Monday, April 25:

Peter Fischli and David Weiss, How to Work Better, 1991).
Photo: Jason Wyche, courtesy Public Art Fund.

1. Talk with Peter Fischli
Timed to Peter Fischli and David Weiss‘s Public Art Fund mural, How to Work Better (through May 1), and the duo’s Guggenheim retrospective of the same name (through April 27), Fischli gives a talk at the New School on the pair’s public artworks.

Location: The New School, 12th Street Auditorium, Vera List Center, 66 West 12th Street
Price: $10
Time: 6:00–8:00 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Wednesday, April 27, 2016–Sunday, February 12, 2017:

Rachel Harrison, Untitled (2012).
Photo: Courtesy of the Whitney Museum of American Art.

2. “Human Interest: Portraits from the Whitney’s Collection” at the Whitney Museum of American Art
The show, curated by Whitney wunderkind Scott Rothkopf, features over 300 works by more than 200 artists in the museum’s collection. We’re especially curious about the inspiration for Urs Fischer’s eight-foot tall sculpture of Julian Schnabel, created for this expansive exhibition.

Location: 99 Gansevoort Street
Price: $22 general admission
Time: 10:30 a.m.–6:00 p.m., Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday; 10:30 a.m.–10:00 p.m., Friday and Saturday

—Eileen Kinsella

Thursday, April 28:

Sue Williams, They Eat Shit.
Photo: Courtesy of Karma Gallery.

3. Sue Williams book signing at Karma Gallery
Known for early work focused on domestic violence and for cheeky, vibrantly-colored paintings as of late, Sue Williams has a new book out, published by JRP Ringier, and you can get the artist to sign a copy Thursday night at Karma.

Writing in Artforum, critic Barry Schwabsky said that her last show at New York’s 303 Gallery, in 2014, was marked by paintings with “boisterous energy” and “sheer nerve.” We expect more of the same at her Lower East Side signing.

Location: 38 Orchard Street
Price: Books are $10
Time: 10:30 a.m.–6:00 p.m., Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday; 10:30 a.m.–10:00 p.m., Friday and Saturday

—Brian Boucher

Sunday, May 1:

Ariel Jackson, Upon Arrival : Lesson Disruption (2015).
Photo: Courtesy of Studio Museum in Harlem.

4. Ariel Jackson, “Collaging Fiction” at the Studio Museum in Harlem
Multimedia artist Ariel Jackson recovers lost and forgotten relics of black culture and activates their powers in visual realms of her own making. Within the artist’s video works, such as The Origin of the Blues, Jackson performs an array of alternate personalities to narrate painful traumas, navigate tangled histories, and entertain the compelling possibilities that an Afrofuturist lens can afford.

As a focus artist at the Studio Museum, Jackson currently has an exhibition on view through June 26. This Sunday, Jackson will be hosting a workshop titled “Collaging Fiction,” wherein the artist will guide participants through her process of transforming personal trauma into fictional narratives.

Location: 144 West 125th Street
Price: $7 suggested donation
Time: 12:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m., Thursday and Friday; 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m., Saturday; 12:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m., Sunday

—Rain Embuscado

Sunday, May 1–Sunday, June 5:

Urs Fischer,
Rubidium (2015).
Photo: Courtesy of artnet.

5. Urs Fischer, “Ursula” at JTT
You might know him from his shows with mega-dealer Larry Gagosian and giga-collector Peter Brant (at his Greenwich foundation), but now Swiss artist Urs Fischer is going small, with a project at Lower East Side gallery JTT, which consistently punches above its weight for a tiny space. This time, Fischer is handing over the reins to you.

“Ursula” features a plasticine version of Aristide Maillol’s sculpture The River, a 1943 version of which resides at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, that you can pull apart and use to make your own artworks. Bring your smock!

Location: 170a Suffolk Street
Price: Free
Time: 11:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday

—Brian Boucher

Sunday, May 1–Sunday, June 26:

Elizabeth Colomba, Armella (1997).
Photo: courtesy Long Gallery Harlem.

6. Elizabeth Colomba, “The Moon is My Only Luxury” at Long Gallery Harlem
The Long Gallery Harlem’s inaugural exhibition features a first survey of Parisian-Martinican artist Elizabeth Colomba’s painting. Her portraits of women, as the exhibition description notes, “draw upon American history, mythology, religious symbols, and the feminine sacred.”

Location: Long Gallery Harlem, 2073 7th Avenue at 124th Street
Price: Free with RSVP
Time: Private reception, May 1, 2016, 6:00–9:00 p.m.; afterparty 9:00–11:00 p.m. on the penthouse level of Long Gallery

—Sarah Cascone

Sunday, May 1–Monday, August 1:

Leslie Hewitt in collaboration with cinematographer Bradford Young, Untitled (Structures), (2012).
Photo: Courtesy of SculptureCenter.

7. Leslie Hewitt, “Collective Stance” at SculptureCenter
Leslie Hewitt wants us to remember the realities of the Civil Rights era and the consequences of the Great Migration. These events, among others, form the psychic subtext of the artist’s work—which Hewitt achieves by re-staging places like Chicago, Memphis, and the Arkansas Delta. Hewitt, who’s been collaborating with cinematographer Bradford Young in recent years, has been creating video-works, sculptures, and lithographs dedicated to this idea.

At SculptureCenter, Hewitt presents us with an exhibition that brings her most recent projects together: Untitled (Structures), a two-channel film that draws inspiration from the photographic archive of the civil rights era; Stills, a film that culls footage from Hewitt and Young’s shoots; and Untitled (Where Paths meet, Turn Away, Then Align Again), a sculptural installation paired with photolithography.

Location: 44-19 Purves St, Long Island City
Price: $5 suggested donation
Time: 11 a.m.–6 p.m., Thursday through Sunday

—Rain Embuscado

Through Saturday, May 7:

Maria Lorenz, Flow Pool.
Photo: Courtesy of Maria Lorenz.

8. Maria Lorenz, “Flow Pool” at Recess Projects
Maria Lorenz built a hydrodynamic test tank for her latest project, Flow Pool. The water-obsessed artist is also responsible for Tide and Current Taxi, her own “rowboat water taxi in the New York Harbor.” On Saturdays, the artist will throw “Pool Parties,” where you can test your own theories on buoyancy in the tank.

Location:  41 Grand Street
Price: Free
Time: 12:00–6:00 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday; 2:00–8:00 p.m., Thursday

—Kathleen Massara