Each week, we search for the most exciting and thought-provoking shows, screenings, and events. In light of the global health crisis, we are currently highlighting events and digitally, as well as in-person exhibitions open in the New York area. See our picks from around the world below. (Times are all EST unless otherwise noted.)
Tuesday, January 12
Installation view of “Lin Tianmiao: Protruding Patterns” at Galerie Lelong, New York, in 2017. Image courtesy Galerie Lelong.
1. “Meet the Artist: Lin Tianmiao on Public Art In China” at the China Institute, New York
This Zoom conversation between artist Lin Tianmiao and art writer Barbara Pollack is organized by the China Institute and shared by Galerie Lelong. The discussion will focus at Lin’s new post-feminist work and the rise of large-scale public art projects in China. The artist is known her embroidered objects that explore gender roles in modern-day society. New works also explore themes of time and loss.
Price: Free with registration
Time: 8 p.m.
—Eileen Kinsella
Wednesday, January 13
Danielle Scott. Photo courtesy of the Newark Museum.
2. “Studio Snapshots: Danielle Scott” at the Newark Museum of Art
The still-shuttered Newark Museum has launched a video series spotlighting local artists and their work during the past year in lockdown. The second video, featuring Danielle Scott—a full-time art teacher making work inspired by the current state of affairs for Black men in the US—will be released this week on the museum’s Facebook page.
Price: Free
Time: 12 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
David Byrne at the National Sawdust gala. Courtesy of Zach Hilty/BFA.
3. “American Utopia: David Byrne and Maira Kalman in Conversation” at the Museum of the City of New York
Artist and musician David Byrne, of Talking Heads fame, has just published American Utopia, a book based on his musical of the same name. In a virtual conversation moderated with WNYC’s Alison Stewart, he’ll speak with the book’s illustrator, Maira Kalman, about their collaboration and about their life experiences as artists working and living in New York City.
Price: $20 suggested donation
Time: 7 p.m.–8 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, January 14
András Szántó, The Future of the Museum: 28 Dialogues. Photo courtesy of the author.
4. “Virtual Roundtable: The Future of the Museum” at the Brooklyn Museum
On the occasion of the publication of museum strategist András Szántó’s new book, The Future of the Museum: 28 Dialogues, the author will speak with Sandra Jackson-Dumont, director of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, and Marie-Cécile Zinsou, president and founder of Benin’s Zinsou Foundation, about new models for what a museum can be. Brooklyn Museum director Anne Pasternak will also speak with Victoria Noorthoorn, director of the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Franklin Sirmans, director of the Pérez Art Museum Miami, about how their institutions are adapting to the present moment. The back-to-back talks will stream on Facebook Live, or you can register for the program on Zoom.
Price: Pay what you wish
Time: 6 p.m.–7 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, January 14–Saturday, February 13
Polina Barskaya, Bovina Living Room with Cat, 2020 Courtesy of Monya Rowe Gallery
5. “Me, Myself and I: Polina Barskaya, Aubrey Levinthal, and Justin Liam O’Brien” at Monya Rowe Gallery
Monya Rowe Gallery presents a three-person exhibition of new works by artists Polina Barskaya, Aubrey Levinthal, and Justin Liam O’Brien. The show consists of figurative works that look inwards to create everyday narratives that are widely relatable. Themes of self-reflection and introspection are highlighted as “each artist harnesses their psychological experiences to engender their work and create a space for personal significance,” according to the gallery.
Location: Monya Rowe Gallery, 224 West 34th Street, #1005, New York
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.
—Neha Jambhekar
Thursday, January 14–Tuesday, February 16
A painting by Aida Mahmudova. Courtesy of Sapar Contemporary.
6. “Aida Mahmudova: PASTPRESENTFUTURE” at Sapar Contemporary, New York
The latest project from Sapar Contemporary’s Central Asian Incubator for women artists of Central Asia and the Caucuses features Azerbaijani painter Aida Mahmudova, who embeds materials including grass, dry plants, copper, and ceramics into her layered canvases depicting the landscapes of her homeland.
Location: Sapar Contemporary, 9 North Moore Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Opening viewing January 14 and 15 for groups under eight, 5 p.m.–7 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, January 14–May 1
Artwork by Hiba Schahbaz. Photo courtesy of Art Production Fund.
7. “Hiba Schahbaz: In My Heart” at Rockefeller Center, New York
Hiba Schahbaz takes over unused ad spaces at Rockefeller Center in the latest offering from Art Production Fund. The artist, known for her mythological-flavored self portraits, has created paper cut-outs featuring garden scenes and female figures amid the doldrums of winter in New York. The highlight will be a 125-foot-long site-specific mural at the concourse of 45 Rockefeller Plaza, while smaller lightbox displays are inspired by traditional Indo-Persian miniature paintings.
Location: Rockefeller Center, 10, 30, 45, and 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York
Price: Free
Time: Open daily at all times
—Sarah Cascone
Friday, January 15–Saturday, March 20
David-Jeremiah, detail of Hamborghini Rally: Soul Hunt City (’72 Dartón) (2019). Courtesy of Gallery Kendra Jayne Patrick.
