Each week, we search New York City for the most exciting, and thought-provoking, shows, screenings, and events. See them below.
Tuesday, August 7
Courtesy of the Swiss Institute.
1. A Norm is a Readymade at the Swiss Institute
To go along with the current exhibition at the Swiss Institute’s new digs, a screening of A Norm is a Readymade will be followed by a roundtable conversation between the members of f-architecture, QSPACE, and artist Ilana Harris-Babou.
Location: Swiss Institute, 38 St. Marks Place
Price: Free, but RSVP is suggested
Time: 7 p.m.
—Caroline Goldstein
Thursday, August 9
Andy Warhol with his dachshund Archie in 1973. Photo: © Jack Mitchell, courtesy of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
2. “Happy 90th Birthday, Andy Warhol!” at the Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney is celebrating the 90th birthday of one of art’s greatest icons, Andy Warhol (1928–1987), as the museum begins to countdown to the monumental Warhol retrospective opening at the Whitney in November. The event includes live screen printing, a thematic DJ set, a life drawing class with queer nightlife performers, cash bars, and access to the museum’s current exhibitions.
Location: Whitney Museum of American Art, 99 Gansevoort Street
Price: Open to Whitney members; membership starts at $81 and includes an invitation for two
Time: 7:30 p.m.–11 p.m.
—Henri Neuendorf
Thursday, August 9–Sunday, September 16
Gertrude Abercrombie’s Reverie. Courtesy of the Illinois State Museum.
3. “Gertrude Abercrombie” at Karma
For the first time since 1952, the bohemian Chicago artist Gertrude Abercrombie will be the subject of a solo show at Karma gallery. Abercrombie was a fixture in the arts and music scenes, rubbing shoulders with jazz musicians Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker—she has said that her painting was inspired by jazz. Her paintings are like the love child of Dorothea Tanning and Edward Hopper, sparse landscapes with surreal elements.
Location: Karma Gallery, 188 East 2nd Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Caroline Goldstein
Friday, August 10
OFFSITE: Soundtrack at Knockdown Center
feat. DJ /rupture, Ushka, Atropolis, & DJ Aaron. Courtesy of the Queens Museum.
4. “OFFSITE: Soundtrack” at the Knockdown Center
To celebrate the final days of its Mel Chin show, closing August 12, the Queens Museum is throwing a party at the Knockdown Center. The music comes courtesy of Jace Clayton, aka DJ /rupture, who helped Chin create the collaborative sound art piece Soundtrack, inspired by the New York City commute. DJ /rupture, along with Ushka, Atropolis, and DJ Aaron—all of whom will also play Friday night—as well as L’Rain and Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, created the 40-minute composition from their recordings along the routes of the 1, 5, 7, E, and F trains, from subway performers to mechanical, industrial noises.
Location: The Knockdown Center, 52-19 Flushing Avenue, Queens
Price: Free with RSVP
Time: 8 p.m.–12 a.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Friday, August 10
Installation view of “Ben Schumacher, The China Chalet Group” (2018). Courtesy of Bortolami, New York.
5. “The China Chalet Group” at Bortolami
This is the last chance to see Canadian artist Ben Schumacher’s architectural homage to the China Chalet, a real institution located in Manhattan that functions as a banquet hall by day, and a club after dark. In the show, Schumacher has tapped into his early training as an architect to create a replica of the space, complete with restaurant-style booths, and the artist’s own drawings on the walls.
Location: Bortolami Gallery, 39 Walker Street
Price: Free
Time: Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Caroline Goldstein
Friday, August 10–Sunday, August 12
Photo courtesy of BOFFO.
6. “BOFFO Fire Island Performance Festival” at the Fire Island Pines
BOFFO’s fourth annual performance festival returns to Fire Island—the nonprofit, which supports experimental art, has a summer residency there—commissioning artists to create new and adapted work for the occasion. The music and performance art includes Fragile by Wolfgang Tillmans on Saturday and a Friday night “Sunset Musicale” by Nudity in Dance featuring Daisy Press, followed by a complimentary cocktail reception. Most of the events are free and open to the public, but there’s also a swanky benefit dinner.
Location: Various locations, Fire Island Pines, Long Island
Price: Free–$300, based on the event
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Saturday, August 11
Norte Maar dancers at Socrates Sculpture Park during the 2017 Dance at Socrates program. Image courtesy of Norte Maar and Socrates Sculpture Park.
7. “Dance at Socrates: Week 1” at Socrates Sculpture Park
For the sixth consecutive year, Socrates partners with Norte Maar, the Brooklyn-based nonprofit for collaborative projects in the arts, to pair some of the city’s best outdoor sculpture with some of its best dance. Arrive early to explore Virginia Overton’s park-wide exhibition, “Built” (on view through September 3), before a company of elite dancers steps into new choreography at 4 p.m. that they’ve perfected during a residency the preceding week.
