Each week, we search New York City for the most exciting, and thought-provoking, shows, screenings, and events. See them below.
Monday, February 27
Liz Glynn, cast concrete
chair from Open House. Courtesy of the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery. Photo by Liz Ligon, courtesy of Public Art Fund.
1. Public Art Fund Spring 2017 Talks: Liz Glynn at the New School
Liz Glynn’s talk coincides with her first large-scale public commission Open House (opening March 1). The artist will discuss her sculptural practice, which often features extensive research and the reinterpretation of objects to engage social and cultural issues that relate to ritual, class, and the dynamics between public and private space. For Open House, Glynn drew inspiration from one of the grandest Fifth Avenue interior spaces, designed by Gilded Age architect Stanford White. Her work transforms the Doris C. Freedman Plaza into a ballroom featuring cast cement sculptural interpretations of its opulent furniture, making a once-exclusive space accessible to all.
Location: The New School, 12th Street Auditorium
Price: $10
Time: 6:30 p.m.
—Eileen Kinsella
Promotional image for “A Town Hall Meeting on Art and Politics.” Courtesy of a Town Hall Meeting on Art and Politics.
2. A Town Hall Meeting on Art and Politics at the Fashion Institute of Technology
Confused about how art can serve a broader public and not just the economic elite? How about getting straightened out at “A Town Hall Meeting on Art and Politics”? This gathering, sponsored by the Fashion Institute of Technology’s art market MA program, will address “the role of art vis-à-vis our current political climate.” Speakers include Ariel Adkins, SPRING/BREAK Art Show co-founders and directors Ambre Kelly and Andrew Gori, John Post Lee, Walter Robinson, Amol Sarva, artnet News’s own Brian Boucher, and yours truly.
Location: FIT, the Dubinsky Building, 27th Street and 8th Avenue, 8th floor
Price: Free
Time: 6:30 p.m.
—Christian Viveros-Fauné
Tuesday, February 28
Valérie Belin, Still Life With Mirror. Courtesy of Edwyn Houk Gallery.
3. “All Stars: A Conversation with Valérie Belin & Quentin Bajac” at Albertine Books
Valérie Belin will talk about her own work and photography in general with Quentin Bajac, author of the new book Detaching From Photography, about the French artist’s career. She is currently a subject of a solo show, “Valérie Belin: All Star” at Edwyn Houk Gallery (through March 4 at 745 Fifth Avenue).
Location: Albertine Books in French and English at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, 972 Fifth Avenue between 78th and 79th Streets
Price: Free
Time: 7 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, March 2
Anton Marini and Danielle Ezzo, Throwing Shadows (2017). Courtesy the artists, Made in MY Media Center by IFP, and LIGHT YEAR.
4. Art In Dumbo First Thursday Gallery Walk
DUMBO galleries stay open late to welcome visitors and host special events such as the opening of “Storytellers” at LAND Gallery, a group exhibition of artists who reimagine and reinvent the essential practice of telling stories through visual art; the opening of “Digital Fairy Tales, Album Two,” an exhibition of visual and sound pieces inspired by old German fairy tales with an artist Q+A at Made in NY Media Center and projection onto the Manhattan Bridge at the Pearl Street Triangle; and the opening of “Haley Morris-Cafiero: Wait Watchers,” an exhibition of photographs taken in public of the artist performing various tasks, at United Photo Industries.
Location: Various DUMBO locations. See Art In Dumbo for gallery map.
Price: Free
Time: 6 p.m.–8 p.m.
—Eileen Kinsella
Thursday, March 2–Saturday, April 1
Ryan McGinley, Dash (Manhattan Bridge) (2000). Courtesy the artist and Team Gallery.
5. “Ryan McGinley: Early” at Team Gallery
The show features McGinley’s photographs—many of which have never been shown in a gallery before— taken in New York City from 1999 to 2003, coinciding with the start of the George W. Bush era and documenting the time surrounding the 9/11 terror attacks and aftermath. The photographs capture the exploits of the artist’s social circle, mostly members of a creative community based on the Lower East Side.
Location: 83 Grand Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Opening 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Eileen Kinsella
Thursday, March 2–Thursday, April 6
Damian Loeb, Scorpius (2016). Courtesy of Aquavella Galleries.
6. “Damian Loeb: Sgr A*” at Acquavella Galleries
Damien Loeb looks to the skies for his latest gallery show, drawing both on the history of astronomical illustrations and on modern-day digital imaging for a series of landscape paintings featuring astronomical events witnessed and photographed by the artist.
“As marvelously detailed as the works appear, Damian’s goal isn’t to create perfect reproductions of outer space,” said gallery owner Nick Acquavella in a statement. “Rather, he wants to convey the universal and ultimately humbling sense of awe he experienced when he was first looking through his lens.”
Location: Aquavella Galleries, 18 East 79th Street, between Madison and Fifth Avenue
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 5:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m.; Monday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, March 2–Sunday, August 20
“Hippie Royalty on the Rocks,” Ibiza, 1969. Photo by Karl Ferris, featuring crocheted designs by 100% Birgitta. Courtesy of the Museum of Arts and Design.
7. “Counter-Couture: Handmade Fashion in an American Counterculture” at the Museum of Arts and Design
If couture brings to mind extravagant hand-beaded gowns painstakingly created at a French atelier, you’ll have to adjust your thinking at the Museum of Arts and Design, which celebrates the decidedly less high-end side of hand-made fashion, created during the 1960s and ’70s by so-called hippies. Expect garments and accessories featuring tie-dye, macrame, and embroidery, all created amid a backdrop of Vietnam War protests, the rise of drug culture, and the Civil Rights movement.
Location: The Museum of Arts and Design, 2 Columbus Circle
Price: $16 general admission
Time: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m.–9 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Friday, March 3–Wednesday, March 15
Rajni Perera, Zahra, 2016. Photo courtesy the artist.
8. “Reginald Pean and Rajni Perera: Controller” at Superchief Gallery
The latest exhibition from Greenpoint’s Superchief Gallery features the work of two subversive figurative painters, Reginald Pean and Rajni Perera. Pean, a native New Yorker, creates images of a galactic, dysfunctional, darkly mystical future. Perera tackles issues of multiculturalism, gender identity, the divine, monsters, and ethnography. Pulling on Eastern and Western imagery, she reveals the hidden violence behind classical iconography and popular imagery.
Location: Superchief Gallery, 66 Greenpoint Ave, Brooklyn
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–10 p.m.
—Sarbani Ghosh
Friday, March 3–Sunday, March 5
Jacqueline Moudeina, Human Rights Painting Project. Courtesy of the International Human Rights Art Festival.
9. International Human Rights Art Festival at Dixon Place
Billed as New York City’s first arts-advocacy festival, the International Human Rights festival is the brainchild of Tom Block, founder of the Institute of Prophetic Activist Art. Expect a mix of dance, theater, poetry, and visual art, featuring the Human Rights Painting Project.
Location: 161A Chrystie Street
Price: $20 day passes; evening programming $20 per event
Time: 7 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Sunday, March 5
Glenn Ligon, Rückenfigur (2009), neon. Courtesy Whitney Museum of American Art.
10. “Critical Junctures: Glenn Ligon” at the New York LiveArts Theater
As part of its ongoing salon series, “Critical Junctures,” the National YoungArts Foundation will bring together conceptual artist Glenn Ligon and jazz pianist and composer Samora Pinderhughes, a 2009 YoungArts award winner. They will discuss the role issues such as race, language, desire, and sexuality play in Ligon’s practice.
Location: New York LiveArts Theater, 219 West 19th Street
Price: $10
Time: 2 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone