Each week, we search New York City for the most exciting and thought-provoking shows, screenings, and events. See them below.

Monday, February 11

Rochelle Feinstein, Copy Cats (1996). Photo ©Adam Reich courtesy of the Artist and Stellar Projects.

1. “Rochelle Feinstein Book Launch” at the Block Gallery

Timed to her current exhibition “Rochelle Feinstein: Image of an Image,” on view through March 3 at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the artist is hosting a book launch at the museum’s new downtown outpost, the Block Gallery.

Location: The Block Gallery, 80 White Street, 2nd Floor
Price: Free with RSVP
Time: 6 p.m.–8 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Tuesday, February 12

Alexander Gardner, Abraham Lincoln (1863). Photo via Wikipedia Commons.

2. The Lincoln Legacy Lecture by Harold Holzer at the New-York Historical Society

Harold Holzer, who has written more than 50 books on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, will give this year’s annual President Bill Clinton Lecture in American History at the New-York Historical Society. He’ll examine Lincoln’s legacy, from his near instantaneous canonization in American history to his enduring popularity among liberals and conservatives alike. Holzer will also discuss the construction of Daniel Chester French’s Lincoln Memorial and the surprising racism behind the effort to erect it.

Location: Robert H. Smith Auditorium at the New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West at at Richard Gilder Way
Price: $38
Time: 6:30 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Wednesday, February 13

John Kelly. Photo by Billy Erb.

3. “The Crazy Cries of Love: John Kelly Sings Joni Mitchell” at the Metropolitan Museum

Setting the mood for Valentine’s Day a little early, the artist and performer John Kelly will sing a slate of love songs by folk star Joni Mitchell—an act he has been putting on since 1985—at the Met’s Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium. But although Kelly remains emotionally faithful to Mitchell’s music and her “vivid interrogations of romantic relationships,” as the Met puts it, Kelly’s performance is entirely his own.

Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue
Price: $45
Time: 7 p.m.

—Rachel Corbett

Sanne Vaassen, The National Anthems of the World (2014). Photo: Marie Noële Guex, courtesy of 601Artspace.

4. “Holes in Maps” Performance at 601Artspace

In conjunction with “Holes in Maps,” an exhibition currently on view at 601 Artspace through February 17, the non-profit is hosting an interpretive performance by pianist Imi Talgam. The piece was inspired by artist Sanne Vaassen’s work, National Anthems of the World (2014), which involved feeding a book of scores and lyrics of the national anthems of 198 countries to a group of snails who gradually ate away at the notes and words. Curator Juliana Steiner then challenged pianist Talgam to try and play the hole-laden score.

Location: 601Artspace, 88 Eldridge Street
Price: Free
Time: Performance, 6:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m.; Thursday–Sunday, 1 p.m.–6 p.m.

—Henri Neuendorf

Wednesday, February 13–Saturday, February 16

Josephine Meckseper, Untitled (Flag 2), the final work in Creative Time’s “Pledges of Allegiance” project, was removed from view by the University of Kansas. Photo by Guillaume Ziccarelli, courtesy of Creative Time.

5. 2019 College Art Association Annual Conference at the New York Hilton Midtown 

There are more than 500 events taking place as part of this year’s CAA Conference, including 300 sessions hosted at the New York Hilton. Programs include Social Action, Censorship, and Campus Art Museums on Saturday at 2 p.m.; Art and Artificial Intelligence on Thursday at 8:30 a.m.; No Body, This Body: Marking Flesh, Figuration, Abstraction in Trans Art History Thursday at 10:30 a.m.; and the off-site roundtable Andy Warhol and His Carpatho-Rusyn Roots at the Ukrainian Museum on Friday at 7 p.m.

There are also two programs from the Feminist Art Project at Rutgers: HOT AND BOTHERED: Tackling Sexual Harassment and Assault in Higher Education at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday; and Rape, Representation, and Radicality, a free day-long symposium on Saturday chaired by artist Christen Clifford and Jasmine Wahi, co-director of Newark’s Project for Empty Space non-profit gallery.

Location: New York Hilton Midtown, 1335 6th Avenue
Price: Varied price tiers, including $25 suggested pay-as-you-wish day pass
Time: Wednesday, 8 a.m.–10 p.m.; Thursday, 7:30 a.m.–9 p.m.; Friday, 8:30 a.m.–9 p.m.; Saturday, 8 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Thursday, February 14

Henri Matisse, The Heart (Le Coeur) from Jazz (1947). Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; ©2019 Succession H. Matisse.

6. Valentine’s Day Tour at the Museum of Modern Art

If you didn’t like any of our Valentine’s Day ideas, you can always splurge on a private after-hours tour of MoMA led by an art historian. The evening also includes a candlelit reception, which comes with wine, “savory bites,” and a “sweet treat” for you and that special someone.

Location: Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street (entrance at 18 West 54th Street)
Price: $113
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Thursday, February 14–Saturday, February 16

Pace Gallery at West 24 Street. Photo courtesy of Pace.

7. “Pace Staff Exhibition” at Pace Gallery

Call it a labor of love: More than 60 works from 40 international artists will be on view at Pace’s Chelsea outpost, all created by the staff members of Pace’s various enterprises (including Pace Prints, Pace/MacGill, and Artifex Press) for an exhibition opening on Valentine’s Day.

Location: 537 West 24th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Caroline Goldstein

Saturday, February 16

The 2018 Faces of Death portraits. Image courtesy of Faces of Death.

8. “Faces of Death T-Shirt Release Party” at GROWROOM//SHOWROOM

Since 1997, the group art project Faces of Death has hosted an open call for portraits paying tribute to celebrities who died that year. Run since 2013 by Brooklyn-based artist Michael Hambouz, Faces of Death will unveil its 2018 t-shirts, featuring dearly departed figures such as Stan Lee and Aretha Franklin, at a party this weekend. The 120 artists chosen to depict the dearly departed in this edition include well-known names such as Maya Hayuk (who is hosting the reception) and Hope Gangloff, as well as many amateur enthusiasts. (Full disclosure: I contributed my own drawing of late Abstract Expressionist painter Sonia Gechtoff.)

Location: The Center for Advancement of Contemporary Art, GROWROOM//SHOWROOM, 700 Lorimer Street 2nd Floor, Brooklyn
Price: Free
Time: 7 p.m.–9 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Kevin Beasley, A view of a landscape; studio annex (work in progress) (2018). Photo courtesy of Kevin Beasley Studio.

9. “Kevin Beasley: A view of a landscape” Performance at the Whitney Museum of American Art

The artist Kevin Beasley will be performing live with his cotton gin motor as part of his current solo show, “A view of a landscape.” Beasley’s exhibition explores the various ways that cotton factors into contemporary society and collective memory, from the legacy of slavery to the mass production of consumer goods.

Location: The Whitney Museum of Art, 99 Gansevoort Street, eighth floor
Price: Free with museum admission, general admission $25
Time: 6 p.m.

—Caroline Goldstein

Saturday, February 16–Sunday, February 17

Images from “THNK1994: The Permanent Collection.” Courtesy of THNK1994.

10. “THNK1994: The Retrospective” at 222 East 46th Street

For one weekend only, the Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan 1994 Museum—a Brooklyn institution devoted to pop cultural infamy also known as THNK1994—is staging a retrospective exhibition of its programming. The show will feature installations and works of art from exhibitions including “The Olsen Twins Hiding from the Paparazzi,” “Real Housewives Pointing Fingers,” and, my personal favorite, “Celebrities Smoking in the Bathroom at the Met Ball.”

Location: 222 East 46th Street
Price: Free
Time: Saturday & Sunday, 11 p.m.–7 p.m.

—Caroline Goldstein

Saturday, February 16–Saturday, April 13

Varujan Boghosian, Valentine (1986). ©Varujan Boghosian, courtesy of Alexandre Gallery, New York.

11.”Emily Nelligan: A Memorial Exhibition” and “Varujan Boghosian: A Selection” at Alexandre Gallery

The gallery presents a survey of 40 charcoal landscape drawings from the past 30 years, marking the sixth show of Emily Nelligan’s work and the first since the artist’s death last year at the age of 94. There is no official opening reception for the show, but on the same day the gallery is hosting a reception for “Varujan Boghosian: A Selection,” a small survey exhibition of 12 assemblages from the artist’s personal collection.

Location: Alexandre Gallery, 724 Fifth Avenue
Price: Free
Time: Reception 1 p.m.-4 p.m.; Tuesday—Saturday 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

—Eileen Kinsella

Through Saturday, February 16

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Amber and Jasmine (2018). Courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery.

12. “Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: In Lieu of a Louder Love ” at Jack Shainman Gallery

British-Ghanaian artist Lynnette Yiadom-Boakye has taken over both of Jack Shainman’s Chelsea galleries with her figurative paintings. These vivid canvases of black subjects confront much of art history’s failure to represent people of color.

Location: Jack Shainman Gallery, 513 West 20th Street and 524 West 24th Street
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Nan Stewert

Installation view of “Benedick, or Else: Dora Budor with Andromache Chalfant” at NYU’s 80 Washington Square East. Photo by Carter Seddon, courtesy of 80 Washington Square East.

13. “Benedick, or Else: Dora Budor with Andromache Chalfant” at NYU’s 80 Washington Square East

The New York University building popularly known as the Benedick got its nickname from the bachelor character in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing because it was originally a residence for single men, many of whom happened to be artists. The building has been gutted and renovated numerous times since the university bought it in 1925 and it was converted into art galleries in 1979. Now, for an exhibition curated by Nicola Lees, artist Dora Budor and scenographer Andromache Chalfant have transformed the building into a kind of theater. The architecture plays the starring role, contrasting the space’s bohemian history with the university’s long-term goals for growth.

Location: New York University, 80 Washington Square East
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Through Sunday, February 17

Anna Atkins, (clockwise from top left) Peacock (1861), Laminaria phyllitis (1844–45), Papaver rhoeas (1861), and Alaria esculenta (1849–50). Courtesy of Hans P. Kraus Jr., New York (top left and bottom right); the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

14. “Blue Prints: The Pioneering Photographs of Anna Atkins” at the New York Public Library

If you’ve ever taken a history of photography course, you’ve probably heard of Anna Atkins, who invented the original photo-illustrated book. Her friend, astronomer John Herschel, had developed in 1842 the cyanotype, a photographic printing process that’s most commonly used today for making blueprints. A year later, Atkins self-published her book, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions. Today only 17 copies are known to be in existence, one of which belongs to the New York Public Library. Don’t miss your chance to see these historic images in person in this tiny but informative exhibition at the library, which sheds light on Atkins’s life, research, and artistry.

Location: The New York Public Library, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, 476 Fifth Avenue
Price: Free
Time: Monday and Thursday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; Tuesday and and Wednesday, 10 a.m.–8 p.m.; Sunday, 1 p.m.–5 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Through Sunday, February 24

Paa Joe, [Fort] Gross-Friedrichsburg – Princestown. 1683 Brandenburg, 1717-24 Ahanta, 1724 Neths, 1872 Britain, 2004–2005 and 2017. © Paa Joe. Image courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

As a thematic and aesthetic complement to the figurative coffins for which he is best known, Ghanaian artist Paa Joe offers up an ensemble of imposing painted-wood sculptures modeled on castles and forts in Africa’s Gold Coast—buildings that doubled as processing hubs for more than six million Africans fed to the American and Caribbean slave trade from the 1500s through the 1800s. The exhibition’s title refers to those long-ago castle gates, through which so many were herded en route to either a life of oppression or, before they even reached foreign lands, the afterlife.

Location: 2 Lincoln Square
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Thursday and Saturday, 11:30 a.m.–7 p.m.; Friday, noon–7:30 p.m.; Sunday, noon–6 p.m.

—Tim Schneider

Through Thursday, February 28

Reddymade, X (2019). Photo courtesy of Ka-Man Tse for Times Square Arts.

16. “Reddymade: X” at Times Square

For the 11th edition of its annual Valentine Heart Design competition, Times Square Arts teamed up with the American Institute of Architects New York to erect X, a glowing aluminum sculpture from Suchi Reddy’s architecture and design firm Reddymade. A reference to Times Square as the crossroads of the world as well as its x-rated theaters of yore, the X also literally represents a kiss in the shorthand for hugs and kisses, “xoxo.” (Previous winners have included a pro-immigration installation by the Office for Creative Research, Collective–LOK’s  heart-shaped kissing booths, an interactive musical piece by Stereotank, and last year’s heart-shaped lens by the firm ArandaLasch and architect Marcelo Coelho.)

Location: Father Duffy Square
Price: Free
Time: Open 24/7

—Sarah Cascone