Each week, we scour New York City for the most exciting and thought-provoking shows, screenings, and events. See them below.
Tuesday, January 15
Frédéric Bazille, Young Woman with Peonies (1870). National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Art.
1. “Gallery Lecture Series – ‘Posing Modernity: The Black Model From Manet and Matisse to Today’ Presented by Denise Murrell” at the Art Students League
The black female figure in Henri Matisse’s Olympia, ignored by art historians for generations, became the starting point for an incredibly fruitful research topic for Denise Murrell. Her 2014 dissertation at Columbia University, which traced depictions of black women in art from the 19th century to the present day, has now become a groundbreaking museum show, on view at Columbia’s Wallach Art Gallery through February 10 and traveling in expanded form to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris in March. Having seen the show, we can’t wait to hear what she has to say about the many years of research that went into it.
Location: The Art Students League of New York, the Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery, 215 West 57th Street
Price: Free
Time: 6:30 p.m.–8 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Wednesday, January 16
Installation view of “Alinka Echeverría: Fieldnotes” (2018-19). Courtesy of Sara Kay Gallery.
2. “Reimagining the Image: Alinka Echeverría” at the International Center of Photography
In conjunction with her strong solo show on view through February 16 at Sara Kay Gallery (and her 10-year anniversary of graduating from ICP’s school), Alinka Echeverría will give a presentation on Nicephora, her four-year-long project exploring colonialism and the male gaze in the photographic archives of the Musée Nicéphore Niépce in France. Afterward, Echeverría will sit down for an interview with curator Maya Benton, who organized her show.
Location: The International Center of Photography, 250 Bowery
Price: Free
Time: 6:30 p.m.–8 p.m.
—Taylor Dafoe
Wednesday, January 16–Saturday, February 23
Michael Hilsman, “M.” with Laundry (2018). Courtesy of Almine Rech.
3. “Michael Hilsman: Pictures of M. and Other Pictures” at Almine Rech
A mysterious figure, face constantly obscured, haunts many of the colorful paintings in Michael Hilsman’s new show. These possible self portraits, painted with a decided lack of naturalism, border on magical realism as objects seem to float against bright blue skies.
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.
—Tanner West
Thursday, January 17
Liz Collins, Euphoria II. Photo courtesy of Liz Collins.
4. “Textiles, Autobiography, and Art History” at the Dedalus Foundation
Julia Bryan-Wilson, author of FRAY: Art and Textile Politics, which won the 2018 Robert Motherwell Book Award, will talk with artist Liz Collins about “the relationship between text and textiles, [and] making as a form of research.”
Location: The Dedalus Foundation, 25 East 21st Street, 4th Floor
Price: Free with RSVP
Time: 6:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Richard Pettibone, Roy Lichtenstein, ‘Seductive Girl’, 1964, Yellow-Purple (2009). Photo courtesy of FLAG Art Foundation.
5. Richard Pettibone and Glenn Fuhrman in conversation at FLAG Art Foundation
As “Richard Pettibone: Endless Variation” enters its final days—it’s on view though January 19—the 81-year-old appropriation artist, who lives upstate and has been making work inspired by the heart attack he suffered two years ago, will make a rare public appearance in the city, speaking with FLAG founder Glenn Fuhrman.
Location: Flag Art Foundation, 545 West 25th Street
Price: Free with RSVP
Time: 6 p.m.–8 p.m., talk begins at 6:15 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, January 17–Sunday, February 20
Marc Newson, Chair (2017). © Marc Newson. Photo: Jaroslav Kvíz. Courtesy of Gagosian.
6. “Marc Newson” at Gagosian Gallery
This marks the first show of Newson’s limited-edition furniture pieces in more than a decade. Here he revisits his roots as a jeweler and silversmith, while producing unconventionally large-scale pieces including cast-glass chairs, as well as desks, chairs, and lounges covered in traditional Chinese cloisonné that were made by hand in Beijing.
Location: Gagosian Gallery, 522 West 21st Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Eileen Kinsella
Thursday, January 17–Sunday, January 20
Jim Carrey, The Great Spewdini (2018). Image courtesy of Jim Carrey and Maccarone.
7. The Outsider Art Fair at Metropolitan Pavilion
Back for its 27th edition in New York, the Outsider Art Fair boasts 65 exhibitors from 37 cities in 2019, plus an added boost of star power in the form of one Jim Carrey. The movie star, comedian, and artist—who represents an unusual addition to the pantheon of self-taught “outsiders”—is showing his proudly anti-Trump drawings with Maccarone.
Location: Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 West 18th Street
Price: General admission, single day, $27
Time: Thursday, VIP Early Access Preview, 2 p.m.–6 p.m., Vernissage, 6 p.m.–9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m.–8 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, January 17–Sunday, January 27
Maxine Helfman, Forefathers. Photo courtesy of the artist.
8. The Winter Show at the Park Avenue Armory
Formerly the Winter Antiques Show, the Winter Show has long anchored the first major art fair of the year. Last year saw the cancellation of the New York Ceramics and Glass Fair, which would have turned 20 this month, but new director Helen Allen is looking to revitalize the rebranded Winter Show as it celebrates its 65th year. The 68 exhibitors will offer a wide range of art, antiques, and design objects, from Clara Driscoll-designed Tiffany wisteria lamps at New York’s Macklowe Gallery to contemporary photographic works by Maxine Helfman at Philadelphia’s Elle Shushan, which draws attention to US presidents who owned slaves with her series “Forefathers.”
Location: Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Avenue
Price: General admission $25; opening night party $300
Time: Opening night party, 5 p.m.–9 p.m.; Tuesday, 12 p.m.–4:30 p.m.; Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, 12 p.m.–8 p.m.; Sunday and Thursday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.; Young Collectors Night, Thursday, January 24, 7 p.m.–9 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Friday, January 18
Nam June Paik, Fin de Siecle II (1989), installed in “Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art, 1965–2018.” Courtesy of the Whitney Museum of Art.
9. “Programmed: A Conversation with Ben Lerner and Carol Mancusi-Ungaro” at the Whitney Museum of American Art
To further explore the themes propelling “Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art, 1965–2018,” the Whitney’s current exhibition of rules-based works spanning traditional and new media, celebrated author Ben Lerner will chat with Carol Mancusi-Ungaro, the museum’s director of conservation and research. The conversation will center on how an artist’s rules affect the subsequent life and care of a piece, particularly a digitally informed one, vis-à-vis works in the show. If you can’t make it, though, Lerner’s 2016 New Yorker piece on the Whitney’s conservation department is still out there as a consolation prize.
Location: 99 Gansevoort Street, Floor 3, Susan and John Hess Family Gallery and Theater
Price: $10. Tickets available here.
Time: 6:30 p.m.
—Tim Schneider
Through Friday, January 18
House of Trees, “Word on the Street” banner by Anne Carson + Amy Khoshbin, at the Women’s March in Washington DC, 2017. Courtesy of House of Trees.
10. “It is astonishing the lengths to which a person, or a people, will go in order to avoid a truthful mirror” at Project for Empty Space
The nonprofit Newark gallery and artist residency Project for Empty Space has teamed up with For Freedoms for their current group show, which takes its title from James Baldwin’s short story “This Morning, This Evening, So Soon.” The closing celebrations will include a talk on black bodies with exhibiting artists DARNstudio, Dominique Duroseau, and Shaun Leonardo, and a workshop with House of Trees artist Amy Khoshbin where visitors will have the chance to create wearable political art to don at this weekend’s 2019 Women’s March.
Location: Project for Empty Space, 2 Gateway Center, Newark
Price: Free
Time: Closing reception, Wednesday, 6 p.m.–10 p.m.; Monday–Friday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Saturday, January 19
Alfred Neumayr, Eva and Adam (2018). Courtesy of Ricco/Maresca.
