Each week, we search New York City for the most exciting and thought-provoking shows, screenings, and events. See them below.
Tuesday, January 14–Saturday, April 4
Abdallah Benanteur, To Monet, Giverny (1983). Collection of the Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE.
1. “Taking Shape: Abstraction From the Arab World, 1950s–1980s” at the Grey Art Gallery
The Grey Art Gallery presents some 90 works from the Barjeel Art Foundation in Sharjah, UAE, that show the rise of abstract painting and sculpture in the Arab world beginning in the 1950s. Featured artists include Etel Adnan, Shakir Hassan Al Said, Kamal Boullata, Huguette Caland, Ahmed Cherkaoui, Saloua Raouda Choucair, Rachid Koraïchi, and Hassan Sharif.
Location: The Grey Art Gallery at NYU, 100 Washington Square East
Price: $5 suggested donation
Time: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.; Wednesday, 11 a.m.–8 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Tuesday, January 14–Thursday, April 30
2. “L’Œi’l du Collectionneur” at Gabriel & Guillaume
Nancy Gabriel and Guillaume Excoffier bring their Paris/Beirut design gallery to New York for the first time, for an exhibition in the penthouse of New York’s historic Steinway Hall. Built in 1925 and now a registered historical landmark, the space will host contemporary and vintage mid-century design objects from the likes of Zaha Hadid, Max Ingrand, and Gabriella Crespi.
Location: Steinway Hall, 111 West 57th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m. and by appointment, 9 a.m.–7 p.m.
—Nan Stewert
Wednesday, January 15
Jason Stopa, Interior Pleasures (2019). Courtesy of Monica King Contemporary.
3. “Surface Tension: A Conversation with Jason Stopa” at Monica King Contemporary
Artist and curator Jason Stopa will join Katherine Bradford and Craig Stockwell, along with Two Coats of Paint founder Sharon Butler and Hyperallergic editor Thomas Micchelli, for an evening of conversation on the occasion of “New Skin” Stopa’s latest curatorial project, on view at the gallery through January 25. The exhibition, which includes works by Michael Berryhill, Shirley Kaneda, and Clare Grill, among others, places emphasis on works that toy with idea of representation, conjuring ideas of objects, but leaving space for imagination.
Location: Monica King Contemporary, 39 Lispenard Street, East Entrance
Price: Free
Time: 6 p.m.
— Nan Stewart
Wednesday, January 15–Monday, February 17
Darren Bader, no title, not dated. Comprised of fruits and vegetables. Image courtesy the artist and Andrew Kreps Gallery.
4. “fruits, vegetables; fruit and vegetable salad” at the Whitney Museum
Do you have a hankering for salad and art? We’ve got the work for you. Artist Darren Bader’s untitled, undated work featuring various vegetables and fruits—what he has referred to as “nature’s impeccable sculpture”—are set individually atop light-colored wooden plinths at the Whitney, and while the perishables, well, perish, they will be removed by museum assistants and chopped, sliced, and diced to make a fresh salad.
Location: Whitney Museum, 99 Gansevoort Street
Price: $25 general admission
Time: Salad making and eating Monday, 3 p.m.–6 p.m.; Wednesday, 3 p.m.–6 p.m.; Friday, 7:30 p.m.–10 p.m.; Sunday, 3 p.m.–6 p.m.
—Caroline Goldstein
Wednesday, January 15–Saturday, February 22
Vaughn Spann, Beach Side (2019). Courtesy of the artist and Almine Rech.
5. “Vaughn Spann: The Heat Lets Us Know We’re Alive” at Almine Rech
Location: Almine Rech, 39 East 78th Street,
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Tanner West
Thursday, January 16
Rendering of Krzysztof Wodiczko, Monument. Courtesy of the artist and Madison Square Park Conservancy
6. Krzysztof Wodiczko’s Monument at Madison Square Park
For this project, the artist collaborated with 12 refugees who have resettled in the US. Their images and spoken narratives are superimposed on the the park’s 1881 monument to Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, a Union naval hero during the Civil War. Each filmed participant’s home country has been impacted by civil war, which inspired Wodiczko to choose the Farragut site to provide context about how some individuals are lionized in wartime while others are ignored.
Location: Madison Square Park, 26th Street and Fifth Avenue
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.
—Eileen Kinsella
“Hans Haacke: All Connected” (2019), exhibition view, New Museum, New York. Photo by Dario Lasagni, ©Hans Haacke/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
7. “The Plinth and Monumentality” at the New Museum
As the critically acclaimed show “Hans Haacke: All Connected” draws to a close (the last day is January 26), the New Museum is hosting a panel on what monuments and memorials mean in our contemporary world, considered here in the context of the exhibition’s showpiece, Gift Horse (2014). (The massive statue was created for London’s popular Fourth Plinth public art series.) The speakers are Kendal Henry of New York’s Percent for Art program, architect and educator J. Meejin Yoon, and artist Paul Ramírez Jonas.
Location: The New Museum, 235 Bowery
Price: $10 general admission
Time: 7 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, January 16–Saturday, February 15
Somaya Critchlow, Obligation II (2019). Courtesy of Marianne Boesky Gallery.
8. “Xenia: Crossroads in Portrait Painting” at Marianne Boesky Gallery
Marianne Boesky Gallery kicks off the new year with a group show across its adjacent Chelsea locations. The exhibition examines “the power of the portrait” and how it can “reflect our perceptions of ourselves and the world we occupy.” Amoako Boafo, Somaya Critchlow, Maria Farrar, and Salman Toor are among the 17 artists featured.
Location: Marianne Boesky Gallery, 507 and 509 West 24th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Cristina Cruz
Thursday, January 16–Saturday, February 22
Stan Douglas, Still from Doppelgänger (2019), © Stan Douglas. Courtesy of the artist, Victoria Miro, and David Zwirner
9. “Stan Douglas: Doppelgänger” at David Zwirner
I have never not been enthralled by this artist’s work (including his films Circa 1948 and Luanda-Kinshasa). His video installation Doppelgänger debuted at this year’s Venice Biennale, but this presentation marks its first showing in the US (and it coincides with one at Victoria Miro in London, opening January 31). Doppelgänger is set in an alternative present where the looped narrative that unfolds across two translucent screens depicts events in two worlds that are vastly different.
Location: David Zwirner, 537 West 20th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Eileen Kinsella
Noah Davis, Leni Riefenstahl (2010) © The Estate of Noah Davis. Courtesy of the estate of Noah Davis.
10. “Noah Davis” at David Zwirner
Under normal circumstances, I would never highlight a second show at the same world-class gallery in the same post as one of my colleagues. (? Eileen!) But I have been hopelessly in the tank for the late Noah Davis ever since encountering “Imitation of Wealth,” the show he re-created in the storefront exhibition space operated by Los Angeles’s Museum of Contemporary Art in 2015, when I was still living in the city. Organized by super-curator Helen Molesworth (who also established a partnership between MOCA and the Underground Museum, the essential and enduring nonprofit space Davis co-founded with the sculptor Karon Davis, his wife, in LA’s Arlington Heights neighborhood), the exhibition at Zwirner includes several of Noah’s incisive figurative paintings; various artworks and ephemera relating to the Underground Museum; and works by other brilliant artists who also happened to be his loved ones, including Karon and his brother, the video artist and filmmaker Kahlil Joseph.
Location: David Zwirner, 533 West 19th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Tim Schneider
Thursday, January 16–Monday, March 23
Work by Rafael Domenech for his SculptureCenter commission. Courtesy of the artist.
11. “Rafael Domenech: Model to exhaust this place (SculptureCenter Pavilion)” at SculptureCenter
SculptureCenter commissioned Cuban artist Rafael Domenech to create a new installation for its first-floor gallery. The resulting modular sculpture, made from construction materials, is inspired by the museum’s former life as a trolley repair shop.
Location: SculptureCenter is located at 44-19 Purves Street, Long Island City, Queens
Price: $5 suggested donation
Time: Thursday–Monday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Friday, January 17
Fuminori Nousaku and Mio Tsuneyama, Holes in the House (2017). Photo ©Ryogo Utatsu.
12. “Architectural New Wave: From Ruins to the Future of Housing” at the Japan Society
Tokyo architects Fuminori Nousaku and Mio Tsuneyama have a sustainability-forward approach to their field, with an eye toward adaptive reuse of existing buildings. In a talk with architect Jing Liu, they will present their ongoing renovation project Holes in the House, which is transforming a 1980s steel warehouse in part by creating holes that let in natural light and regulate temperature. The building is featured in the Japan Society’s current show, “Made in Tokyo: Architecture and Living, 1964/2020” (on view through January 26).
Location: Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street
Price: $15 general admission
Time: 5 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Friday, January 17–Sunday, February 23
Anne-Charlotte Finel, Jardins (Gardens) 2017, film still. Courtesy of the artist.
