Each week, we search New York City for the most exciting and thought-provoking, shows, screenings, and events. See them below.
Monday, January 7
Fans of the Harry Potter books in line outside the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh in 2017, waiting to see a rare copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone filled with personal notes and drawings by its author, J.K. Rowling. Photo by Neil Hanna/AFP/Getty Images.
1. “Growing Up With Harry Potter” at the New-York Historical Society
As part of the extensive programming for its current blockbuster, “Harry Potter: A History of Magic” (on view through January 27), the New-York Historical Society is hosting an open mic for professional and amateur storytellers alike. Enjoy wine and cheese as you listen to tales of growing up as a fan of the beloved Harry Potter series.
Location: The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West
Price: $35 general admission
Time: 7 p.m.–9 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Wednesday, January 9–Saturday, February 16
Brian Rochefort, Extinction and Tulipe (both 2018). Courtesy of the artist and Van Doren Waxter.
2. “Brian Rochefort: 2030” at Van Doren Waxter
Ceramicist Brian Rochefort’s new suite of crater-like vessels are dropping into Van Doren Waxter’s Upper East Side gallery next week, looking like something straight out of 2030, as the show’s title suggests. Included in the show is Tulipe, one of his largest sculptures to date: a toxic green coated mass with streaks of glitter, pigment seeping out of its cracks.
Location: Van Doren Waxter, 23 East 73rd Street, 2nd Floor
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception on Wednesday, January 9, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Caroline Goldstein
Thursday, January 10
Hank Willis Thomas, All Things Being Equal (2018). Courtesy of Aperture.
3. “Brooklyn Talks: Hank Willis Thomas” at the Brooklyn Museum
Timed to the publication of his new book from Aperture, All Things Being Equal, and his participation in the Brooklyn Museum exhibition “Something to Say: Brooklyn Hi-Art! Machine, Deborah Kass, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, and Hank Willis Thomas” (through June 30), Hank Willis Thomas talks with author, art historian, and curator Kellie Jones.
Location: The Brooklyn Musuem, 200 Eastern Parkway
Price: $16
Time: 7 p.m.–9 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, January 10–Saturday, February 16
James Welling, Julia Mamaea (2018). © James Welling. Courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner.
4. “James Welling: Transform” at David Zwirner
James Welling returns to Zwirner’s uptown space this month for his eighth show with the gallery with three newer bodies of work, all of which find him experimenting with unconventional photographic methods.
Location: David Zwirner, 34 East 69th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception on Thursday, January 10, 5–7 p.m; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Taylor Dafoe
Thursday, January 10–Saturday, February 16
Oliver Jeffers, For All We Know (2018). Courtesy of Bryce Wolkowitz.
5. “For All We Know: Oliver Jeffers” at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery
Oliver Jeffers’s sci-fi tinged oil paintings confront the vastness of the ocean and the night sky, his figures of astronauts and deep-sea divers imbued with a sense of existential loneliness. The works contrast the overwhelming desire for human connection and to make sense of the world with the unknowable nature of our potentially infinite universe.
Location: Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery, 505 West 24th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception on Thursday, January 10, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, January 10–Saturday, February 9
Sandow Birk, The Triumph of Fear (2016). Courtesy PPOW.
6. “Sandow Birk: Triumph of Hate” at PPOW
America in violent ruin: that’s the theme of Sandow Birk’s latest paintings and prints at PPOW gallery. Charged with the lunacy of our political situation, these new works depict school shootings, murderous confrontations, and Donald Trump as a fattened Rabelaisian clown. The most technically impressive work in the show is a woodblock that’s nearly 40 feet long, showing the lead up to a dramatic battle between two groups, one marching with the flag of California, the other with a Confederate banner.
Location: PPOW, 535 West 22nd Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception on Thursday, January 10, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Pac Pobric
Through Friday, January 11
Installation view of George Condo’s work on view in “Bacon’s Women,” alongside a work by the British artist. Photo courtesy of Ordovas.
7. “Bacon’s Women” at Ordovas
Even if already you’ve seen “Bacon’s Women,” the first US show to focus on Francis Bacon’s depictions of women, it’s worth a trip back during the show’s last week. After American artist George Condo visited, he was so inspired by Bacon’s portrait of British artist and artists’ model Isabel Rawsthorne that he painted his own version of the work in response. It’s now been added to the show, highlighting Bacon’s continued influence on contemporary figurative painting.
Location: Ordovas, 9 East 77th Street
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Friday, January 11–Sunday, February 17
Sarah Irvin, Infant Feeding Log (2018), detail. Courtesy of Massey Klein.
8. “The End & the Beginning: Alice Gibney, Sarah Irvin” at Massey Klein Gallery
In their two person show, Alice Gibney and Sarah Irvin present works on paper grappling with the heavy themes of life and death—Gibney’s charcoal, colored pencil, and ink drawings were inspired by the death of a loved one, while Irvin carefully documented her infant daughter’s breastfeeding sessions in data-filled graphite drawings, which together take the form of a card catalogue.
Location: Massey Klein Gallery, 124 Forsyth Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception on Friday, January 11, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Wednesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Friday, January 11–Saturday, March 2
Roman Cochet, Untitled (2018). Photo by Joerg Lohse. Image courtesy of Alexander and Bonin, New York.
9. “Roman Cochet: A dog named Robòt” at Alexander and Bonin
The title of the show, which is the artist’s first at the gallery, is inspired by the animal who first discovered the Lascaux cave paintings—a dog named Robòt. During the summer of 1940, four children were exploring the woods of Montignac in Southern France when their dog trotted ahead and found a hole in the ground that led to the prehistoric cave paintings.The artist takes a temporal leap in a “post-human future,” according to the gallery. The paintings depict trippy, expertly rendered scenes from which humans seem to have disappeared.
Location: Alexander and Bonin, 47 Walker Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Eileen Kinsella
Friday, January 11–Saturday, February 16
Claudia Comte, Curves and Corners (2017). Photo: Lance Gerber. Courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery, NY and Brussels.
10. “Claudia Comte: The Morphing Scallops” at Gladstone Gallery
Although best known as a sculptor, artist Claudia Comte is having her first exhibition devoted solely to her painting and drawing practice at Gladstone’s West 24 Street outpost. The artist is taking over the entire gallery, which she will transform into a massive canvas for site-specific wall-drawings.
Location: Gladstone Gallery, 515 West 24th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception on Friday, January 11, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Caroline Goldstein
Saturday, January 12–Wednesday, February 13
Edwin Schlossberg, Measure Humanity by Ecosystem Health (2018). Photo by Vince Ruvolo. Courtesy the artist and Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York.
11. “Assignments and Earlier Works: Edwin Schlossberg” at Ronald Feldman Gallery
In his 14th show at the gallery since 1978—his first New York show in seven years—Edwin Schlossberg is showcasing his wide range, including some never-before-seen early works. Not only does he design interactive museum exhibitions—his latest effort will grace the new Statue of Liberty Museum when it opens in May—he also directed an art film featuring Andy Warhol and collaborated with Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg.
Location: Ronald Feldman Gallery, 31 Mercer Street
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Saturday, January 12–Saturday, February 23
Jen Catron and Paul Outlaw, In the Future the Past Will Be Different (Part 2), 2016. Image courtesy of Postmasters.
12. “Jen Catron and Paul Outlaw: An Idea of God, or a Toothbrush” at Postmasters
To paraphrase David Byrne, these days you may find yourself asking, “How did we get here?” And, like, a lot. To try to answer that question, artist duo Jen Catron and Paul Outlaw will fill their second exhibition at Postmasters with sculptures that investigate how absurd-on-their-face ideas get normalized into acceptance. Actual cults, political conspiracy theories, and international scandals are addressed in miniature, while lighter but no less surreal images take monumental form. Come for the giant ice cream chocolate fountain, stay for the creeping realization that, no matter the subject or the stakes, we’re all a little mad.
Location: Postmasters, 54 Franklin Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception on Saturday, January 12, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m. Thursday hours extended to 8 p.m.
—Tim Schneider
Saturday, January 12
The Ice House in Garrison, New York. Photo courtesy JDJ.
13. “Zoe Nelson” at JDJ
This show of paintings by Zoe Nelson, a Brooklyn-based painter trained at Columbia University (on view through January 20), is especially notable for its curious location: in a former industrial building about 50 miles outside New York City. The new space, which is run by Jayne Drost Johnson, will host exhibitions of works by Athena LaTocha and the art duo Mark Barrow and Sarah Parke lter this year.
Location: JDJ, the Ice House, 17 Mandalay Drive, Garrison
Price: Free
Time: Reception from 12 p.m.–2 p.m.
—Pac Pobric
Through Sunday, January 13
Blanket, Index Collection, 2012; designed by Raw Color, the Netherlands. Photo courtesy of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.
14. “Saturated: The Allure and Science of Color” at the Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
Will the government shutdown end this week? If Democrats and President Donald Trump can make a deal, you’ll have one last chance to see this ode to color theory and how it has been used by designers across the centuries at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum.
Location: Cooper Hewitt, 2 East 91st Street
Price: $18 general admission
Time: Sunday–Friday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.–9 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Sunday, February 17
Marlon Mullen, untitled (2018). Courtesy the artist and JTT.
15. “Marlon Mullen: 2017–2018” at JTT
Marlon Mullen’s uses the covers of art periodicals, found photographs, and lifestyle magazines as a basis for his paintings, though the text is obscured and the images are fractured. The artist is largely nonverbal, and his paintings serve as a large part of his communication; he is based in San Francisco, and is part of the progressive studio practice organization NIAD.
Location: JTT, 191 Chrystie Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception on Sunday, January 6, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Wednesday–Sunday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Caroline Goldstein