8. “David-Jeremiah: Play” at Halsey McKay x Gallery Kendra Jayne Patrick, East Hampton
In this compact East Hampton solo exhibition, David-Jeremiah presents five paintings interpolating the disturbingly relevant legacy of Micah Xavier Johnson. In 2016, Johnson, a former US Army carpenter, fatally shot five Dallas police officers in an act of vigilante retribution for generations of violence carried out by law enforcement against Black Americans. He then became an even more surreal footnote in the nation’s macabre history of race relations when police leveraged a never-before-used weapon—a bomb-defusing robot equipped with a live explosive—to kill Johnson in his hideout. Jeremiah channels these events and their aftermath into a series of works inspired by simulated racing games. Called “Hamborghini Rally: Soul Hunt City,” the paintings communicate how bigotry creates a never-ending “us vs. them” contest in which each side’s grim score will only ever continue escalating—until, or unless, this country finally disconnects the white supremacist circuitry powering the whole enterprise from the start.
Location: Halsey McKay, 79 Newtown Lane, East Hampton
Price: Free
Time: Friday–Monday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. (and by appointment)
—Tim Schneider
Friday, January 15–Saturday, February 27
Patrick Angus, Hanky Panky (1990). Photo courtesy of Bortolami.
9. Three shows at Bortolami, New York
There’s one hell of a tripleheader opening at Bortolami this Friday. In the main exhibition space is what is sure to be a stunning exhibition of work by the late Patrick Angus, who died of AIDS in 1992 at the age of 38. The show spans decades of his practice and features a number of works from the last decade of his life, spent in New York, capturing the explosion of culture at the city’s innumerable gay bars, bathhouses, and sex clubs with lush, gloriously rendered paintings and works in paper, many made from life. As if you needed more, in an anteroom there’s a show by the indefatigable Tom Burr that is sure to be a delight. And upstairs in the gallery’s second floor viewing room is a group show put together by the fearless critic David Rimanelli featuring three of the most exciting artists around: Kayode Ojo, Borna Sammak, and Chivas Clem.
Location: Bortolami, 39 Walker Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Nate Freeman
Saturday, January 16–Sunday, February 21
Xiao Wang, Slumber (Dusk), 2020 Courtesy of Deanna Evans Projects
10. “A Collective Escape” at Deanna Evans Projects, Brooklyn
Deanna Evans Projects’ inaugural exhibition in its new Brooklyn space featuring works by eight emerging artists and was organized through a blind open call juried by Elizabeth Buhe, Alejandro Jassan, and Nickola Pottinger. The result is a collection of eight beautiful works that depict the possibilities of escapism—a much-explored topic during the harrowing year of 2020.
Location: Deanna Evans Projects, 1329 Willoughby Avenue, #171 E, Brooklyn
Price: Free
Time: January 16 and 17, 12 p.m.–8 p.m.; and by appointment
—Neha Jambhekar
Saturday, January 16
Concept art for Derek McPhatter Afro-futurist and Afro-surreal dreamscapes. Designed by Daria Borovkova. Photo courtesy of MCA Chicago.
11. “The Dreamscape” at MCA Chicago
As part of “The Long Dream,” an exhibition of more than 70 local Chicago artists on view through May 2, the MCA Chicago is hosting virtual events showcasing time-based and live performances, with a wide offering of livestreamed music, conversations, and video art. Audiences can tune in to the programming of their choosing throughout the day, such as a DJ set with Sadie Woods or the premiere of new works by Eduardo F. Rosario, Selina Trepp, and others.
Price: Pay what you wish
Time: 2 p.m.–6 p.m. CT
—Sarah Cascone
Dawoud Bey. Photo by by Whitten Sabbatini. An-My Lê. Photo courtesy of the artist.
12. “An-My Lê and Dawoud Bey: In Conversation” at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Despite the fact that they were classmates at Yale in Connecticut, both earning an MFA there in 1993, photographers Dawoud Bey and An-My Lê have never spoken together in a public program—until now, in this online talk moderated by Carnegie Museum of Art curator of photography Dan Leers.
Price: Pay what you wish
Time: 12 p.m.–1 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Sunday, January 24
Installation view of “Kambui Olujimi WALK WITH ME.” Photo courtesy of Project for Empty Space.
13. “Kambui Olujimi WALK WITH ME” at Project for Empty Space, Newark
For this first show in the gallery’s new home, Newark’s Project for Empty Space presents a selection of 177 ink-wash works on paper by Kambui Olujimi, each a portrait of his mentor, Catherine Arline, who died in 2014. Based on a single photograph of the subject from the 1950s, when she was just 18, the artworks memorialize Arline and her larger-than-life role in the Bedford-Stuyvesant community where the artist grew up.
Location: Project for Empty Space, 800 Broad Street, Newark
Price: Free
Time: By appointment, Thursday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone