Each week, we search New York City for the most exciting, and thought-provoking, shows, screenings, and events. In light of the global health crisis, we are currently highlighting events and exhibitions available digitally. See our picks from around the world below. (Times are all EST unless otherwise noted.)
Monday, April 20
Lisa Levy hosting her radio show, Dr. Lisa Gives a Shit. Photo courtesy of the artist.
1. “Stoned Therapy with Dr. Lisa” on Zoom
Artist Lisa Levy has offered her (completely unlicensed) services as a therapist before—you may have spotted her at the SPRING/BREAK Art Show a few years ago. Now she’s back, thanks to the magic of Zoom, in celebration of the five-year anniversary of her radio show, Dr. Lisa Gives a Shit. Also, she’s going to be stoned. “I’m actually pretty good when I’m high,” Levy promises. “You can be stoned or not-up to you!”
Price: Free
Time: 5 p.m.–9 p.m., with five to 10 minute sessions
—Sarah Cascone
Through Monday, April 20
Yorgos Prinos, Man with clasped hands. Courtesy of the artist.
2. “Pictures for Elmhurst” Benefit Sale
It’s your last chance to buy a print and help a hospital in dire straits through the wildly popular “Pictures For Elmhurst” fundraiser. The 10-day flash sale features 187 photographers—it began with only 100, but since then even more artists have joined in—and each print is just $150. Participating artists include the likes of Justine Kurland, Alec Soth, Petra Collins, Thomas Demand, and Tyler Mitchell (all of whom make work that would otherwise a lot more than $150 a pop). So far, the project has raised more than $700,000.
Price: Prints are $150 each
Time: Sale ends at midnight
—Caroline Goldstein
Monday, April 13–Monday, June 1
Janet Turner, Sweet Corn, 1948 Courtesy of Jody Klotz Fine Art
3. “Janet Turner: Pause and Observe” at JODY KLOTZ FINE ART
Jody Klotz Fine Art presents a selection of prints by pioneering printmaker Janet Turner (1914–88), whose subject of choice was the natural world. Now that everyone is stuck at home in front of various screens, her beautiful prints provide a much needed-escape for both the eyes and mind.
Price: Free
Time: Available online until June 1
—Neha Jambhekar
Tuesday, April 21
Nate Lewis, Signaling 15 (2019). Courtesy of the Blanton Museum of Art, Austin.
4. “Curated Conversations: Filling Gaps, Finding Gems Curator Q&A on Modern & Contemporary Acquisitions” at the Blanton Museum of Art, Austin
Veronica Roberts and Claire Howard, curators at the Blanton, will chat on Zoom about the challenges of putting together a diverse collection. They’ll highlight some of the museum’s recent acquisitions, from the 119-piece Latin American art collection of Roberta and Richard Huber to a work by Nate Lewis ER nurse-turned artist.
Price: Free with registration
Time: 6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Tuesday, April 21–Tuesday, May 5
Jakob Lena Knebl, John, 2019. Courtesy of Georg Kargl Fine Arts and Kunst Dokumentation.
In-person citywide art weeks may not be happening right now, but weeklong digital art events featuring a rotating slate of European galleries will be accessible starting April 21 on the website not cancelled.art. On Thursday, April 23, Warsaw galleries will be featured, and on Saturday, April 26, users can browse content provided by Paris galleries. Additionally, the nonprofit initiative will offer for sale work by 17 artists, including Sophie von Hellermann, Jakob Lena Knebl, Jonas Lips, and Michael Luberry.
Price: Free
Time: Open daily, at all times
—Cristina Cruz
Wednesday, April 22
Julia Christensen’s work at LACMA’s Art + Technology Lab. Photo courtesy of LACMA.
6. “Upgrade Available: Live and Illustrated—Julia Christensen in Conversation with Aria Dean and Jessica Gambling” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The opening of Julia Christensen’s solo show, co-presented by ArtCenter and LACMA’s Art + Technology Lab, has been postponed, but the writer and artist is giving an online presentation about her forthcoming book, Upgrade Available, this week. The book (as well as her project with the lab) explores how “upgrade culture”—the constant pressure to update our electronic devices—informs our sense of the passage of time.
Price: Free with RSVP
Time: 7 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Ja’Tovia Gary, THE GIVERNY DOCUMENT (2019). Photo courtesy of the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.
7. “THE GIVERNY DOCUMENT Screening and Q&A” at the Hammer Museum at UCLA
Dallas–based artist and filmmaker Ja’Tovia Gary is supposed to be having a moment, with a solo show, “flesh that needs to be loved” at Paula Cooper Gallery in New York, and a “Hammer Projects” presentation at the Hammer in Los Angeles. With the museum and the gallery both closed indefinitely, the two institutions have teamed up to offer an online screening of her film THE GIVERNY DOCUMENT, shot in Harlem and at Claude Monet’s historic gardens in Giverny, France. Hammer associate curator Erin Christovale, who organized the video’s presentation at the museum, will conduct a Q&A with the artist following the film.
Price: Free with RSVP
Time: 7 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, April 23
Illustrations by Mona Chalabi. Courtesy of the artist.
