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

Monday, July 8

Mallory Catlett’s DECODER: Ticket That Exploded. Courtesy of Pioneer Works.

1. “DECODER: Ticket That Exploded” at Pioneer Works

Mallory Catlett of the theater organization Restless NYC has directed a new live performance inspired by the second book in William Burroughs’s “Nova Trilogy.” Expect a psychedelic, alien-fueled nightmare.

Location: Pioneer Works, 159 Pioneer Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn
Price: $10 advance tickets, $15 at the door
Time: Doors at 8 p.m., performance at 9 p.m.

—Nan Stewert

Tuesday, July 8–Friday, September 6

Jordan Bennett, Tepkik (2018). Photo courtesy of Brookfield Place.

2. “Jordan Bennett: Tepkik” at Brookfield Place

Canadian artist Jordan Bennett draws on his Mi’kmaq—a First Nations tribe—heritage in Tepkik, a suspended sculptural installation at Brookfield Place. The name means “night” in Mi’kmag, and the piece is inspired by the Milky Way, colorful images drawn from traditional Native American imagery printed on contemporary materials such as the reflective vinyl affixed to aluminum road signs.

Location: Brookfield Place, 230 Vesey Street
Price: Free
Time: 8 a.m.–10 p.m.

—Tanner West

Wednesday, July 10

“Unexpected Pairings” will introduce the newest beer from Brooklyn Brewery. Image courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York.

3. “1001 Nights: Introducing Brooklyn Brewery’s New Beer” at the Museum of the City of New York

The art of brewing takes center stage at the Museum of the City of New York this week as part of the institution’s “Unexpected Pairings” summer tasting event series, hosted by Edible Manhattan editor-in-chief Ariel Lauren Wilson. She’ll speak with Brooklyn Brewery brew master Garrett Oliver and Ethan Frisch, co-founder of single origin spice company Burlap & Barrel, about teaming up on a new Middle Eastern-inspired beer, 1001 Nights, featuring ground black lime and cardamom. The evening will end with a beer tasting on the museum terrace, paired with a surprise serving from local bakery Amy’s Bread.

Location: Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue at East 103rd Street
Price: $20
Time: 7 p.m.–9 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Wednesday, July 10–Friday, August 9

Howardena Pindell, Autobiography: India (Shiva, Ganges) (2019). Courtesy of Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York.

4. “Painting/Sculpture” at Marianne Boesky Gallery

Marianne Boesky Gallery kicks off the summer season with a group show by artists such as Jennifer Bartlett, Gina Beavers, Lynda Benglis, Sheila Hicks, and Frank Stella. The works in this exhibition may be three-dimensional sculptures, but, according to the gallery, can be “understood intrinsically as paintings, as well as two-dimensional works that create the illusion of volume and layers.”

Location: Marianne Boesky Gallery, 509 West 24th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Neha Jambhekar

Thursday, July 11 – Friday, August 9

Gerald Lovell, Kiante and Charletta (2019). Courtesy of P.P.O.W.

5. Do You Love Me? at P.P.O.W. 

Forget summer romance, it’s more a crisis of devotion that’s at the heart of this show of emerging artists, which centers on the inherent imbalance of power between those seeking love and those able to provide it. The slippery threshold between public and private selves, along with the perhaps ill-fated desire for societal validation, are the contemporary realities around which these artists create. The effects can be as intimate as they are entreating, as is the case with both Kyle Vu-Dunn’s paradisaical depictions of men and Gerald Lovell’s heavily impastoed, but snapshot-like portraits. The opening will also include a reading by artist, writer, and self-proclaimed “political dominatrix” Reba Maybury.

Location: P.P.O.W., 535 West 22nd Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m., Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Katie White

Wednesday, July 10–Friday, August 16

Max Colby, Hotbed I (2018). Courtesy of Jane Lombard Gallery.

6. “A Body of Work” at Jane Lombard Gallery

For its summer group show, Jane Lombard Gallery has enlisted Shehab Awad to curate a selection of drawings, collages, and sculptures by Julia Brandão, Max Colby, Margaux Crump, Anneli Goeller, Juan Neira, and Ryan Wilde. Each of the works reference the body and incorporate textiles, such as Brandão’s collages which are often made from clothing she cut off her own body during performances.

Location: Jane Lombard Gallery, 518 West 19th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Thursday, July 11

Emily Kiacz, Ribbon Dancer (2019). Photo courtesy of Arisohn and Murphy.

7. “These Times Are Racing” with Arisohn + Murphy at Highline Nine Gallery

Eight New York-based artists participate in this exhibition with a range of representational and abstract works that variously address the way the female body is represented in popular culture. The gallery’s proceeds from the exhibition will be donated to the ACLU and the Yellowhammer Fund. An optimistic, resilient tone characterizes the exhibition with standout works by Amanda Wachob who merges tattooing and painting, and Angela Santana who reconfigures illicit images from the internet into canvases with Futurist and Cubist undertones that can be at times reminiscent of Tamara de Lempicka. 

Location: Highline Nine Gallery, 507 West 27th Street, Gallery 5
Price: Free
Time: Thursday, 5 p.m—8 p.m. By appointment through August. 

—Katie White

Neil deGrasse Tyson, Manhattanhenge (2001). Photo ©Neil deGrasse Tyson, courtesy of the American Museum of Natural History.

8. “Manhattanhenge” at the American Museum of Natural History

The weather was terrible during the most recent Manhattanhenge in May, but New York City doesn’t sit facing perfectly north-south, so the city’s inhabitants will have another chance to see the sun set along the Manhattan street grid post-solstice this week, on Friday at 8:20 p.m. and Saturday at 8:21 p.m. To prepare for the increasingly beloved phenomena, head to the American Museum of Natural History—where Neil deGrasse Tyson coined the name—to hear astrophysicist Jackie Faherty given a special presentation on the history and astronomy behind this bi-annual occurrence.

Location: The American Museum of Natural History, Hayden Planetarium Space Theater in the Rose Center for Earth and Space, West 81st Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue
Price: $15
Time: 7 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Rainer Ganahl’s “Please Teach Me Chinese, Please Teach Me Italian – Marx a Prato, Gucci a Prato.” Courtesy of the artist.

9. Rainer Ganahl’s “Please, Teach Me Chinese / Please, Teach Me Italian — Marx a Prato / Gucci a Prato” at MX Gallery 

Artist Rainer Ganahl updates his “Commes des Marxists” fashion show, which first appeared at White Columns in 2013, at lower Manhattan’s MX Gallery. The fashion performance, which features clothing printed with Chinese and Italian text, was originally slated to appear in the Italian city of Prato, which is home to a large population of migrant Chinese workers. But museum officials interrupted the show after discovering that Ganahl’s work highlighted the sometimes violent clashes between the city’s Chinese and Italian populations. Now, Ganahl is reprising the work for one night at a gallery that’s fittingly situated in a part of Chinatown that was previously known as Little Italy.

Location: MX Gallery, 167 Canal Street, fifth floor
Price: Free
Time: 8 p.m.

—Rachel Corbett

Thursday, July 11–August 10

Paula Gately Tillman, Nelson Sullivan (1986). Photo courtesy of Fales Library, New York University.

10. “A Look Back: 50 Years After Stonewall” at Fort Gansevoort

Add another one to your list of Stonewall anniversary exhibitions: Fort Gansevoort’s group show featuring artists including Barbara Hammer, Harmony Hammond, Lyle Ashton Harris, Peter Hujar, David Wojnarowicz, and Martin Wong takes a look at the work of queer New York City artists from the time of the original 1969 uprising into the early 1980s. Curators Lucy Beni and Adam Shopkorn have also included protest buttons and other ephemera from the era, as well as documentation of the Gay Liberation movement.

Location: Fort Gansevoort, 5 Ninth Avenue
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Thursday, July 11–Sunday, August 25

Photo by Brent Stirton, Phundundu Wildlife Area, Zimbabwe, June 2018. Courtesy of Getty Images.

11. “2019 World Press Photo Exhibition” at 10 Corso Como Gallery

This annual award for the best images in the past year of visual journalism is widely considered the world’s leading competition for press photographers, photojournalists, and documentary photographers. This year, the contest attracted 4,738 photographers from 129 countries. An independent jury of photography professionals, including Whitney Johnson from National Geographic and Paul Moakley from TIME, selected 43 photographers from 25 countries across eight categories.

Location: 10 Corso Como Gallery, 1 Fulton Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.

—Eileen Kinsella

Thursday, July 11–Saturday, September 7

Courtesy of Praxis

12. “Lucia Fainzilber: The Cookbook” at Praxis 

Calling all foodies! This Thursday, Praxis will host an interactive reception celebrating the opening of Lucia Fainzilber’s solo show, “The Cookbook.” Aligning with the exhibition’s theme of food as fetish, visitors will have the opportunity to arrange and photograph their own edible compositions.

Location: Praxis, 501 West 20th Street
Price: Free
Time:  6 p.m–8 p.m.   

—Cristina Cruz

Thursday, July 11–Saturday, October 12

Trevor Paglen, Symbology, Volume IV (detail) (2013). Courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures, New York.

13. “The Watchers” at the 8th Floor

The warped rules of privacy define key contours of contemporary life, and artists have been at the forefront of the movement to make these perversions visible and visceral. Enter “The Watchers.” Featuring works by Vito Acconci, American Artist, Trevor Paglen, and others, the exhibition illuminates how much of what should be publicly known has become increasingly concealed, while much of what should be kept personal has become increasingly accessible to authorities, corporations, and the world at large. If you leave feeling secure, you probably spent too much time on your phone (which, of course, is a big part of how we got into this mess).

Location: The 8th Floor, 17 West 17th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Normal hours, Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Tim Schneider

Thursday, July 11–Friday, November 8

Carmen Herrera “Angulo Rojo” at Art Basel. Photo by Harold Cunningham/Getty Images.

14. “Carmen Herrera: Estructuras Monumentales” at City Hall Park

Public Art Fund’s latest project brings 104-year-old artist Carmen Herrera’s geometric sculptures to City Hall Park. The large-scale forms, painted in vibrant monochromes, show off Herrera’s training as an architect, and mark the first major outdoor exhibition of her work.

Location: City Hall Park, Broadway & Chambers Streets
Price: Free
Time: Open Monday–Sunday, through midnight

—Caroline Goldstein

Saturday, July 13

The Parrish Art Museum’s Midsummer Party 2018. Photo courtesy of BFA.

15. “Midsummer Party 2019” at the Parrish Art Museum

A favorite annual event on the Hamptons art circuit, this year’s Midsummer Party at the Parrish Art Museum honors artist and architect Maya Lin and collectors and philanthropists Louise and Leonard Riggio, founder of Barnes & Noble. Olivier Cheng Catering and Events is serving dinner on the museum’s terrace, with DJ Alice Longyu Gao handling the tunes at the after party. Guests can also enjoy the current exhibitions “Perspectives: Natural Views, Renate Aller and Jean-Luc Mylayne” and “Thomas Joshua Cooper: Refuge.”

Location: Parrish Art Museum, 279 Montauk Highway, Water Mill
Price: Dinner from $500, after party $150
Time: Dinner 6:30 p.m.–10 p.m.; after party, 10 p.m.–1 a.m.

—Sarah Cascone

“Brazilian Modern: The Living Art of Roberto Burle Marx” at the New York Botanical Garden. Photo courtesy of the New York Botanical Garden.

16. “Brazilian Modern After Hours” at the New York Botanical Garden

For four nights this summer the New York Botanical Garden is staying open late to give visitors after-hours access to “Brazilian Modern: The Living Art of Roberto Burle Marx” (through September 29). The institution’s largest-ever botanical exhibition celebrates the landscape architect’s brand of tropical Modernism, creating a lush garden inspired by his colorful designs in the garden conservatory, as well as showcasing his artworks in its library. In honor of the exhibition, the garden is hosting a Brazilian-style food truck, and is selling two varieties of the country’s national drink, the caipirinha, one made with vodka, the other with the traditional cachaça. At this Saturday’s event, Italian-Brazilian seven-string guitarist Cesar Garabini will play Choro music, the sonic ancestor of better-known Brazilian genres Samba and Bossa Nova.

Location: The New York Botanical Garden, 2900 Southern Boulevard, the Bronx
Price: $28
Time: 6 p.m.–8 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Ana Paula Ruiz Galindo and Mecky Reuss of Pedro & Juana, Hórama Rama. Photo courtesy of MoMA PS1.

17. Warm Up at MoMA PS1

This week’s lineup for PS1’s summer music series, which turns 21 this year, features DJ Blass, Equinknoxx, Mark Ernestus, Santi, Mina, BAD GYAL, Ms Nina, and Lil C. In addition to the tunes, there are drinks for sale, and it all takes place in front of the backdrop of Hórama Rama—this year’s Young Architects Program winner—by Ana Paula Ruiz Galindo and Mecky Reuss of Pedro & Juana. A massive jungle cyclorama towers above the museum courtyard, with colorful hammocks and a functioning waterfall below.

Location: MoMA PS1, 22-25 Jackson Avenue, Queens
Price: $18 advance tickets, $22 at the door
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Sunday, July 14

At Council; Found Peace collaborative performance as part of Queens Museum Jerome Foundation Emerging Artist Fellow Alexandria Smith’s “Monuments to an Effigy,” featuring Liz Gré, Maurisa Mansaray, and Smith. Photo courtesy of the Queens Museum.

18. “On Memorials – Alternatives & Futures: Public Programs Series” at the Queens Museum

It’ll be a busy afternoon at the Queens Museum with programming from Alexandria Smith, the Queens Museum Jerome Foundation emerging artist fellow, and Lachell Workman, an artist in the museum’s studio program. Workman kicks off the day with an open studio talk, followed by a performance of At Council, Found Peace, a new composition featuring cello, soprano, and spoken voice by composer Liz Gré, for Smith’s current exhibition at the museum, “Monuments to an Effigy.”

Location: Queens Museum, New York City Building, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens
Price: $8 suggested donation
Time: 2:30 p.m.–5 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

The City Reliquary Presents: Collectors’ Night 2019. Image courtesy of the City Reliquary.

19. “The City Reliquary Presents: Collectors’ Night 2019” at the Bell House

One of New York City’s most unique institutions, the City Reliquary, returns for its 14th annual Collectors’ Night, inviting collectors of all stripes to showcase their prized possessions for one night only. You can go to gawk, or apply to bring your personal collection to the event—the tiny storefront museum insists that “no criterion is too broad, no specialty too specific.”

Location: The Bell House, 149 7th Street, Gowanus, Brooklyn
Price: $30 advance tickets, $35 at the door
Time: 6 p.m.–9 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Through Monday, July 15

Steven Parrino, Death in America No 6 (2003). © Steven Parrino. Image courtesy of Skarstedt, New York.

20. “Steven Parrino: Paintings and Drawings” at Skarstedt Gallery

It’s your last chance to catch this much-lauded show of work by the late Steven Parrino, the artist’s first solo New York show since 2007. The artist, who died in a motorcycle accident in 2005, was known for pushing the boundaries of what a painting could be—often tearing, slashing, and transforming his materials—as well as for his association with the punk rock scene in the 1980s, when he first started attracting attention. Skarstedt has been acquiring the artist’s work since 2008 and this show marks the artist’s debut solo exhibition at the gallery .

Location: Skarstedt Gallery, 19 East 64th Street
Price: Free
Time: Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

—Eileen Kinsella