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 27—Saturday, June 19
Installation view of “Raul Mourão Empty Head” at Nara Roesler. Photo by Charles Roussel.
1. “Raul Mourão: Empty Head” at Galeria Nara Roesler
This show marks the artist’s first solo outing at Nara Roesler’s main New York space in Chelsea, and includes recent works that connect Mourão’s formal investigations to political critiques, including two series of sculptures created during the social isolation of the pandemic. The work Rebel brings together three sculptures made of corten steel that weigh approximately one ton each and were created in honor of the experimental music venue Audio Rebel, in Rio de Janeiro. Mourão views public engagement with the sculptures as a metaphor for his own engagement with society.
Location: Galeria Nara Roesler, 511 West 21st Street
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday—Saturday 10 a.m.–6 p.m. by appointment
—Eileen Kinsella
Wednesday, April 28
Beeple, Everydays – The First 5000 Days NFT, 21,069 pixels x 21,069 pixels (316,939,910 bytes). Image courtesy the artist and Christie’s.
2. “How Memes Become Money,” presented by the New Yorker
From cryptocurrency to meme stocks to NFTs, the new online economy has upended long-held traditional notions of value. The New Yorker has assembled an all-star panel—including Beeple, the artist whose NFT sold for $69 million at Christie’s in March; Anil Dash, artist and C.E.O. of Glitch; New Yorker staff writer Sheelah Kolhatkar; and Neha Narula, the director of the Digital Currency Initiative at the M.I.T. Media Lab—to help you find your bearings in this rapidly shifting terrain.
Price: Free for New Yorker subscribers
Time: 7 p.m.–8 p.m.
—Julia Halperin
Justin Favela, Estampas de Popul Vuh, After Carlos Mérida (2021), installation view in “Estamos Bien – La Trienal 20/21” at El Museo del Barrio. Photo by Martin Seck, courtesy of El Museo del Barrio.
3. “La Trienial Talks — Craft” at El Museo del Barrio, New York
El Museo launches a new series of virtual talks featuring artists from “Estamos Bien – La Trienal 20/21,” the museum’s first triennial surveying contemporary Latinx art in the U.S., with a conversation between Justin Favela, Yvette Mayorga, and Dionis Ortiz, who all draw on the legacy of craft in their work. Curator Susanna V. Temkin will moderate, touching on such challenging topics such as labor, gender, and domesticity.
Price: Free with registration
Time: 6 p.m.–7 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Miguel and Christina Quarles. Photos courtesy of the Hammer.
4. “Hammer Conversation: Miguel and Christina Quarles” at the Hammer Museum at UCLA
Artist Christine Quarles will talk with singer-songwriter Miguel about art, identity, and mental health in a virtual conversation at the Hammer Museum.
Price: Free with RSVP
Time: 8 p.m.
—Tanner West
Through Thursday, April 29
Paola Mendoza, Immigrants are Essential. Photo by Kisha Bari.
5. “Paola Mendoza: Immigrants Are Essential” at 477 Broadway, New York
In this moving public artwork, artist and activist Paola Mendoza presents larger-than-life portraits of Fedelina, Mario, Moisés, Yimel, Juan, Ofelia and Guadalupe—seven undocumented immigrants who died during the pandemic. Scanning a QR code next to the painting will open an oral history from the deceased person’s families. The work can be seen in person at 2 Rivington Street, from April 27 to May 3, or online.
Location: 477 Broadway, New York
Price: Free
Time: On view daily at all times
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, April 29–Sunday, May 23
Natalie Frank, Bride I (2021). Image courtesy the artist, Salon 94, and Lyles and King.
6. “Natalie Frank: Cross Dressing for the Battlefield” at Salon 94 and Lyles and King, New York
This two-gallery solo show of new work by Natalie Frank starts at Salon 94 with eight colorful paper pulp paintings surrounded by underpainted and glazed ceramic sculptures—a first for the artist—that group incongruous female archetypes. At Lyles and King, paper pulp heroines are seated at a table. The cast of women, led by cross-dressing warrior Joan of Arc, expand beyond their frames into tableaux, while two wall vinyls made from the artist’s drawings span the entire length of the gallery. Frank is known for her bold, expressionistic paintings, which have included unsanitized versions of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales. Here, she continues exploring themes of female resistance, transgression, and desire in a new medium.
Location: Salon 94 Freemans, 1 Freeman Alley, New York and Lyles and King, 21 Catherine Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Salon 94, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.; Lyles and King, Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Eileen Kinsella
Thursday, April 29–Saturday, June 12
Emily Ludwig Shaffer, Shaded Parts III (2020). Photo courtesy of L’Inconnue Gallery, New York.
