine nest for!

Location: Half Gallery, 235 E 4th Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.

—Cristina Cruz