13. “Anne-Charlotte Finel: Jacklighting” at the Chimney
French artist Anne-Charlotte Finel gets her first US solo show, featuring three video works. The exhibition title is named after the nocturnal hunting practice of shining bright lights at animals in order to blind them. The lighting in Finel’s work suggest some kind of night-vision goggles, a disorienting approach to shooting urban, rural, and underground landscapes.
Location: The Chimney, 200 Morgan Avenue, Brooklyn
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 2 p.m.–6 p.m.
—Nan Stewert
Opening Saturday, January 18
Artwork by Adrienne Elise Tarver. Photo courtesy of the artist.
14. “Inside Art” at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan
The Children’s Museum of Manhattan tosses the “don’t touch the art rule” out the window with this interactive exhibition featuring the work of 11 contemporary artists including Borinquen Gallo, Adrienne Elise Tarver, and Carlos Jesus Martinez Dominguez. Expect colorful, hands-on installations that kids ages three to 10 can climb on, clamber under, and explore to their heart’s content.
Location: The Children’s Museum of Manhattan, the Tisch Building, 212 West 83rd Street
Price: $15 general admission
Time: Tuesday–Friday and Sunday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.–7 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Sunday, January 19
“Jerry Blackman: Psychic Snip” installation view at Peninsula Art Space. Photo courtesy of the artist.
15. “Jerry Blackman: Psychic Snip” closing reception at Peninsula Art Space
It’s the last chance to see Brooklyn-based artist Jerry Blackman’s new show in Red Hook, which features large, monochromatic charcoal drawings affixed to two-sided panels, plus a selection of smaller graphite drawings in the back of the gallery. The subject matter veers from a pair of scissors to a third eye to abstracted forms, all relating in some way to the gesture of the “snip”—as in a surgical procedure or a haircut—and the potential psychological currents therein.
Location: Peninsula Art Space, 352 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn
Price: Free
Time: 5 p.m.–8 p.m.
—Tanner West
Through Sunday, January 19
Installation view of “A Famine of Hearing: Sarah Zapata” at Performance Space New York. Photo by Da Ping Luo.
16. “A Famine of Hearing: Sarah Zapata” at Performance Space New York
It’s your last chance to catch Sarah Zapata’s large-scale textile installation at Performance Space New York. The artist is known for her ability to use yarn as an architectural building material, creating labor-intensive handwoven landscapes.
Location: Performance Space New York, 150 1st Avenue, fourth floor
Price: Free
Time: Monday–Friday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.; special weekend viewing hours for show’s final days, Saturday and Sunday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Tuesday, February 4
“Anne Spalter: Vacation Planet” installation view. Photo courtesy of the artist.
17. “Anne Spalter: Vacation Planet” at Wallplay
If you’re already missing this past weekend’s mild weather, head to Brooklyn for a taste of a beach vacation from pioneering digital artist Anne Spalter, who has created a massive 8,300-square-foot installation that will transport you to warmer climes. Recline on Adirondack chairs and take in your surroundings: tropical plants, an ocean soundscape, and massive spherical “Miami Marbles” sculptures printed with the artist’s kaleidoscopic digital artworks, based on photos taken in Miami Beach and other popular vacation spots.
Location: 25 Kent Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Price: Free
Time: Wednesday–Sunday, 11 a.m.–7 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Sunday, February 9
Issy Wood, study for me getting nostalgic (2019). Courtesy of the artist, JTT, New York, and Carlos/ Ishikawa, London.
18. “Issy Wood: daughterproof” at JTT
Even if you haven’t heard of Issy Wood yet, chances are you will come across her work more than once in 2020. The young painter—she was born in 1993, if you want to feel old—is better known in London, where she has shown at Carlos/Ishikawa and Goldsmiths CCA. But she is likely to build an equally prominent profile in the United States thanks to her eerie paintings of tightly cropped tableaux—car interiors, movie stills, and far weirder images like a set of dentures with braces or men crying next to change machines—that feel like foggy memories of another era.
Location: JTT, 191 Chrystie Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Julia Halperin
Through Saturday, February 15
Installation view of “Spread,” 2019. Courtesy of P.P.O.W.
19. “Jessica Stoller: Spread” at P.P.O.W.
The feminine and the grotesque align in Jessica Stoller’s exquisitely detailed new ceramics. A visual feast of small flowers and delicate curlicues executed in porcelain, the sense of decadence is cut by reminders of the aging of the female body, with skulls and wrinkled skin, amid disembodied legs and breasts, and which turns flawless “porcelain” skin into something much different, and are vaguely reminiscent of the macabre beauty of 18th-century Anatomical Venuses.
Location: P.P.O.W., 535 West 22nd Street
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Katie White