Each week, we search for the most exciting and thought-provoking shows, screenings, and events, both digitally and in-person in the New York area. See our picks from around the world below. (Times are all E.T. unless otherwise noted.)
Thursday, August 11
Ayoung Yu, DMZ Performance (2020), performance still. Photo by Matthew Yu, courtesy of the artist.
1. “Dreams” at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York
Ahead of the close of MAD’s “Garmenting: Costume as Contemporary Art” (through August 14) Ayoung Yu and Nicholas Oh will present Dreams, their ongoing community engagement performance in which participants are asked to share their stories in exchange for a porcelain bottle. The piece was inspired by the Korean tradition of selling dreams believed to portend wealth or fertility. The performance at the museum has been conceived as a dream-imbuing ritual, featuring shaman Sung Park and musician Sehwan Park, who will play the janggu, a traditional Korean drum.
Location: The Museum of Arts and Design, 2 Columbus Circle, New York
Price: $18 (free with museum admission)
Time: 4 p.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
The Green-Wood Cemetery Catacombs. Photo courtesy of Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn.
2. “Concert in the Catacombs: Zeena Parkins” at Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn
Enjoy the rare chance to explore Green-Wood Cemetery’s historic catacombs in this performance series curated by experimental singer and songwriter Gelsey Bell. Zeena Parkins, an electro-acoustic composer and improviser known for her pioneering contemporary music on the harp, will fill the atmospheric setting with her unique musical tones, and will defy your expectations surrounding the stereotypically angelic instrument.
Location: Green-Wood Cemetery, 500 25th Street, Brooklyn
Price: $40
Time: 6:30 p.m.–8:15 p.m. and 8 p.m.–9:45 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, August 11–Thursday, August 18
Aiza Ahmed, Roles Reversed (2020). Courtesy of New Collectors and the artist
3. “Action” at New Collectors, New York
In response to the recent overturning of Roe vs. Wade, New Collectors presents a group show of 33 emerging artists. Eighty percent of all proceeds will be donated to Planned Parenthood in an effort to continue supporting women’s access to reproductive healthcare. New Collectors is a gallery that supports and promotes emerging artists in order to add transparency to the buying practices in the art world.
Location: New Collectors, 191 Henry Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Opening Reception, Thursday, 6 p.m.–9 p.m.
—Neha Jambhekar
Saturday, August 13 and Saturday, August 20
Trucks of Art. Photo courtesy of the New York City Department of Sanitation.
4. “Summer Streets” on Park Avenue, New York
The New York City Department of Transportation closes Manhattan’s Park Avenue to cars for three Saturdays each August, letting pedestrians and cyclists have free rein from the Brooklyn Bridge up to Harlem. Along the route, you can enjoy free public art installations, performances, and arts and culture activities. Keep an eye out for the Sanitation Department’s Trucks of Art project at East 27th Street, featuring garbage trucks serving as artist canvases that will join the trash collection fleet next month. Various arts and culture hubs along the route will feature a 15-foot-long NYC logo designed by artist Ebony Bolt as a photo backdrop, and she’ll be coloring with participants at the East 109th Street rest stop. At Park and East 51st, there will be watercolor classes from the Art Students League of New York and workshops on how to make art through recycling from Materials for the Arts (on August 13) and Green Inspired Art (on August 20).
Location: Park Avenue and connecting streets, from the Brooklyn Bridge to East Harlem
Price: Free
Time: 7 a.m.–1 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Saturday, August 13–Thursday, August 18
Andrea Marie Breiling, Hey, Hey, My, My (2022). Courtesy of Rachel Uffner Gallery
5. “Andrea Marie Breiling: Summer Eileen” at Hesse Flatow, East Hampton
Rachel Uffner Gallery presents a pop-up exhibition of site-specific works by artist Andrea Maria Breiling in collaboration with Hesse Flatow. The works are dedicated to Breiling’s late grandmother Eileen Hoard, and were made in her outdoor studio on the dunes of West Hampton Beach.
Location: Hesse Flatow East, 68 Schellinger Road, East Hampton
Price: Free
Time: Opening Reception, Saturday, August 13, 4 p.m.–7 p.m.
—Neha Jambhekar
Sunday, August 14
Exonemo, Metaverse Petshop. Courtesy of Now Here, New York.
6. “Artist Talk: Art Ownership in the NFT Age” at Now Here, New York
Artist duo Exonemo’s “Metaverse Petshop” project, which debuted this spring at NADA New York, generates caged digital dogs every 10 minutes, which die unless purchased by a collector—the creatures can then enjoy a full life in the Metaverse. On the occasion of the project’s solo show at Now Here (through August 21), Exonemo will talk with artists Damjanski and Rafaël Rozendaal about art and ownership in the digital age, and their own artistic practices. Attendees are invited to bring their dogs—virtual or real—to the event.
Location: Now Here, 40 Wooster Street, New York
Price: $20
Time: 3 p.m.–4 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Naomi Rincón Gallardo, The Formaldehyde Trip (2017). Photo by Fabiola Torres Alzaga, courtesy of the New Museum.
7. “Screening: The Formaldehyde Trip” at the New Museum, New York
As part of the current exhibition “Screens Series: Naomi Rincon Gallardo” (through October 9), the New Museum is scheduling regular Sunday screenings of the artist’s 2017 film The Formaldehyde Trip. The film, which is inspired by Mesoamerican cosmologies, queer theory, and Latin American decolonial feminism, will also screen on August 21 and 28, September 4 and 25, and October 2.
Location: The New Museum, 40 Wooster Street, New York
Price: $20
Time: Hourly screenings, 12 p.m.–4 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Saturday, August 27
Ji Zhou, Hasht Bihisht 3 (2021). Courtesy of Eli Klein Gallery
8. “Symbiosis” at Eli Klein Gallery, New York
Make sure to check out Chinese photographer Ji Zhou’s third solo exhibition at Eli Klein Gallery. The artist made specially designed structures for the plants and flowers to interact with light in a specific way to highlight all the details in the vegetation in the photographs. By arranging flowers over wilting plants, Ji highlights the “paradox in which vitality and gloom co-exist,” according to the artist’s statement.
Location: Eli Klein Gallery, 398 West Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Monday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Neha Jambhekar
Through Tuesday, September 13
Ester Petukhova, Militant Mink (2022). Courtesy of Tchotchke Gallery
9. “If It’s Not Baroque, Don’t Fix It” at Tchotchke Gallery, New York
Tchotchke Gallery presents an all-female online exhibition of 12 emerging artists. The works depict each artist’s interpretation of modern and classic fairy tales, especially the patriarchal motifs that are rife in the stories. The gallery will be holding conversations with each of the artists every Wednesday until the closing of the show, on September 13.
Location: Online Exhibition
—Neha Jambhekar
Through Sunday, October 2
Ghost of a Dream, Confusion on the Ground (2022). Courtesy of Geary
10. “If this is Paradise…” at Geary, Millerton, New York
Geary presents a solo exhibition of “Ghost of a Dream,” an artist collaboration between Lauren Was and Adam Eckstrom. The works for the show are comprised of news images of natural and man-made disasters such as burning police cars, floods, and oil rig fires. The images were arranged based on the subject matter, collaged, and desaturated, resulting in a blurred, yet beautiful patterns. Fire and water often mark the end of things, but here the artists want to explore the notion that those elements can also mark rebirth, and what these images and events mean for the future of our planet.
Location: Geary, 34 Main Street, Millerton, New York
Price: Free
Time: Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.
—Neha Jambhekar