Each week, we search New York City for the most exciting and thought-provoking shows, screenings, and events. See them below.
Tuesday, April 16–Sunday, July 14
Giambattista Tiepolo, Perseus and Andromeda (circa 1730–31). Courtesy of the Frick Collection
1. “Tiepolo in Milan: The Lost Frescoes of Palazzo Archinto” at the Frick Collection
The first major project that 18th-century Venetian artist Giambattista Tiepolo ever did outside of his native city was a series of ceiling frescoes for Palazzo Archinto in Milan, painted in 1730 and 1731. Although the murals were destroyed by bombs during World War II, the Frick has brought together 50 objects that collectively tell the story of the lost works, including five preparatory pieces and black-and-white photographs of the palace and the frescoes before their destruction.
Location: The Frick Collection, 1 East 70th Street
Price: $22
Time: Sunday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; First Fridays, 10 a.m.–9 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Wednesday, April 17
Cover of Landscape Painting Now (2019), published by Artbook and DAP. Artwork © David Hockney. Photograph by Richard Schmidt.
2. Landscape Painting Now book launch and panel discussion at the Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum is hosting a panel discussion for the launch of Landscape Painting Now, a book of more than 400 works depicting this subject. Author and art critic Barry Schwabsky will moderate a discussion on the subject of how landscape painting “can reflect the present—our increasingly digitally-mediated existence and imminent environmental collapse—with urgency,” along with artists Verne Dawson, Lois Dodd, Enrique Martinez Celaya, Alison Elizabeth Taylor, and Matthew Wong
Location: Whitney Museum of American Art, 99 Gansevoort Street, Whitney Shop
Price: Free
Time: 7 p.m.
—Neha Jambhekar
Wednesday, April 17
Installation view of Arch, 2017. Courtesy Public Art Fund.
3. Ai Weiwei in conversation with Nicholas Baume with the Public Art Fund
Artist Ai Weiwei and Public Art Fund director Nicholas Baume are coming together to celebrate the publication of “Good Fences Make Good Neighbors,” an encyclopedic documentation of Ai’s citywide exhibition of the same name last year. Among the topics to be discussed are the relationship between creativity and civic engagement, Ai’s dedication to activism, and the processes that brought the multimedia exhibition to its various locations throughout New York City.
Location: Ford Foundation Auditorium, 320 East 43rd Street
Price: Free, RSVP required
Time: 6 p.m.–8 p.m
—Katie White
Wednesday, April 17
Activists protest Amazon’s thwarted move to Long Island City. Photo: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images.
4. “Housing Tech City? New York’s Future With(out) Amazon” at the Museum of the City of New York
It’s been two months since news broke that Amazon was backing out of plans to open its new headquarters in New York City. But the questions that fueled the debate around the project—including how best to address affordable housing, inequality, and job growth in New York City—haven’t gone away. Architect and professor Vishaan Chakrabarti, city planner and writer Alan Mallach, sociologist Saskia Sassen, and activist Maritza Silva-Farrell will discuss what happens next in a conversation moderated by New York magazine’s Justin Davidson.
Location: The Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue
Price: $30 for adults, $25 for students, seniors and educators
Time: 6:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m.
—Julia Halperin
Thursday, April 18
5. Marc Quinn at the New York Public Library
In 2021, two big blocks of frozen blood, donated by more than 10,000 volunteers, will stand on the iconic steps of the New York Public Library as part of a social sculpture meant to raise money for refugees around the world. The brains behind this public work, British artist Marc Quinn, will introduce the project, titled Our Blood, at a public panel at the library on Thursday, alongside activist Fatuma Musa Afrah, co-chair of the International Rescue Committee Sally Susman, and president and CEO of the New York Times Mark Thompson. RSVP is required for entry, as space is limited. Reserve your spot here.
Location: New York Public Library, 476 Fifth Avenue
Price: Free (RSVP required)
Time: 6:30–7:30 p.m.
—Taylor Dafoe
Estrellita Brodsky.
6. ArtTable Benefit Luncheon at 583 Park Avenue
Each year, ArtTable hosts a feminist power lunch for its spring benefit. This year’s honorees are curator, collector, and philanthropist Estrellita Brodsky, who will take home the Distinguished Service to the Visual Arts Award, and Alexandra Chang, curator of special projects and director of global art programs at New York University’s Asian/Pacific/American Institute, who has won the New Leadership Award. Sotheby’s fine art division chairman Amy Cappellazzo will give the keynote address.
Location: 583 Park Avenue
Price: $425
Time: 11 a.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, April 18–Sunday, May 26
Michelle Handelman, Actor, Pimp, Cunty Intellectual, from “Hustlers & Empires.” Courtesy of signs and symbols.
7. “LOVER HATER CUNTY INTELLECTUAL” at signs and symbols
Michelle Handelman brings her project Hustlers & Empires (2018), commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, to New York. The installation, featuring video, text, music, image, and performance, tells the story of “hustlers” through a trio of manifestos delivered by queer performers. Inspired by her own youth in the 1970s, exposed to drug dealers and pimps, Handelman asks viewers to consider sexual transgression as a means of survival.
Location: signs and symbols, 102 Forsyth Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Wednesday–Sunday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.; performances Saturday, May 4 and Sunday, May 5 at 4 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, April 18–Sunday, May 26
Peter Linde Busk, The Generous Gambler (2019). Courtesy Derek Eller.
8. “Peter Linde Busk: The Generous Gambler”
For his second exhibition with the gallery, Danish artist Peter Linde Busk has created a carnivalesque world of kings, queens, jesters, and knights. Incorporating leftover wood, cardboard, glass, and paper, these vividly hued mosaic and collage works recall the opulence of Byzantine chapels, the kaleidoscopic regalia of native Latin American traditions, and the intricate intensity of Art Brut. Their material excess can seem alternately exuberant and foreboding, and in total, devising a mesmerizing limbo between comedy and tragedy, imagination and reality.
Location: Derek Eller Gallery, 300 Broome Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Wednesday–Sunday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
— Katie White
Friday, April 19
Alexandra Bell, Counternarratives, presented at MoMA PS1 as part of VW Sunday Sessions, 2017. Photo by Charles Roussel, courtesy of MoMA PS1.
9. “Counternarratives Workshop with Alexandra Bell” at MoMA PS1
In conjunction with Redaction, a project by Titus Kaphar and Reginald Dwayne Betts now on view at MoMA PS1, artist Alexandra Bell presents a lecture and workshop on her “Counternarratives” series, in which she marks up reproduced mainstream media articles to identify examples of bias baked into image and text alike. After Bell’s talk, interested attendees will be given writing utensils and article print-outs so they can engage with the ideas by making their own annotations.
Location: 22–25 Jackson Avenue, Queens
Price: Free with museum admission
Time: 4 p.m.–5 p.m.
—Tim Schneider
Friday, April 19–Friday, June 14
Wardell Milan, Holy Holly (2019). Courtesy of the artist and David Nolan Gallery.
10. “Wardell Milan: Parisian Landscapes, Blue Zenith” at David Nolan New York
Wardell Milan’s new show at David Nolan is named after a florid passage in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Nature” that describes “the point at which romance and reality meet.” It’s an apt description for Milan’s collages of photos and paintings, many of which are inspired by other works of art or texts—both Mapplethorpe and Kanye West are influences—but become something totally unique in the end.
Location: 527 West 29th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 5 p.m.–7 p.m; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Caroline Goldstein
Through Saturday, June 1st
Caroline Wells Chandler, Tutti Frutti (2019). Courtesy of Mrs.
11. “Caroline Wells Chandler: Tutti Frutti” at Mrs.
Caroline Wells Chandler’s first solo show with Mrs. gallery presents a fresh new body of work in mediums outside the artist’s signature crochet format, including sewn drawing, intaglio prints, mixed-media reliefs, and collaborative works on paper. Among Chandler’s collaborators are the artist’s mom, dad, and fellow artists Brandi Twilley, Geoffrey Chadsey, Lizzie Bonaventura, David Humphrey, Nick Wilkinson, Indie Wilkinson, and Maria Calandra.
Location: 60-40 56th Drive, Maspeth, New York
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.; Saturdays: 12 p.m.–5 p.m.
—Cristina Cruz