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

Monday, July 1

Alvin Loving, Septehedron 34 (1970). Courtesy of the Estate of Al Loving and Garth Greenan Gallery, NY.

1. “Interactions of Color: Alex Da Corte & David Breslin in Conversation” at the Whitney Museum

Alex Da Corte, a painter whose large-scale installations are colorful, humorous, and (naturally) “spill over” from the traditional square canvas, speaks with curator David Breslin about the exhibition “Spilling Over: Painting Color in the 1960s.”

Location: The Whitney Museum, 99 Gansevoort Street, 8th floor
Price: $10 for adults (tickets are required)
Time: 7 p.m.

—Caroline Goldstein

Tuesday, July 2

Matilda Aslizadeh, Moly and Cassandra (2018). Photo courtesy of the artist.

2. “Artists at Work: Matilda Aslizadeh and belit sağ” at the International Studio & Curatorial Program

Two current ISCP residents, Matilda Aslizadeh and belit sağ, will offer a window into their artistic practice with presentations on the writing, research, and other preparatory work behind their video installations. Aslizadeh will screen her 2018 piece Moly and Kassandra, while sağ will share her writing and research for an in-progress work, Der L.

Location: International Studio & Curatorial Program, 1040 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn
Price: Free
Time: 6:30 p.m.–8 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Tuesday, July 2–Saturday, July 13

Miss Meatface, featured in EDEN at SPRING/BREAK 2019, presented by The Untitled Space.

3. “Miss Meatface” at Untitled Space

The artist Kat Toronto, known as Miss Meatface, will be at the gallery on Tuesday for a zine signing and artist talk to kick off her solo show at the Untitled Space. The London-based artist works in a variety of media, including photography, ceramics, and zines, which question the ideals of feminine beauty, and the insidiousness of societal expectations, something she experienced personally after battling cervical cancer.

Location: Untitled Space, 45 Lispenard Street, Unit 1W
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Nan Stewert

Friday, July 5

Artist Oliver Beer invites musicians to write and perform music for a series of intimate concerts on the Vessel Orchestra, an instrument composed of 32 hollow objects in The Met collection.

4. “Oliver Beer: Vessel Orchestra Live Performance” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Artist Oliver Beer’s live performance is kicking off the debut of the Met’s first-ever sound-based installation (which opens Tuesday, July 2), featuring musicians who will play music by John Cage and Philip Glass, among others. The compositions will activate 32 objects Beer has selected from the Museum collection for their sonic properties.

Location: The Met Breuer, 945 Madison Avenue, Floor 5
Price: Free with museum admission ($25)
Time: 6:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m.

—Tanner West

Friday, July 5

Brendan Fernandes, The Master and Form 2018. Image courtesy the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago. Photograph by Brendan Leo Merea.

5. “Brendan Fernandes: Master and Form” at the Whitney Museum

If you haven’t made it to the Whitney Biennial yet, do yourself a favor and check out Brendan Fernandes’s balletic performance while you’re there. An installation of “devices” like ropes and a cage-like structure are the props for a suite of dancers who perform endurance-testing movements that have roots in S&M culture.

Location: The Whitney Museum, 99 Gansevoort Street, 8th floor
Price: Free with museum admission ($25)
Time: Performances (held on Fridays through July and August) 5 p.m.–9 p.m.

—Caroline Goldstein

Through Friday, July 5

Marcia Resnick, Klaus Nomi (1982). (R): Tseng Kwong Chi, Lifeguard Ball Wildwood New Jersey, 1981 (1981). Courtesy of Johannes Vogt.

6. “Summer of ’82” at Johannes Vogt

A group show curated by Dan Cameron features artists like Tseng Kwong Chi, David Wojnarowicz, Martin Wong, and Marcia Resnick, all of whom were an active part of the burgeoning Lower East Side art scene in the early 1980s. Viewed with the hindsight of today, the show contends that the summer of ’82 could in fact have been the last gasp of the sexual revolution, as the AIDS crisis was gaining momentum.

Location: Johannes Vogt Gallery, 958 Madison Avenue
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Caroline Goldstein

Through Friday, July 12 

Installation view of “PATIO” by Nick Atkins. Image courtesy Procell.

7. “PATIO: Nick Atkins” at Procell

With his whimsical paintings, nature-inspired sculptural works, furniture, and jewelry, mixed-media artist Nick Atkins has transformed Procell, a Lower East Side vintage shop and gallery, into a tranquil haven, away from the busy streets of New York. “I wanted PATIO to be a pleasant pause away from the grind and the noise and the pressures of the city,” he says. “A nap in the garden.” On view for two weeks, the show explores Atkins’s fascinations with personal and historical mythology, New York nostalgia, and daydreams.  

Location: Procell, 5 Delancey Street
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 12 p.m.–7 p.m.

—Noor Brara

Through Friday, July 26

Caitlin Keogh, Study for Hands (After Dante Gabriel Rossetti), 2019. Courtesy of Magenta Plains.

8. “A Detached Hand” at Magenta Plains

As Bastille Day approaches we can take a moment to consider the legacy of the guillotine with this exhibition full of unattached limbs, ears, hands, and the like. Centering on imagery of corporeal fragmentation and its meaning, this fourteen-artist show’s curatorial inspiration comes from Linda Nochlin’s 1994 essay “The Body in Pieces: The Fragment as a Metaphor of Modernity,” which posited that the visual breaking apart of the figure is a symptom of modernity. Here this visual trope is out to a fascinating variety of ends, from the fetishistic in Hans Bellmer’s prop-like female forms to the spiritual in Caitlin Keogh’s divinely rendered floating hands, with many, many others along the way.

Location: Magenta Plains, 94 Allen Street
Price: Free
Time: Wednesday–Sunday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Katie White

Through Sunday, July 21

Anna Slama & Marek Delong, Andromeda. Image courtesy CATBOX Contemporary.

9. “Andromeda: Anna Slama and Marek Delong” at CATBOX Contemporary

It’s official: The most unique art space in New York City—is a cat tree. Founded in 2017 by artist Philip Hinge, this multi-level, “2-room,” sculptural canvas is transformed by the works of emerging and established artists. This time, it’s the enchanted installations of Czech artist duo Anna Slama and Marek Delong, cohabiting with resident feline, Lolita.

Location: CATBOX Contemporary, Ridgewood, New York (direct message @catboxcontemporary on Instagram for address)
Price: Free
Time: By appointment

—Cristina Cruz

Through Sunday, July 28

Augusta Savage, Portrait Head of John Henry (circa 1940). Photo courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the John Axelrod Collection—Frank B. Bemis Fund, Charles H. Bayley Fund, and the Heritage Fund for a Diverse Collection.

10. “Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman” at the New-York Historical Society

A leader of the  Harlem Renaissance, the artist, activist, and arts educator Augusta Savage (1892–1962) was undeterred by the challenges of poverty, racism, and sexual discrimination. The New-York Historical Society presents over 50 works of art and archival materials, by Savage as well as some of the younger artists she inspired, including Jacob Lawrence (1917–2000), Gwendolyn Knight (1913–2005), and Norman Lewis (1901–1979).

Location: New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West at Richard Gilder Way (West 77th Street)
Price: $21 general admission
Time: Tuesday–Thursday and Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m.–8 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Through Sunday, August 4

Mathew Cerletty, Neocon (2005). Courtesy of the artist.

11. “L’IM_MAGE_N” at Ashes/Ashes 

A group show curated by artist Timothy Hull that takes on the meaning of the word “image.” With work by artists Gina Beavers, Graham Anderson, Matthew Cerletty, Gregory Edwards, Anya Kielar, and Chason Matthews, the show questions what and how an image—of an object, or idea—is related to its meaning, if at all.

Location: Ashes/Ashes, 56 Eldridge Street
Price: Free
Time: Wednesday–Sunday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.

—Tanner West

Through Friday, August 16

John Edmonds, Face as Mask II, 2018. Courtesy of the artist and Company Gallery.

12. “Studio Photography: 1887–2019” at Simon Lee

Stretching from early pioneers Eadweard Muybridge and Man Ray to contemporary boundary-pushers like Talia Chetrit and Paul Mpagi Sepuya, this exhibition manages the remarkable feat of unfurling a history of studio-focused photography practice inside the single floor of Simon Lee’s Upper East Side townhouse space. Crucially, though, the tight curation underscores that artists who choose to contain their work within their studios are not necessarily disengaging from salient cultural or personal issues, as the works on view explore gender, sexuality, and representation just as nimbly as they do form, composition, and art history.

Location: 26 East 64th Street, Second Floor
Price: Free
Time: Monday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Tim Schneider