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 ET unless otherwise noted.)

Through Tuesday, December 7

Pamela Council, A Fountain for Survivors in Times Square. Photo by Michael Hull.

1. “A Fountain for Survivors” at Times Square, New York

It’s the last day to catch Pamela Council’s stunning 18-foot-tall protective structure encasing a tiered water fountain. The monument is covered with some 400,000 acrylic nails, a signature material in the artist’s “blaxidermy” aesthetic celebrating and embracing Afro-Americana camp. Stop by at 5:55 p.m. to make a wish with a coin-shaped “Wishing Wafer” scented with essential oils of Florida Water, which is believed to have healing powers.

Location: Times Square, Duffy Square (Broadway at 46th Street), New York
Price: Free
Time: 10 a.m.–12 a.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Wednesday, December 8

C. Charles antique shop, Brook Street, London (ca. 1900), The Connoisseur, September 1903. Photo courtesy of London Art Week.

2. “The Jewish Contribution to Art Dealing in London” at London Art Week

For the last day of London Art Week’s three-day symposium, “Jewish Dealers and the European Art Market ca. 1850–1930,” on the influence of Jewish art dealers before the Nazi rise to power, a roundtable moderated by art critic Thomas Marks will explore Jewish art and antiques dealers in 19th- and 20th-century London. The speakers are Martin Levy, a member of the U.K.’s Spoliation Advisory Panel; Cherith Summers, director at London’s Murphy and Partners; and Alice Minter, curator at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.

Price: Free with registration
Time: 6 p.m. GMT, 1 p.m. ET

—Sarah Cascone

Wednesday, December 8–Friday, December 10

Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Touch Sanitation Performance, 1979-1980. Image courtesy of the artist and Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York.

3. “Rethinking Residencies Symposium” at the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at the New School, New York

Founded in 2014, the Rethinking Residencies is a network of 16 New York-based artist and curator residency programs, including the International Studio and Curatorial Program, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Eyebeam, and the Fire Island Artist Residency. This week’s symposium on the importance of residencies as a site of artist production is their biggest event to date. Artists Mierle Laderman Ukeles, the official artist-in-residence at New York City’s Department of Sanitation since 1977, and Tania Candiani, who has participated in residencies on four continents, will give keynote address.

Price: Free with registration
Time: Wednesday, 3 p.m.–4:30 p.m.; Thursday, 2 p.m.–3 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.–5 p.m.; Friday, 2 p.m.–3:30 p.m. and 5 p.m.–6:30 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Thursday, December 9

Radcliffe Bailey and Odili Donald Odita. Photo courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

4. “Radcliffe Bailey and Odili Donald Odita in Conversation” at Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

Timed to the gallery’s current show, “Radcliffe Bailey: Ascents and Echoes” (through December 18), Jack Shainman will host a virtual conversation between the artist and abstract painter Odili Donald Odita.

Price: Free with registration
Time: 6 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Thursday, December 9–Sunday, December 11

Carrie Mae Weems’s Park Avenue Armory installation “The Shape of Things.” Photo courtesy of the artist.

5. “Land of Broken Dreams” at the Park Avenue Armory, New York

For her Park Avenue Armory show, “The Shape of Things” (through December 31), Carrie Mae Weems has organized daytime talks and presentations and nightly concerts. Participants will include Agnes Gund, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Dawoud Bey, Theaster Gates, and Shirin Neshat, among many, many others. Tickets to the event include access to the show, which features large-scale installations and a cyclorama (a circular panorama) displaying films by Weems.

Location: Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Avenue, New York
Price: $25
Time: Thursday, concerts 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 1 p.m.–7 p.m. and concerts 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Thursday, December 9–Saturday, January 22, 2022

Brie Ruais, Digging In, Digging Out (2021). Photo courtesy of Albertz Benda, New York.

6. “Brie Ruais: Some Things I Know About Being in a Body” at Albertz Benda, New York

For the last 10 years, Brie Ruais has made each of her gestural sculptures from 130 pounds of clay, matching her body weight. This past August, she harvested clay from the wild for the first time, collecting hundreds of pounds of clay from a small New Mexican clay quarry. But the site became more than just a source of raw materials, with Ruais using a drone camera to capture the live performance of making art in the quarry’s wet clay. The show includes the resulting video, Digging In, Digging Out (2021), as well as sculptures made back in her Brooklyn studio from the New Mexico clay.