Location: Socrates Sculpture Park, 32-01 Vernon Boulevard (at Broadway), Long Island City.
Price: Free. No RSVP required.
Time: 4 p.m.–5:30 p.m.
—Tim Schneider
Saturday, August 11 and Saturday, August 18
Summer Streets. Photo courtesy of the New York City Department of Transportation.
8. Summer Streets on Park Avenue
For the first three Saturdays in August each summer, the city’s Department of Transportation shuts down a nearly seven-mile stretch of Park Avenue (and Lafayette and Centre Streets) for a morning of biking and free cultural activities. Among participating art institutions, the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City will present “Sculpting NYC Spaces,” inspired by the artist’s public works, on August 11; DCLA Materials for the Arts will let you make clothes and accessories from its stash of donated reusable materials on August 18.
Location: Various locations along Park Avenue and Lafayette and Centre Streets
Price: Free
Time: 7 a.m.–1 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Saturday, August 11–Monday, October 8
Ellsworth Kelly, Red, White, and Blue (1961). Photo courtesy of the Whitney Museum of American Art, ©Ellsworth Kelly.
9. “Ellsworth Kelly in the Hamptons” at Guild Hall
Guild Hall takes a look at an overlooked career interlude of Abstract painter Ellsworth Kelly, who spent time on the East End in 1961, ’62, ’68, and ’69. The museum argues that the two early visits marked a new direction for the artist, with new interior shapes and colors on canvases of varied dimensions. The later visits saw Kelly photograph barns in Southampton, which the museum argues were the inspiration for his shaped canvases.
Location: Guild Hall, 158 Main Street, East Hampton
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Sunday, August 12
Photo: courtesy of Exxes Flowers.
10. “New York Flower Festival” at Essex Flowers
Essex Flowers hosts its annual late-summer performance festival at their Lower East Side gallery for the third year. The nightly program includes live music, readings, dance, monologues, comedy, talks, and more.
You can see performances by a host of young up-and-comers, including Savannah Knoop, Victoria Keddie, Cortney Andrews, Frank Haines, and others. For more information, see the full program here.
Location: Essex Flowers, 19 Monroe Street
Price: Free
Time: Various times, see full program for more information.
—Henri Neuendorf
Through Friday, August 24
“Summer Selections” at Marian Goodman (installation view). Photo courtesy of Marian Goodman.
11. “Summer Selections” at Marian Goodman
Marian Goodman’s summer group show features work by Nairy Baghramian, John Baldessari, Gerhard Richter, Thomas Struth, Lawrence Weiner, and Adrián Villar Rojas.
Location: Marian Goodman, 24 West 57th Street
Price: Free
Time: Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Sunday, August 26
Installation view of “Theodore Darst: Last Days in a Lovely Place,” Lubov, 2018. Courtesy of Lubov.
12. “Theodore Darst: Last Days in a Lovely Place” at Lubov
“Last Days in a Lovely Place” marks a bit of a departure for Theodore Darst, a young artist known for his computer-animated video projects in the vein of Ed Atkins and Jon Rafman. The small exhibition features one video work—a looping montage of images that flash by on a steel-mounted monitor—but it also includes several other works that explore the relationship of the virtual and the analog, such as digital paintings on aluminum and black and white photos of computer-generated figures.
Location: Lubov, 373 Broadway, #207
Price: Free
Time: Thursday–Friday, 2 p.m.–5 p.m.; Saturday–Sunday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Taylor Dafoe
Through Friday, August 31
Roman Tolici’s Undercover. Courtesy of Mobius Gallery and Vacation Gallery.
13. “Homo Deus” at Vacation Gallery
The Bucharest-based gallery Mobius is taking over the Lower East Side Vacation gallery outpost for a new exhibition featuring seven Eastern European artists. “Homo Deus” offers a slew of perspectives that, according to the gallery, illustrate artists who are “grappling with speculative narratives concerning the future and humanity’s role in it.”
Location: Vacation Gallery, 24A Orchard Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Caroline Goldstein
Gustav Klimt, The Virgin (1908–14). Courtesy of Jason Jacques.
14. “In Print: The Legacy of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele” at Jason Jacques
Jason Jacques adds to the many exhibitions celebrating the centenary of the deaths of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele with this show dedicated to their printmaking, a medium the two artists took up together, at Klimt’s suggestion. Both artists became masters of the finely detailed collotype, creating unusually brightly colored works by exposing the image on light-sensitive gelatin.
Location: Jason Jacques, 29 East 73rd Street
Price: Free
Time: Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone