Each week, we search New York City for the most exciting and thought-provoking shows, screenings, and events. See them below.
Monday, April 16–Sunday, July 29
Installation view of “Visitors to Versailles” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
1. “Visitors to Versailles (1682–1789)” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Met examines the palace of Versailles as a tourist attraction, a magnificent public court that drew visitors from across Europe, as well as the Americas, Asia, and Africa. With furniture, garments, art objects, and other artifacts, the show offers a fascinating window into how the court would have appeared to foreigners and day trippers alike from 1682 through the start of the French Revolution in 1789.
Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue
Price: $25
Time: Sunday–Thursday, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m.–9 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Wednesday, April 18
Carmen Winant’s Hur (2016). © Carmen Winant, courtesy of the artist and MoMA.
2. “Expanded Portraiture: Panel Discussion” at MoMA
Portraiture is all the rage right now, and in conjunction with the current exhibition, “Being: New Photography 2018” in the museum, MoMA has assembled a panel of experts—including Michelle Obama’s portraitist Amy Sherald—to discuss what exactly portraiture means in the age of selfies.
Location: Museum of Modern Art, 4 West 54 Street, enter through the Cullman Education and Research Building
Price: $15 General admission ($10 for members, $5 for students)
Time: 6 p.m., reception to follow
—Caroline Goldstein
River Cafe London: Thirty Years of Recipes and the Story of a Much-Loved Restaurant and some of its hand-illustrated menus. Photo courtesy of Knopf.
3. Ruth Rogers Book Signing at Gagosian Gallery
Restauranteur Ruth Rogers and co-author Sian Wyn Owen are signing copies of their new cookbook, River Cafe London: Thirty Years of Recipes and the Story of a Much-Loved Restaurant, published by Knopf this month, at Gagosian. The restaurant is a favorite of artists including Damien Hirst, Peter Doig, Cy Twombly, and Ed Ruscha, who have all designed bespoke menus included in the new tome.
Location: Gagosian Gallery, 976 Madison Avenue
Price: Free with RSVP
Time: 4:30 p.m.–5:45 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, April 19
Courtesy Luhring Augustine.
4. “Rewriting Painting” at Cooper Union
The launch of the first Philip Taaffe monograph takes place alongside a panel discussion on the state and shape of contemporary painting. Panelists include Lois Dodd, Faye Hirsch, Thomas Nozkowski, Taaffe, and John Yau. Critic Barry Schwabsky will moderate the discussion.
Location: The Great Hall at Cooper Union, 7 East 7th Street
Price: Free with RSVP
Time: 6:30–8 p.m.
—Eileen Kinsella
Richard Filipowski, Two Lovers (c. 1970). Photo courtesy of Hostler Burrows.
5. Richard Filippowski Book Launch at Rizzoli Bookstore
Rizzoli celebrates the release of Richard Filippowski: Art & Design Beyond the Bauhaus from Monacelli Press with a panel discussion with Hattula Moholy-Nagy, Marisa Bartolucci, Larry Weinberg, Richard Dattner, and Glenn Gissler. An accompanying exhibition of the designer’s sculpture, furniture design, paintings, and drawings is on view at Hostler Burrows, 35 East 10th Street, through April 25.
Location: Rizzoli Bookstore, 1133 Broadway
Price: Free
Time: 6 p.m.–8 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, April 19–Saturday, May 12
Amanda Gutiérrez, Paradise Memories 2 (2017). Courtesy of Baxter St at the Camera Club of New York.
6. “Amanda Gutiérrez: Walking in Light” at Baxter Street at the Camera Club of New York
Walking in Lightness is an exploration of Gutiérrez’s experience as a Mexican immigrant woman living and working in New York. She uses disposable cameras to deemphasize the authority of photographic representation and presents her prints in multiple iterations, each with a different tone—showing us the simple but profound ways in which photographic processes can alter the way people are represented. Every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon throughout the run of the exhibition, Gutiérrez will turn the Camera Club into a public studio, inviting viewers in to watch as she creates test prints and works on a video installation. She will also host “soundwalks” on Thursday evenings, taking guests along walking trips through Chinatown as she documents the process.
Location: Baxter Street at the Camera Club, 126 Baxter Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm
—Taylor Dafoe
Thursday, April 19–Sunday, June 30
Wojciech Fangor, #29 (1963). Courtesy of Heather James Fine Art, New York.
8. “Wojciech Fangor: The Early 1960s” at Heather James Fine Art New York
For its inaugural show at its New York location, Heather James Fine Art will present the first US exhibition of Polish Post-War abstract painter Wojciech Fangor in over 25 years. A selection of 11 large-scale paintings demonstrates the artist’s bold color palette and connections to the Color Field and Op Art movements.
Location: Heather James Fine Art New York, 42 East 75th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8:30 p.m.; Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Friday, April 20–Sunday, May 20
Emma Kohlmann’s “Interior Blue Series” (2018). Courtesy of the artist and Jack Hanley Gallery.
7. “Emma Kohlmann” at Jack Hanley Gallery
Bronx-native Emma Kohlmann uses Sumi ink and watercolors that are so fluid, they almost look like stains on the canvas. Despite their amorphous shape, the figures in her vignettes engage in very human activities, and each has a distinct personality.
Location: Jack Hanley Gallery, 327 Broome Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Wednesday–Sunday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Caroline Goldstein
Through Saturday, April 21
Installation view of “Laurel Shear: Daydreaming in my Nightmare” at Fort Gansevoort. Courtesy Fort Gansevoort.
9. “Laurel Shear: Daydreaming in My Nightmare” at Fort Gansevoort Gallery
Shear’s large-scale abstract paintings—built to the size of a California king-size bed to be exact—are at once arresting and vibrant. Details of folds in bedsheets and other tactile materials are a recurring source of imagery in her work are reworked with often moody palettes into elaborate dreamscapes. Following an enthusiastic reception at the recent Untitled fair in San Francisco, Fort Gansevoort gallery director Adam Shopkorn brought the Bay Area artist’s work east for a debut show at the gallery where sales have been robust. Catch the show in its last week, before it closes April 21.
Location: Fort Gansevoort Gallery, 5 Ninth Avenue
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Eileen Kinsella
Allison Miller’s Trunk (2018). Courtesy of the artist and Susan Inglett Gallery.
10. “Allison Miller: Feed Dogs” at Susan Inglett Gallery
Allison Miller’s paintings are appealing in their asymmetry, with balloon shapes that recall the work of Philip Guston and Joan Miro’s color palette.
Location: Susan Inglett Gallery, 522 West 24th Street
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Caroline Goldstein
Saturday, April 21–Saturday, May 26
Theo Triantafyllidis’s Studio Visit (2018). Courtesy of the artist and Meredith Rosen Gallery.
11. “Theo Triantafyllidis: Role Play” at Meredith Rosen Gallery
Triantafyllidis’s new show seeks to slyly disintegrate the boundaries between digital and physical reality. The gallery will include mobile flat screens looping a 3-D animation of the artist working in a virtual studio via the avatar of a hulking, World of Warcraft-esque Ork. In this alternate on-screen form, Triantafyllidis continuously struggles to create a set of art objects while musing about the questionable value of artistic labor in a world where every digital fantasy is readily available. Meanwhile, Rosen’s gallery space will include wooden sculptural versions of the digital “pieces” completed by Triantafyllidis-As-Ork, opening the door to thorny questions about everything from what constitutes “artwork” to what constitutes “real” in a world of social media, Pokémon Go, and deepfakes.
Location: Meredith Rosen Gallery, 330 West 34th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Regular hours, Wednesday–Saturday, noon–6 p.m.
—Tim Schneider
Sunday, April 22
The Pioneer Works Village Fete. Courtesy of Leandro Justen/BFA.
12. 2018 Village Fête at Pioneer Works
Red Hook’s Pioneer Works reliably hosts one of the art world’s most offbeat, enjoyable galas. This year’s hosts include a mix of big-name artists and celebrities, including Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard, Michael Shannon, Esperanza Spalding, Mickalene Thomas, and Carol Bove. Tickets to the dinner are sold by the table but plan to hit up the afterparty, featuring performances by Spank Rock and Chances With Wolves.
Location: Pioneer Works, 159 Pioneer Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn
Price: Afterparty $175
Time: Cocktails, 5 p.m.; dinner, 6:30 p.m.; after party, 9 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Sunday, April 22
Work by Carole Freeman. Courtesy of Jim Kempner Fine Art.
13. “Carole Freeman: UNSUNG” at Jim Kempner Fine Art
Figurative painter Carole Freeman highlights 24 of unsung heroes who have fought against social injustice, discrimination, and the destruction of the environment, among other pressing issues, in a series of portraits. Her subjects include Lois Jenson, who won the country’s first sexual harassment class-action lawsuit—which later became the subject of the 2005 Charlize Theron film North Country—and Emmett Till’s uncle Mose Wright, who bravely testified against the men who murdered the 14-year-old African American boy after he was falsely accused whistling at a white woman.
Location: Jim Kempner Fine Art, 501 West 23 Street
Price: Free
Time: Sunday, 12 p.m.–5 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Friday, May 11
Michael West’s The Passover (1974). Courtesy of the artist and her estate, and Mark Borghi Fine Art.
14. “Michael West: The Black and White Paintings” at Mark Borghi Fine Art
Born Corinne Michelle West, the abstract expressionist painter Michael West studied under the tutelage of Hans Hofmann, whose gestural marks left a big impact on her work. After befriending Arshile Gorky, West decided to take on the name Michael, so that her work could be considered on its merit, and not sidelined by the gender biases that prevailed when she began showing work in the early 1930s.
Location: Mark Borghi Fine Art, 52 East 76th Street
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
—Caroline Goldstein