8. “Shantell Martin Presents We Are We Conversation Series x Absolut Art”
Artist Shantell Martin has teamed up with Absolut Art to monitor a weekly chat with artists working in isolation around the world. On tap for this week are data journalist, writer, and illustrator Mona Chalabi—you may have seen her graphics explaining the global health crisis on Instagram—and sculptor and performance artist Baseera Khan.
Price: Free
Time: 4 p.m.–5:30 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Friday, April 24
Clarissa Tossin, Ch’u Mayaa (2017). Courtesy of the Whitney Museum of American Art, ©Clarissa Tossin
9. “Whitney Screens: Clara Tossin’s Ch’u Mayaa” at the Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney’s efforts to expand its online presence include “Whitney Screens,” which offers screenings of video works recently added to the collection. It kicked off last week with Alex Da Corte’s Rubber Pencil Devil, and continues with Clara Tossin’s Ch’u Mayaa, inspired by the Maya Revival architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright’s historic Hollyhock House. In the video, performance artist Crystal Sepúlveda dances outside the home, each pose inspired by ancient Maya iconography.
Price: Free
Time: 7 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Friday, April 24–Sunday, April 26
Isaac Julien, Baltimore Series (Angela in Blue, No. 1), 2003. © Isaac Julien. Courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures, New York.
10. “Isaac Julien: Baltimore” in the Metro Pictures Online Film Festival
Every weekend through mid-June, the venerable Chelsea gallery is programming a limited-engagement viewing for a different bravura film or video work by one of its artists. The latest installment will feature Isaac Julien’s Baltimore, a three-channel piece that wields some of the defining traits of 1970s American cinema’s so-called “blaxploitation” genre (including a starring role for the genre’s arguable founder, writer/director/actor Melvin Van Peebles) to construct what the artist calls an aesthetic “third dimension” grappling with the past, present, and future of black culture in the US. Shot largely in three cultural institutions in its namesake city—the Walters Art Museum, the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum, and the George Peabody Library—Baltimore bends time, reality, and identity (FYI: there’s even a cyborg) to investigate how history shapes our understandings of ourselves and each other.
Price: Free with sign-up to the Metro Pictures email list (or follow the gallery on Instagram @Metro_Pictures)
Time: Friday, 5 p.m.–Sunday, midnight
—Tim Schneider
Friday, April 24–Monday, April 27
Willard LeRoy Metcalf, Boothbay, Maine (1904). Image courtesy of the Cooley Gallery.
11. The Antique Dealers Association of America Online Show
As the art world moves online, so does the antiques world. The members of the Antique Dealers Association had plans to exhibit at shows in Chicago, New Hampshire, New York, and Connecticut as well as Pennsylvania this spring. Instead, the offerings of 50 exhibitors will be shown in one virtual space. An added plus for new buyers is the ADA guarantee on all purchases.
Price: Free
Time: Friday, 10 a.m.–Monday, 10 p.m.
—Eileen Kinsella
Through Friday, April 24
Gropius Bau/Instagram.
12. “Invitation for Dawn” by Lee Mingwei at Gropius Bau
Among the most highly anticipated spring shows in Berlin was Lee Mingwei’s solo exhibition “禮 Li, Gifts and Rituals” at the Gropius Bau, now off-limits for until at least May 4. Yet the New York-based artist has found a novel way to activate the conceptual elements of the show while the physical experience is out of reach. Lee’s new project, Invitation for Dawn, is a one-on-one performance that draws on the artist’s live artwork Sonic Blossom: a classically trained opera singer performs a single song a capella—but now, it’s for a virtual guest. Each song signals an “invitation for dawn,” interpreted as hope in this crisis. You can sign up for your personal serenade online.
Price: Free with sign-up
Time: 15-minute time slots are available daily, 4 p.m.–5:45 p.m. CET. More information on how to sign up is available here
—Kate Brown
Ongoing
Annabel Daou, I will worry for you (from dusk till dawn). Courtesy of the artist
13. Annabel Daou’s I will worry for you (from today until tomorrow) at Signs & Symbols
Got something weighing you down? Let artist Annabel Daou take that burden from you, even briefly. Every night, from just before midnight until just after, the Beirut-born, Brooklyn-based artist will pace the hallways of her home with a set of worry beads in hand, contemplating other people’s fears.
Those who would like to share a worry (or two) can write to iwillworryforyou@gmail.com. The artist will then send participants a timesheet to choose a time for her to keep in mind their specific worry.
Price: Free
Time: 11:30 p.m.–12:30 a.m., daily on Instagram Live
—Katie White
Ongoing
14. “The Business of Recovery” with Elizabeth Dee, Russell Blaymore, and Jonathan Travis
One of the biggest challenges facing galleries and other small art businesses right now is rent. How do you pay a hefty fee on a space that is currently closed to the public? Independent’s Elizabeth Dee hosted a 30-minute panel discussion with real-estate broker Jonathan Travis and real estate lawyer Russell Blaymore on Zoom about how galleries with commercial retail leases can broach the issue. Points of discussion include how to leverage capital improvements, what to put in writing to your landlord and what to say over the phone, and possible best- and worst-case scenarios. Dee plans to continue this talk series next month. For a clip, see above. For the full talk, click here.
Price: Free
Time: Open daily, at all times
—Julia Halperin