7. “Emily Ludwig Shaffer and Françoise Grossen” at L’Inconnue Gallery
Montreal’s five-year-old L’Inconnue Gallery, founded by Leila Greiche, has relocated to Chinatown, where it is inaugurating its new space with a sci-flavored, intergenerational two-person show featuring Emily Ludwig Shaffer and Françoise Grossen.
Location: L’Inconnue Gallery, 211 Madison Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Wednesday–Saturday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.; appointments encouraged
—Sarah Cascone
Friday, April 29
Andrea Jenkins. Photo courtesy of the Park Avenue Armory.
8. “Power of the Vote: Legacy of the 19th Amendment” at the Park Avenue Armory
The Park Avenue Armory had to delay much of its plans for its “100 Years 100 Women” initiative celebrating a century of women’s suffrage. But this week marks the launch of a new conversation series on the topic, hosted in collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Kicking off with a conversation about the history of women’s suffrage and the recent 2018 and 2020 elections are speakers including artist Andrea Jenkins, the first African American openly trans woman to be elected to office in the United States. The talks will be livestreamed on YouTube.
Price: Free
Time: 12 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Sunday, May 2
Madeline Donahue, Jugglers (2020). Photo courtesy of Artshack.
9. “Warm Up: Madeline Donahue” at Artshack Brooklyn
Last spring, Madeline Donahue’s residency at Artshack, a nonprofit ceramics studio in Bedford-Stuyvesant, was interrupted by pandemic lockdown restrictions. But the artist continued making work at her in-laws’ home in Connecticut, even buying her own kiln for the backyard. Now, the fruits of the her residency, plus those works she made after its abrupt end, are on view at Artshack’s gallery space, reflecting her observations of nature over the past year. Many of the pieces are two-sided relief sculptures that Donahue drew directly on the clay, fusing the two pieces together in a delicate process. Ahead of the closing, Donahue will host a community day at the gallery on Sunday, demonstrating her vase-making techniques and inviting visitors to try making clay vessels from slabs. The artist also currently has a solo show, “Fun House,” at Praise Shadows Art Gallery in Boson (through May 23).
Location: Artshack, 1127 and 1131 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn
Price: Free
Time: Saturday community day session, 1 p.m.–3 p.m.; Sunday, 12 p.m.–5 p.m.; email the gallery for weekday visiting hours
—Sarah Cascone
Through Monday, May 3
Angelbert Metoyer, Shapeshifters wish 11211 (2008–2021). Courtesy of Tripoli Gallery.
10. “Angelbert Metoyer: Magnificent Change” at Tripoli Gallery, Wainscott
During his residency at Tripoli Gallery in Wainscott, New York, Afrofuturist painter Angelbert Metoyer has revisited works from as early as 2008, transforming them into a new body of art exploring themes of memory and mythology.
Location: Tripoli Gallery, 26 Ardsley Road, Wainscott, New York
Price: Free
Time: Monday, Wednesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Saturday, May 15
“Benjamin Cabral: Well, Maybe Next Year” installation view at Shelter Gallery. Photo courtesy of Shelter Gallery.
11. “Benjamin Cabral: Well, Maybe Next Year” at Shelter Gallery, New York
Benjamin Cabral draws inspiration from his mother’s figure-skating career in this exhibition curated by Lauren Powell. The gallery becomes an ice skating rink with a sculpture of his mother, who retired before the artist was born, waving to the crowd at the end of a routine, surrounded by flowers and stuffed animals thrown by the unseen audience. All are crafted—like the works hanging on the walls—in Cabral’s signature large-scale glass beads and rhinestones. The artist’s cartoon-like figures, paired with the colorful palette and personal subject matter, lend the works a sense of nostalgia, freezing in time only the moments of triumph that come in the demanding career.
Location: Shelter Gallery, 179 East Broadway, New York
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Sunday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Saturday, June 12
Arnulf Rainer, Untitled (1986). Image courtesy Galerie Gmurzynska.
12. “Arnulf Rainer: Paintings, Drawings, Books” at Galerie Gmurzynska
This is the gallery’s first New York exhibition devoted to Austrian artist Arnulf Rainer, a key figure of Art Informel, a French term describing a swath of approaches to abstract painting in the 1940s and 1950s. Rainer, a self-taught artist, was heavily influenced by Surrealism, and his oeuvre spans more than six decades of a constant exploration of painting. Rainer has long been experimenting with different techniques and disciplines, especially drawing, printing techniques, photography, and painting.
Location: Galerie Gmurzynska, 43 East 78th Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Monday–Friday, 12 p.m.–5 p.m. and by appointment
—Eileen Kinsella