11. “Alfred Neumayr: Mythical Creatures” at Ricco/Maresca
Born in 1958, Alfred Neumayr only took up art making in 2005, after quitting the printing job he had held since graduating high school. Now, he creates densely detailed India ink drawings that border on abstractions, but also depict strange mythological creatures from fantastical worlds. The show’s opening reception is dedicated to art dealer Phyllis Kind, a champion of self-taught artists who died in October.
Location: Ricco/Maresca, 529 West 20th Street, Third Floor
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6:30 p.m.–9 p.m.; Tuesday–Friday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Saturday, January 19
Jalal Maghout, Suleima (2014). Film still courtesy of the Queens Museum.
12. “Syrian Films presented by ArteEast” at the Queens Museum
In conjunction with the current exhibition “Executive (Dis)Order: Art, Displacement, & the Ban (Community Partnership Exhibition),” on view through January 19, the Queens Museum is screening two Syrian films. The program kicks off with the 2014 animated short Suleima, by Jalal Maghout, about a woman fighting in the Syrian revolution. The feature is Hala Alabdalla and Ammar Al-Beik’s I Am the One Who Brings Flowers to Her Grave (2006), while there are also unconventional documentaries featuring interviews with three Syrian women.
Location: Queens Museum, New York City Building, second floor, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens
Price: Suggested general admission $8
Time: Animated short, 3 p.m.; feature film, 3:20 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Saturday, January 19–Saturday, February 16
Paul Stephen Benjamin, Black is the Color (Nina Simone) (2015(. Photo courtesy of Marianne Boesky Gallery.
13. “Paul Stephen Benjamin: Pure, Very, New” at Marianne Boesky
Paul Stephen Benjamin gets his first New York solo show with a selection paintings, photographs, sculpture, and single and multi-channel video installations, all done in shades of black. (The artist’s monochromatic practice was inspired by the many different commercially available black colors, each with their own evocative names.) The exhibition is presented across Marianne Boesky’s two West 24th Street locations, with a new site-specific black light installation connecting the two galleries though a narrow internal corridor.
Location: Marianne Boesky Gallery, 509 and 507 West 24th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Saturday, January 26
Max Kozloff, Creatures From the Orange Lagoon (2002). Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery.
14. “Max Kozloff: The Atmospherics of Interruption” at DC Moore Gallery
Art critic Max Kozloff has shown his photographs at New York’s Higher Pictures and Steven Kasher Gallery over the years, but this is his first-ever painting exhibition. Each canvas is heavily influenced by Kozloff’s severe hearing disability, and his belief that colors and brushwork are imbued with auditory qualities.
Location: DC Moore Gallery, 535 West 22nd Street
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Sunday, January 27
Dick Briefer, Frankenstein, no. 10, New York: Prize Comics, Nov.-Dec. (1947). © First Classics, Inc. Used with permission by Trajectory, Inc.
15. “It’s Alive! Frankenstein at 200” at the Morgan Library & Museum
Take a deep dive into the cultural phenomenon that is Frankenstein, from the Gothic-steeped Victorian society in which author and creator Mary Shelley grew up, to the famed monster’s many incarnations in film, stage, and comics. Highlights include a massive nine-sheet movie poster and some of Shelley’s personal manuscripts.
Location: The Morgan Museum and Library, 225 Madison Avenue at East 36th Street
Price: General admission $20
Time: Tuesday–Thursday, 10:30 a.m.–5 p.m.; Friday, 10:30 a.m.–9 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Thursday, February 21
Josh Silber, Fin de Siglo. Photo courtesy of Josh Silber.
16. “Josh Silber – Havana: Faded Glory” at FXCollaborative Architects
Between 2015 and 2017, Josh Silber took multiple trips to Cuba. A solo show presents photographs capturing the island nation’s crumbling beauty, such as the former luxury department store Fin de Siglo, now a shadow of its former self, vintage signage, and classic cars.
Location: FXCollaborative Architects, West 19th Street, 11th Floor
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone