Each week, we search New York City for the most exciting and thought-provoking shows, screenings, and events. See them below.

Monday, April 8

Adolph Gottlieb in his 23rd Street studio (1958). Shown in background: POSITIVE (1958). ©Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation.

1. “Adolph Gottlieb Panel Discussion” at Pace Gallery

During the last days of the exhibition “Adolph Gottlieb: Classic Paintings” (on view through April 13), Pace and the Adolph & Esther Gottlieb Foundation present a panel discussion moderated by Phyllis Tuchman.

Location: Pace, 510 West 25th Street
Price: Free with RSVP
Time: 6 p.m.–8 p.m.

—Nan Stewert

Monday, April 8–Tuesday, October 1

Keith Richards’s 1957 Les Paul Custom, hand-painted by Keith Richards (1967). Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

2. “Play It Loud” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

This is the first major museum exhibition of its kind that takes a deep dive into the instruments of rock and roll and the genre’s outsize influence on modern culture. The show was co-organized with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and features about 130 instruments, alongside posters and costumes. In addition to institutional and private collectors, many musicians are lending their performance and recording instruments.

Location: 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York
Price: New York state residents, pay what you wish; visitors outside of New York state, adults  $25, seniors $17, students $12, members, patrons, and children (under 12) free
Time: Sunday–Thursday: 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday: 10 a.m.–9 p.m., 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Eileen Kinsella

Tuesday, April 9

Artist Hank Willis Thomas. Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for ICP.

3. “Panel Discussion, Open Exchange: Belonging” at the Pratt Student Union

As part of an ongoing lecture series exploring cultural safety, artist Shaun Leonardo will moderate a panel discussion with guests Tom Finkelpearl, artist Niv Acosta, commissioner of the New York City probation department Ana Bermudez, creative director of March for Our Lives Jammal Lemy, and artist Hank Willis Thomas.

Location: Pratt Student Union, Brooklyn Campus, 200 Willoughby Avenue
Price: Free
Time: 7 p.m.–9 p.m.

—Caroline Goldstein

Jon Henry, Untitled 13, Groveland Park, IL, from the series “Stranger Fruit.” Photo courtesy of the artist.

4. Stranger Fruit at the International Center of Photography

Photographer Jon Henry will speak with writer Antwaun Sargent about police brutality and its effects on the African American community, as well as Henry’s recent series “Stranger Fruit,” which evokes the Pietà in its depictions of black mothers embracing their sons.

Location: International Center of Photography, 250 Bowery
Price: Free with RSVP
Time: 6:30 p.m.–8 p.m.

—Tanner West

The Rome Prize. Courtesy of the Rome Prize.

5. “Rome Prize Ceremony” at Cooper Union

The Rome Prize announces the emerging scholars and artists who are being honored in 2019 at this ceremony and reception, which closes with a prosecco toast. The evening also features a talk on “Integrity and Public Office: Classical Greek and Roman Perspectives” with former honorees Melissa Lane, professor of politics and director of the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University, and John Ochsendorf, director of the American Academy in Rome.

Location: The Great Hall at Cooper Union, 7 East 7th Street
Price: Free with RSVP
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Tanner West

Nam June Paik, Fin de Siecle II (1989). Courtesy of the Whitney Museum of Art.

6. Whitney Studio Party at the Whitney Museum of American Art

Dance the night away at the Whitney with music from Soo Joo Park and Zuri Marley following the museum’s annual gala. Guests enjoy an open bar and the chance to explore the galleries after hours. It’s the perfect time to catch Nam June Paik’s massive wall of televisions, Fin de Siècle II, a work from the collection that’s on view for the first time since 1989, as part of “Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art, 1965–2018,” through April 14.

Location: Whitney Museum of American Art, 99 Gansevoort Street
Price: $250
Time: 9 p.m.–12:30 a.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Tuesday, April 9, Friday, April 12, and Sunday, April 14

Steve McQueen in London in 2018. Photo by John Phillips/Getty Images for BFI.

7. “Soundtrack of America” at the Shed

New York’s newest performance space the Shed is opening its doors with a five-night concert series from Turner Prize-winning artist and Academy Award-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen. “Soundtrack of America” celebrates the legacy of African American music with a rotating nightly selection of up-and-coming artists from blues, jazz, trap, hip hop, and beyond. McQueen collaborated with music scholars and legendary producer Quincy Jones to create what he has called a “family tree” of African American music, an idea that came to him after realizing there were no significant institutions dedicated to this history in the US.

Location: The Shed, 545 West 30th Street
Price: $25–95
Time: 8 p.m.

—Rachel Corbett

Wednesday, April 10–Friday, August 2

Ming Smith, Masque (ca. 1990s). Courtesy of the artist.

8. “Women’s Work: Art and Activism in the 21st Century” at Pen + Brush

The next exhibition in Pen + Brush’s 125th-anniversary year features a quintet of international artists whose studio practices and activist activities challenge, if not shatter, outdated conceptions of what qualifies as “women’s work.” Sama Alshaibi, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Suchitra Mattai, Miora Rajaonary, and Ming Smith each stretch our understanding of the key phrase, making visible the many subtleties, complexities, and possibilities it truly contains.

Location: Pen + Brush, 29 East 22nd Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception: 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; normal gallery hours: Tuesday–Saturday, noon–6 p.m.

—Tim Schneider

Thursday, April 11

Prosthetic leg with leather boot. Museo Frida Kahlo. Photograph Javier Hinojosa. ©Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Archives, Banco de México, Fiduciary of the Trust of the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Museums

9. “Frida Kahlo and Judith Scott: Case Studies on Theorizing Disability Through Biography” at the Art Students League of New York

Catherine Morris, senior curator of the Brooklyn Museum’s Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, compares the ways in which the institution’s current Frida Kahlo exhibition (on view through May 12) and its 2014–15 show “Judith Scott—Bound and Unbound” both consider the biography of an artist with a disability. Kahlo suffered a car accident as a young woman and was in severe pain for much of her adult life, forced to wear special braces and often confined to her bed, while Scott was born with Down syndrome, and was mute and largely deaf.

Location: Art Students League of New York, the Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery, 215 West 57th Street
Price: Free
Time: 6 p.m.–7:30 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Performers at the Guggenheim Young Collectors Party. Courtesy of BFA.

10. Young Collectors Party at the Guggenheim

The Guggenheim’s party for young members—40 and under—benefits the museum’s acquisition of new works by emerging artists. This year’s shindig will feature performative interventions choreographed by Brendan Fernandes, music by Karsten Sollors, and an open bar, all set in the picturesque Frank Lloyd Wright rotunda.

Location: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 5th Avenue
Price: $250
Time: 9 p.m.–12 a.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Sanford Biggers. Photo by Jeannette Montgomery Barron, courtesy of Square.

11. NYFA Hall of Fame Benefit at Capitale

This year, the New York Foundation for the Arts is inducting artist Sanford Biggers and novelist Min Jin Lee, both former NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship recipients, and arts patron Karl Kellner of McKinsey & Company to its hall of fame. Past inductees include Faith Ringgold, Carolee Schneemann, and Andres Serrano. All guests at the dinner get to take home a signed print by Biggers.

Location: Capitale, 130 Bowery
Price: $650 and up
Time: 6:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Guests playing B. Wurtz’s Pistachio Toss game at the Public Art Fund’s 40th anniversary celebration. Courtesy of Max Lakner/BFA.

12. Public Art Fund Spring Benefit at Metropolitan West

Reliably one of the most entertaining gala events of the year, the Public Art Fund’s spring benefit will feature original artist projects by Jeppe Hein, Zak Kitnick, and Shantell Martin. In recent years, the projects have featured games that give guests the chance to win small works of art. A ticket to the dinner also comes with a limited-edition placemat by Marco Breuer.

Location: Metropolitan West, 639 West 46th Street
Price: Dinner tickets $1,500 and up; after party $100
Time: Cocktails, 6:30 p.m.–8 p.m.; dinner, 8 p.m.–9:30 p.m.; after party 9:30 p.m.–11:30 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Thursday, April 11, Saturday, April 13, and Sunday, April 14

Cover of Tonguebreaker by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. Image by Shayda Kafai

13. “I wanna be with you everywhere” at Performance Space New York

The three-evening series will include readings, performances, and conversations by, for, and about disabled artists and writers with a promising line-up that includes Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, John Lee Clark, Alice Sheppard, and Johanna Hedva, among others.“We’re operating from the point of view of [disability activist] Mia Mingus’s concept of access intimacy. Access isn’t an individual’s need, but a common capacity shared between us all—a refuge in the means,” the organizers write. Events will take place at Performance Space New York in collaboration with the Whitney Museum of American Art and organized by Arika, Amalle Dublon, Jerron Herman, Carolyn Lazard, Park McArthur, Alice Sheppard, and Constantina Zavitsanos.

Location: Performance Space New York, 150 First Avenue, Fourth Floor
Price: Tickets are required for entry to all events, priced on a sliding scale from free to $25.
Time: Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings. Check the website for scheduled times

—Katie White  

Jo Shane, @bellahadid @lou_dallas. Courtesy of Jo Shane.

14. “Jo Shane: DISCLAIMER” at Wallplay ON CANAL

One can easily spend hours mindlessly scrolling through Instagram, monitoring one’s feed and spinning through stories. Jo Shane has found a way of making that time productive, looking for unexpected, interesting juxtapositions of content, and capturing that instant where one story scrolls over to another. No one truly understands the almighty Instagram algorithm, and Shane’s pairings of influencers, artists, and unwanted advertising is underscoring our lack of control over our own stories in the digital space.

Location: Wallplay ON CANAL, 322A Canal Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–9 p.m.; Tuesday–Sunday 12 p.m.–7 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Friday, April 12–Saturday, May 18

Alicja Kwade. Courtesy of 303 Gallery.

15. “Alicja Kwade: ParaParticular” at 303 Gallery

303 Gallery is presenting a solo show by Polish artist Alicja Kwade, who is also this year’s rooftop sculpture commission at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Kwade uses materials such as wood, metal, and mirrors to play with the boundary between nature, reality, and time. This exhibition will consist of free-standing and wall-mounted sculptures.

Location: 303 Gallery, 555 West 21st Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, Thursday, April 11, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Neha Jambhekar

Friday, April 12–Sunday, May 19

Mira Schor, The Two Miras (1973).

16. “Mira Schor: California Paintings” at Lyles & King Gallery

In 1971, the burgeoning feminist artist Mira Schor left her native New York and headed for the West Coast, where she would spend two years in CalArts’s innovative MFA program—an experience which proved profoundly formative. There she participated in the pioneering Feminist Art Program created by Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro and began to explore the themes of sexual desire, femininity, and language that would define her oeuvre for decades to come. This tightly focused exhibition presents a selection of paintings and drawings from her California interlude, much of which has rarely, if ever, been seen publicly. Wonderful discoveries come to light, namely the notable influence of Leonora Carrington and the tropical flora and fauna of her new surroundings.  

Location: Lyles & King Gallery, 106 Forsyth Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m; Wednesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p. m.; Sunday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m. 

—Katie White  

Saturday, April 13–Saturday, May 4

Keith Haring, Untitled (1984). Photo: Courtesy of Skarstedt, ©Keith Haring Foundation.

17. “The Inaugural Show” at Skarstedt

The blue-chip gallery is opening its massive new Upper East Side space—which, at 25,000 square feet, is larger than some museums—with a selection of its greatest hits. Gallery owner Per Skarstedt selected work by more than 20 artists. The lineup is heavy on ‘80s stars, macho painters, and boldface names, including John Chamberlain, Keith Haring, KAWS, Martin Kippenberger, Barbara Kruger, Juan Muñoz, Albert Oehlen, Cindy Sherman, Rosemarie Trockel, and Christopher Wool. But you might be more inclined to go just to check out the real estate: the building was once owned by the art-dealing Wildenstein family and has been reported to be the most expensive townhouse in the city.

Location: Skarstedt, 19 East 64th Street
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Friday, 9:30 a.m.–6 p.m., Saturday, 10 a.m..–6 p.m.

—Julia Halperin

Sunday, April 14

Excerpts from “Dirt is Clean When There is a Volume” by Annie Godfrey Larmon and “Soft Talk” by Leslie Dick. Courtesy of A.I.R. Gallery.

18. “Art Criticism & Agendas: Soft Talk & Solidarity” at A.I.R. Gallery

As part of A.I.R. Gallery and SOHO20’s new “Art Criticism & Agendas” programming series, SOHO20 curatorial fellow Mira Dayal will moderate a discussion between Annie Godfrey Larmon—author of the essay “Dirt is Clean When There is a Volume”— and Leslie Dick—author of the piece “Soft Talk”—about criticism as an act of solidarity.

Location: A.I.R. Gallery, 155 Plymouth Street, Brooklyn
Price: Free
Time: 3 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Through Saturday, April 27

Trey Abdella, Catch (2018). Courtesy of Lyons Wier Gallery

19. “In The Between” at Lyons Wier Gallery

This Chelsea group show features New York Academy of Art peers Trey Abdella and Chloe Chiasson, as well as Juan Travieso, a Cuban-born alum of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts. Joined by the theme of contrasting dimensions (flat vs. realism), these bright and zany works produce a Saturday morning cartoons wave of nostalgia.

Location: 542 West 24th Street
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Cristina Cruz