Plus, check out a wide-ranging public art show in New York and catch a zoom talk on the history of ancient Mesopotamia.
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 EST unless otherwise noted.)
Paul Lazar in “When a Priest Marries a Witch, an Artist Lecture by Suzanne Bocanegra Starring Paul Lazar.” Photo by Peter Serling, courtesy of Suzanne Bocanegra.
1. “Suzanne Bocanegra: When a Priest Marries a Witch” at the Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin
As part of the programming for the current exhibition “Suzanne Bocanegra: Valley” (on view through September 19), the Blanton Museum of Art is hosting a virtual screening of her unorthodox 2010 lecture, “When a Priest Marries a Witch.” Bocanegra hired an actor, Paul Lazar, to play her and recount colorful tales from her early life featuring astronauts, Elvis, and the titular witch, to name just a few. The evening will also include a livestreamed Q&A with Bocanegra following the screening.
Price: Pay what you wish, registration here
Time: 5 p.m.–6:30 p.m. CT
—Sarah Cascone
Tablet with Proto-cuneiform Inscription, Late Uruk (ca. 3,400–3,100 B.C.) unfired clay. Musée du Louvre, Department of Near Eastern Antiquities, Paris. Photo by Franck Raux, ©RMN-Grand Palais/Art Resource, New York.
2. “From Laundry Lists to Liturgies: The Origins of Writing in Ancient Mesopotamia” at the Getty Villa, Pacific Palisades, California
During the final days of the Getty Villa’s “Mesopotamia: Civilization Begins” exhibition (on view through August 16), Irving Finkel, an Assyriologist at the British Museum in London, and Getty director Robert Tuttle will talk on Zoom about the origins of Mesopotamian cuneiform script, the world’s earliest writing system.
Price: Free with registration
Time: 11 a.m. PT
—Nan Stewert
3. “Corita Kent: Heroes and Sheroes” at Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York
For its second solo show for Corita Kent, who rose to fame in the 1960s as the so-called Pop art nun, Andrew Kreps Gallery focuses on a crossroads in the artist’s life and career. An outspoken advocate for social justice, Kent found herself increasingly at odds with the conservative Catholic church, and left her order in 1968, at age 50. The exhibition, organized with the Corita Art Center in Los Angeles, showcases 29 prints from the “Heroes and Sheroes” series, politically charged works inspired by the pressing concerns of the time, including the Civil Rights Movement, the anti-war movement, and political assassinations—Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy both were killed in ’68.
Location: Andrew Kreps Gallery, 22 Cortland Avenue, New York
Price: Free
Time: Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Lauren Fensterstock,When a Second Sun. Photo courtesy of Claire Oliver Gallery, New York.
4. “Lauren Fensterstock: Impermanent Condition” at Claire Oliver Gallery, New York
Lauren Fensterstock has used glittering materials—glass, vintage crystal, and semi-precious stones such as quartz, obsidian, onyx, and hematite—to create her “Seven Suns” series, which make up her large-scale installation in “Forces of Nature: Renwick Invitational 2020” in Washington, D.C. (on view through August 16). The wall-mounted mosaics at Claire Oliver are inspired by the “sermon of the seven suns,” in which the Buddha describes how the appearances seven suns, one after the other, triggers the end of the world.
Location: Claire Oliver Gallery, 2288 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, New York
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Priscila De Carvalho NYC logo for Summer Streets. Photo courtesy of NYC DOT Arts and Culture.
5. “Summer Streets” on Park Avenue, New York
One of New York City’s quintessential summer events returns for 2021. Several art installations and activities along nearly seven miles of open city streets between Brooklyn Bridge and Central Park include interactive art workshops for kids (such as a model-making class run by the Noguchi Museum in Queens) and a color theory lesson (from Urban Studio Unbound). The Department of Sanitation has partnered with volunteer artists to turn garbage trucks into canvases, and the transformed Trucks of Art will be on view downtown at Pearl and Duane Street. At four rest stops along the route, Priscila De Carvalho has decorated 15-foot-wide NYC logos from NYC DOT Arts and Culture with artwork inspired by the architecture of the city and the natural flora and fauna of her native Brazil.
Location: Park Avenue between East 72nd Street and Astor Place, and Lafayette between Astor Place and the Brooklyn Bridge, New York
Price: Free
Time: 7 a.m.–1 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
West Dakota, Venus as a Boy. Photo by Nir Arieli, courtesy of BOFFO.
6. “BOFFO Performance Festival Fire Island” on Fire Island, New York
Back for its sixth year of experimental music, performance, and dance, the BOFFO Performance Festival Fire Island is co-curated with OCDChinatown. Featured artists include Hannah Black and Ryan McNamara, who will host an advice bar, plus a flag installation by Joseph McShea and Edgar Mosa, and performances by Papi Juice, Kiyan Williams, and Dangerous Rose and Raven Delilah Valentine.
Location: Fire Island Pines beach at Fishermans Path, Fire Island Pines, New York
Price: General admission is free, suggested donation $30
Time: 12 p.m.–7 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Robert Smithson, Shift, 1967. Courtesy Holt/Smithson Foundation and Marian Goodman Gallery. ©Holt/Smithson Foundation, Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York. Photo credit: Alex Yudzon
7. “Robert Smithson: Abstract Cartography” at Marian Goodman Gallery, New York
Marian Goodman’s New York location is presenting its first-ever exhibition of works by Land Art artist Robert Smithson. With a selection of works from 1966 to 1971 from the collections of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, the Holt/Smithson Foundation, and the artist’s widow, Nancy Holt, the exhibition showcases “a crucial five-year period in Robert Smithson’s development” when his “‘inklings of earthworks’ began,” according to the gallery.
Location: Marian Goodman Gallery, 24 West 57th Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Cristina Cruz
Man Ray, Optic Topic Mask (conceived in 1974, executed 1978). Courtesy of Louisa Guinness Gallery and Sotheby’s.
8. “Sculpture to Wear” at Sotheby’s East Hampton
Any art and jewelry lovers who find themselves in the Hamptons during these late days of summer should make a point to venture over to Sotheby’s East Hamptons outpost to see the selling exhibition “Sculpture to Wear.” The playful and historically insightful show, co-organized with London’s Louisa Guinness Gallery, includes 80 rare jewelry works by leading 20th-century artists like Man Ray, Max Ernst, Alexander Calder, and Niki de Saint Phalle. Contemporary artists have their moment too, with works by Anish Kapoor, Jeff Koons, and Les Lalanne, among others. The exhibition offers insights into the ways artists conceived of their practices in relation to the body itself, and spotlights the importance of craft to the featured artists. Two personal favorites from the exhibition include a carnivalesque metal mask by Ernst and a purple ring by Cora Sheibani that looks much like a 1960s jelly mold cake.
Location: Sotheby’s East Hampton, 66 Newton Lane, East Hampton, New York
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. and by appointment.
—Katie White
Jennifer West, Painted Cat Hacker Film. Courtesy of Times Square Arts,
9. “Jennifer West: Painted Cat Hacker Film” at Times Square Arts, New York
For this edition of Times Square Arts’s monthly “Midnight Moment” series, Jennifer West taps into the internet’s love of all things feline with an artistic take on the cat video. The artist captured footage of cats filmed on a green screen, adding colored dye to the celluloid before transferring the filmstrips to high-definition video to create handmade digitized GIFs. West was interested in working with cats because of their online popularity, but also because of research that suggests internet cat content can function as a form of stress relief.
Location: Times Square, New York
Price: Free
Time: 11:57 p.m.–12 a.m.
—Sarah Cascone
