Each week, we search for the most exciting and thought-provoking shows, screenings, and events, both digitally and in-person in the New York area. See our picks from around the world below. (Times are all ET unless otherwise noted.)
Monday, June 27–Friday, July 29
Dorika, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo © Finbarr O’Reilly for Fondation Carmignac / ICC
A survivor of rape in conflict, Dorika, now 18, makes and sells clothes for a living. She plans to save enough money to buy her own small plot of land to build a home for herself and her daughter.
1. “Life After Conflict: Stories as Told to ICC Outreach by Survivors of the World’s Worst Crimes” at the United Nations, New York
The series “Life After Conflict” shares some of the stories witnessed by outreach staff of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and documented through the lenses of photographers Rena Effendi, Pete Muller, and Finbarr O’Reilly. The exhibition spans five countries—the Central African Republic, the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Georgia, and the Republic of Uganda. Among the common threads and themes are home and land, what is lost when one is displaced by conflict, family and connection, and leadership and support.
Location: United Nations headquarters, visitors’ lobby, First Avenue at 46th Street, New York.
Price: Free
Time: Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m.
—Eileen Kinsella
Tuesday, June 28–Thursday, June 30
Paul Maheke, A fire circle for a public hearing (2018), installation view, at Chisenhale Gallery, London. Photo by Mark Blower, courtesy of High Line Art, New York.
2. “Paul Maheke: A Fire Circle for a Public Hearing” at the High Line, New York
French sculptor, performance, installation, and video artist Paul Maheke presents A fire circle for a public hearing, a performance about the formation of history, memory, and identity, in the U.S. for the first time. Performers Morgan “Emme” Bryant, Lucy Hollier, and Rafaelle Kennibol-Cox will channel various identities in the politically engaged work, which considers the body’s ability to act as a personal and historical archive.
Location: High Line at 14th Street, New York
Price: Free, RSVP encouraged
Time: 7 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Wednesday, June 29
Steven Evans, Songs for a Memorial (2020–22). Photo courtesy of the New York City AIDS Memorial.
3. “Dance for a Memorial” at AIDS Memorial Park, New York
At the beginning of Pride Month, the New York City AIDS Memorial unveiled Steven Evans’s Songs of a Memorial (through September 6), adorning the permanent monument with 12 text-based, polychromatic, LED sculptures. To celebrate the close of the month-long celebration, DJ Lady Bunny and DJ Lina Bradford will lead a silent disco at the site—just leave an ID or a credit card for a free set of headphones.
Location: AIDS Memorial Park, St. Vincent’s Triangle, 76 Greenwich Avenue, New York
Price: Free
Time: 7 p.m.–9 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Tuesday, June 28–Tuesday, June 27, 2023
Fred Wilson, Mind Forged Manacle/Manacle Forged Minds, rendering. Image courtesy of Fred Wilson and More Art.
4. “Mind Forged Manacles/Manacle Forged Minds” at Columbus Park, Brooklyn
Fred Wilson presents his first-ever large-scale public sculpture, a 10-foot-tall fence installation featuring decorative ironwork and statues of African figures. A project with More Art and the Downtown Brooklyn and Dumbo Art Fund with New York City’s Art in the Parks program, the gates in the piece reference both the incarceration of Black men and immigrant detainees, as well as wealthy gated communities. It’s a reflection on barriers and separation in society, both physical and psychological.
Location: Columbus Park on the plaza between Johnson Street and Montague Street, Brooklyn
Price: Free (RSVP for opening reception)
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–7:30 p.m.; on view daily at all times
—Sarah Cascone
Wednesday, June 29–Friday, September 9
“Derrick Adams: Funtime Unicorns” (rendering). Image courtesy of Art Production Fund.
5. “Derrick Adams: Funtime Unicorns” at Rockefeller Center, New York
Derrick Adams looks to bring Black joy to the heart of Midtown Manhattan with his new Art Production Fund public installation Funtime Unicorns, featuring interactive black unicorn sculptures-cum-playground toys. The figure of the black unicorn first appeared in Adams’s “Floater” painting series, of portraits of Black people resting on pool floats that the artist later fabricated as actual inflatables. Now, kids will be able to play on a coiled spring playground rocker version of the colorful figure, for a project that pushes back against the narrative that Black art needs to foreground pain and suffering, rather than joy and play.
Location: Rockefeller Center, Channel Gardens, between Fifth Avenue and Rockefeller Plaza, New York
Price: Free
Time: On view daily at all times
—Sarah Cascone
Through Thursday, June 30
“Georgia Dymock: Eyes Closed, Wide Open,” installation view, Courtesy of JD Malat Gallery.
6. “Georgia Dymock: Eyes Closed, Wide Open” at JD Malat Gallery, New York
This is the last week to catch British artist Georgia Dymock’s solo exhibition at JD Malat Gallery’s New York location. Dymock plays with the notions of femininity and identity, where her work is influenced by her study of anthropology. There are 10 new paintings in her signature style, with curvy, joyous figures partaking in everyday activities.
Location: JD Malat Gallery, 508 West 28th Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Neha Jambhekar
Saturday, July 2–Sunday, July 31
Eddie Martinez, DDSE (Flower up-close and per- sonal 2 (2022). Photo by Jeffrey Sturges, courtesy the artist, Dieu-Donné, Brooklyn, and the South Etna Montauk Foundation, Montauk. Sam Moyer, Not Yet Titled (2022). Photo by JSP Art Photography, courtesy the artist, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, and the South Etna Montauk Foundation, Montauk.
7. “Eddie Martinez and Sam Moyer” at the South Etna Montauk Foundation
It seems like artist spouses have always been drawn to Long Island’s East End, from Elaine and Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner to contemporary power couple Eric Fischl and April Gornik. The latest husband and wife duo to make waves on the North Fork are Eddie Martinez and Sam Moyer, the subject of a joint outing at Amalia Dayan and Adam Lindemann’s non-profit space South Etna Montauk Foundation. Featured works include stone paintings and concrete backgammon boards by Moyer as well as new paper-pulp paintings Martinez made during a recent residency at Dieu-Donné in Brooklyn. The show coincides with the artists’ taking over the annual “Sculpture in the Garden” exhibition at the Landcraft Garden Foundation in Mattituck, New York (through October 29).
Location: South Etna Montauk Foundation, 6 South Etna Avenue, Montauk, New York
Price: Free
Time: Saturday and Sunday, 12 p.m.–5 p.m., Fridays by appointment
—Sarah Cascone
Through Saturday, July 8
“Kiki Kogelnik: Women” at Mitchell-Innes and Nash, New York. Photo courtesy of Mitchell-Innes and Nash, New York.
8. “Kiki Kogelnik: Women” at Mitchell-Innes and Nash, New York
Mitchell-Innes and Nash’s second solo presentation of Kiki Kogelnik comes on the heels of the artist’s posthumous inclusion in the current Venice Biennale. It features 10 of her graphic, boldly colorful paintings and 21 works on paper, dating from 1962 to 1985. Kogelnik’s depictions of women seemingly in search of personal determination were inspired by her own struggles as a woman artist, such as when she and her fiance, artist Arnulf Rainer, moved in together and she was relegated to the attic, while he got a whole floor as a studio.
Location: Mitchell-Innes and Nash, 534 West 26th Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Friday, July 15
Zinaïda, Dakini, still. Photo courtesy of Sapar Contemorary, New York.
9. “Women and Other Wild Creatures: Matrilineal Tales” at Sapar Contemporary, New York
A quartet of women artist from Ukraine are among those featured in this group show inspired by photographs of generations of women fleeing the country, and of the destruction of the landscape, following the Russian invasion in February. Each artist presents nature as a source of strength for women as they look to move forward in this time of crisis, drawing on rituals and healing practices. Works on view include Dakini, a video by Ukrainian artist Zinaïda, filmed in a remote Ukrainian village and celebrating the role of women in the regions cultural traditions.
Location: Sapar Contemporary, 9 N. Moore Street, first floor, New York
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Saturday, July 16
Alexandra Rubinstein, The Moon Also Rises 1 (2022). Courtesy the artist and Mother.
10. “Alexandra Rubinstein: The Moon Also Rises” at Mother, New York
Nude men become larger than life landscapes in Alexandra Rubinstein’s oil-on-canvas paintings. It’s easy to miss the sexual imagery at a quick glance, but those are six-pack abs and a flaccid penis, not desert dunes; firm butt cheeks, not rounded hills, with waterfalls cascading down muscular backs. It’s a natural progression from the artist’s 2019 series “Dick Diaries,” which featured person-sized male genitalia working at laptops, lying on the couch, and in other everyday situations. But the meaning is darker this time around, inspired by the impending climate crisis, which Rubinstein view as a consequence of cis male complacency and inaction.
Location: Mother, 368 Broadway, Fourth Floor, Suite 415, New York
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Thursday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.; 10 a.m.–4 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Sunday, July 31
Estefania Puerta, Tierna Tierra (2020). Courtesy of the Fortnight Insitute.
11. “Ashes Denote That Fire Was” at the Fortnight Institute, New York
Fire speaks to the primordial part of the human experience, and comes to us with tales of magic and trickery—most famously as the Greek god Prometheus’s defiant gift to humanity. This intimate group show at Fortnight Institute brings together works by 12 contemporary artists who in some way allude to the element’s enduring lure—from the fiery passions of love to the quest for survival in the wilderness of our times. The exhibition title references a poem by Emily Dickinson, and the works on view do often possess the hauntingly unsaid qualities of verse. Krystel Cárdenas’s beeswax sculpture Reliquary Box, Pendant, and Candles conjures up visions of cloistered prayer, while the softness of the materials, one realizes, would quickly dissolve near the heat of a flame. Meanwhile, Lizette Hernandez’s ceramic works themselves have been hardened into enduring shapes through exposure to the element. The aura of the exhibition is sacrosanct and ancient and enduring and the works on view offer a moment of respite and contemplation amid the tumult of the news cycle.
Location: Fortnight Institute, 21 East 3rd Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Wednesday–Sunday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.
—Katie White