Location: Albertz Benda, 515 West 26th Street, New York 
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Monday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Friday, December 10–Saturday, January 15, 2022

Rosalind Nashashibi, Boy Fizzing (2021). Courtesy of Grimm New York.

7. “Rosalind Nashashibi: Darkness and Rest” at Grimm, New York

Coming off a 2020 residency at the National Gallery in London, Rosalind Nashashibi, who was nominated for the 2017 Turner Prize for her work in film, has dedicated herself to making paintings. This presentation of works inspired by the artist’s friends and family, as well as literary characters and art historical works, is her largest painting show to date, and first-ever painting exhibition in the U.S.

Location: Grimm, 54 White Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Friday, December 10–Saturday, January 22, 2022

Madeline Peckenpaugh, The City (2021). Courtesy of the artist and Alexander Berggruen.

8. “Sholto Blissett, Emma Fineman, Madeline Peckenpaugh” at Alexander Berggruen, New York

Three contemporary artists whose works probe depictions of time and space are on view in a group show at Alexander Berggruen gallery on Madison Avenue. Each artist’s approach to depicting environments appears to be inspired by Surrealism, with distorted landscapes and tilted perspectives that challenge the viewer.

Location: Alexander Berggruen, 1018 Madison Ave., 3rd Floor, New York
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception December 10, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

—Tanner West

Friday, December 10–Sunday, March 6, 2022

Mary Blair, Cinderella concept art (1950), detail. Courtesy of Walt Disney Animation Research Library.

9. “Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

It wasn’t just fairy tales that inspired Walt Disney’s hand-animated films. He also drew heavily on 18th-century European decorative arts and design, particularly from France, to set the stage for the studio’s magical creations. The aesthetics of Sleeping Beauty, for instance, responded to medieval tapestries, while Beauty and the Beast featured characters based on French rococo furniture. The Met explores this prominent aspect of the Disney canon with an exhibition pairing 60 antique decorative works including furniture, tapestries, and Sèvres porcelain, with about 150 Disney concept artworks, many on loan from the Walt Disney Animation Research Library.

Location: The Met Fifth Avenue, 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York
Price: $25 general admission
Time: Sunday–Tuesday and Thursday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m.–9 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Sunday, December 12

Léonard Limosin, Allegory of Catherine de ‘Medici as Juno (1573). Collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

10. “Rainbow Power” at the Getty Center, Los Angeles

You can tune in on Zoom to watch this talk about the history of the rainbow as a political symbol, focusing on an emblem used by a Stuart king and prince in the 17th century. Maria Loh, a professor at New York’s Hunter College, was inspired to tackle the subject by the Union of European Football Associations, which argued the rainbow shouldn’t be a political symbol in refusing this past summer to light up Munich’s Allianz Arena in the colors of the rainbow for a match between Germany and Hungary (the latter had recently enacted anti-LGTBQ legislation). The talk is part of the Getty’s annual Thomas and Barbara Gaehtgens lecture series and is moderated by Getty Research Institute director Mary Miller. If you can’t watch live, it will be posted after the fact to the organization’s YouTube channel.

Price: Free with registration
Time: 4 p.m.–5:30 p.m. PT

—Sarah Cascone

Through Saturday, December 18

Installation View Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery

11. “Whitfield Lovell: Le Rouge et Le Noir” at DC Moore Gallery, New York

American artist Whitfield Lovell uses installations and portraiture to explore questions of the past and present through the use of music, poetry, and literature. His new expansive exhibition at DC Moore Gallery consists of a four-part, multi-sensory series “The Reds,” “Winterisse,” and the “Spell Suite.” Though assemblages, installations, and conte-crayon drawings, mainly in the colors and red and black, Lovell delves into metaphysical themes as the show “unfolds throughout the gallery space as a journey of exploration.”

Location: DC Moore Gallery, 535 West 22nd Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

—Neha Jambhekar