Each week, we search New York City for the most exciting and thought-provoking shows, screenings, and events. In light of the global health crisis, we are currently highlighting events and exhibitions available digitally. See our picks from around the world below. (Times are all EST unless otherwise noted.)
Tuesday, June 30
Jammie Holmes, They’re Going to Kill Me (New York City), 2020. Photo by Sue Kwon, courtesy of the artist and Library Street Collective.
1. “Black Lives Matter and a Response in Public Art” at the Madison Square Park Conservancy
As protests swept the US in response to the death of George Floyd, painter Jammie Holmes took to the skies with a new artwork, flying banners featuring Floyd’s dying words above the streets of Detroit, Miami, Dallas, Los Angeles, and New York. The artist will speak with Hyperallergic writer and editor Seph Rodney about Black Lives Matter and the public art being created in support of the activist movement.
Price: Free with registration
Time: 11 a.m.–12 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Kimberly Drew. Photo by Tyler Mitchell.
2. “Black Opera as Architecture: A Conversation With Kimberly Drew, Alicia Hall Moran, and Imani Uzuri” at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
To coincide with the National Gallery exhibition “Degas at the Opéra,” mezzo-soprano Alicia Hall Moran, composer and librettist Imani Uzuri, and Kimberly Drew, the recent author of This Is What I Know About Art, will discuss the influence of opera on contemporary artistic practice. The conversation is also occasioned by a recent Office magazine project organized by Drew in which, as she wrote, “we need opera and its grandness more than ever.”
Price: Free
Time: 7 p.m.
—Nan Stewert
Virgil Abloh. Photo by Jeff Spicer and courtesy Getty Images.
3. Virtual ICA Gala at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
I’ve yet to explore the strange new world of virtual galas, but the ICA’s event sounds promising. It honors Virgil Abloh and Sterling Ruby, with a performance by 2020 Grammy nominee Tank and the Bangas and remarks from artist and cinematographer Arthur Jafa.
Price: Free and open to the public, but the museum requests guests consider making a donation
Time: 8 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Poet and author Eileen Myles. Photo courtesy Poetry Foundation.
4. “Performance in Place: From the Personal Collection of Eileen Myles” at the Rubin Foundation
If you’ve ever wanted to know what kind of artwork the one and only Eileen Myles actually lives with, your moment has arrived. The poet and writer will give viewers a candid walkthrough of the collection on view in their home in Marfa, Texas this Tuesday. The tour is designed to be highly personal, with Myles illuminating the works by discussing the personal relationships they built with the artists, including Robin Bruch, Xylor Jane, and Jack Pierson, as well as recounting specific memories from their own life pinned to the pieces and other objects in their home.
Price: Free with registration
Time: 8 p.m.
—Tim Schneider
Sisa Bueno, Vashti DuBois and Robin White Owen. Photo courtesy of ArtTable.
5. “RE/VIEW | Expanding Reach and Audience with Augmented and Virtual Reality” at ArtTable
ArtTable is starting a new online discussion series, hosted on Zoom, to help museums as institutions form reopening plans and consider, on a broader level, how to reimagine cultural spaces to be more inclusive. The first talk will consider possible uses of virtual and augmented reality technology to improve and expand upon the traditional museum experience. Speakers are Sisa Bueno, founder of Vuevelo, which works to bring AR to museums; Vashti DuBois, executive director and founder of the Colored Girls Museum; and Robin White Owen, co-founder and principal of Media Combo, which helps museums integrate AR and VR.
Price: $15 suggested donation, register here
Time: 4 p.m.–5 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Blanton registrar Lisa Dirks at the airport. Photo courtesy of the Blanton Museum of Art.
6. “Blanton Around the World: Tales of Traveling With Art” at the Blanton Museum of Art, Austin
With the art world currently grounded, museum curators are taking a break from one of the more interesting aspects of their job: serving as an art courier. In this Zoom conversation—likely to trigger either nostalgia or cabin fever, or perhaps a mix of both—the Blanton’s assistant curator of Modern and contemporary art, Claire Howard, and senior registrar Lisa Dirks, will reminisce about their jet-setting days escorting artworks around the world for traveling exhibitions. Tune in with the museum’s recommended cocktail, a refreshing-sounding Pisco Sour.
Price: Free with registration
Time: 5 p.m. CT
—Sarah Cascone
Frederick Wilson, Salve Regina Window (after 1910), Tiffany Studios. Photo courtesy of the Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass, Queens, New York.
7. “Tiffany Tête-à-Tête: A Digital Conversation Among Friends” at the Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass, Queens
Neustadt curators Lindsy Parrott and Morgan Pruden are launching a new bimonthly Zoom event series where they will recount some of the various Louis Comfort Tiffany-related discoveries they’ve made on the job. The inaugural episode is titled “A Secret Chapel in Cincinnati,” and digs into how they discovered a forgotten set of Tiffany’s famed stained glass windows while putting together a traveling exhibition, “Tiffany Glass: Painting With Color and Light,” for the Cincinnati Art Museum.
Price: $7
Time: 5:30 p.m.–6:30 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Wednesday, July 1–Wednesday, July 8
Courtesy of Wesley George and JD Malat Gallery
8. “Isolation Mastered” at JD Malat Gallery, London
In an effort to show support to emerging talent, JD Malat Gallery presents “Isolation Mastered,” a group show of 25 artists chosen from over a 1,000 submissions by an esteemed panel of luminaries including Simon de Pury, Gavin Rossdale, and Robert Montgomery. The gallery invites users to vote for their favorite artist, with the winner getting a solo show at the space in 2021. “We hope that this initiative not only provides a platform for artistic expression during this challenging time, but also upholds a collective mission to support the art sector and give creative individuals of all backgrounds an opportunity to exhibit their work,” says owner and founder Jean-David Malat.
Price: Free
Time: 10 a.m.
—Neha Jambhekar
Wednesday, July 1–Friday, July 31
DUMBO Open Studios. Photo courtesy of DUMBO Open Studios.
9. DUMBO Open Studios Online, Brooklyn
The DUMBO Open Studios was set to return in June, but was pushed back for a month so as not to draw attention away from the Black Lives Matter protests. Over 100 artists and art organizations from DUMBO and Vinegar Hill are taking part, with weekly lunchtime Instagram live events on Thursday, including a conversation on “Studio Secrets” with Alexi Worth and Peter Drake on July 9.
Price: Free
Time: On view seven days a week, at all times
—Tanner West
Thursday, July 2
AGO director Stephan Jost and Stephanie Stebich, director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC. Photo by the AGO; Libby Weiler.
10. “Stephan Jost and Stephanie Stebich in Conversation” at the Art Gallery of Ontario
The latest in a series of Zoom talks from the Art Gallery of Ontario brings the directors of leading institutions in Canada and the US together. AGO director Stephan Jost will discuss the evolving role of museums in society today with Stephanie Stebich, director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and its branch museum the Renwick Gallery, which is focused on American crafts. Those who are curious about how institutional attitudes differ across the US-Canada border would be wise to tune in.
Price: Free with registration
Time: 4 p.m.–5 p.m.
—Julia Halperin
Friday, July 3
Kota Ezawa ,National Anthem (2018). Image courtesy Ben Davis.
11. “Whitney Screens: Kota Ezawa” at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Tune in on the Whitney website ahead of the Fourth of July holiday to stream Kota Ezawa’s National Anthem. The piece, included in the most recent Whitney Biennial, is an animated film depicting NFL football players taking a knee during “The Star-Spangled Banner” in protest of police violence against African Americans. The practice became a political flash point, condemned by president Donald Trump and eventually banned by the NFL. This month, as Black Lives Matter protests swept across the US, the league issued an apology for not supporting the players’ protests.
Price: Free
Time: Friday, 7 p.m.–Saturday, 10 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Saturday, July 4
Zeitz MOCAA’s Exterior at Dusk, courtesy of Heatherwick Studio. Photo by Iwan Baan.
12. “WOZA AT HOME” at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Capetown, South Africa
“WOZA at Home” promises a night of music, DIY art, and cocktails—all online and hosted by the preeminent South African museum. DJ Blaq Kongo is hosting the music chapter of the event that also features creative workshops (check online for the materials you will need) inspired by Malian artist Abdoulaye Konaté and Cape Town artist Illana Wellman. There will be cocktail-making lessons and art-led conversations that explore the insights about queer identities spotlighted in Zeitz MOCAA’s current show, “Two Together.”
Price: Tickets range from R 30 (£1.40) to R120 (£5.62) and can be purchased online. All donations go towards bringing the love of art to children in South Africa.
Time: Saturday 4 July from 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. (GMT+2)
—Kate Brown
Through Tuesday, August 25
“Ryan Flores – Low Lifes: An Upside Down Love Letter” at Rockefeller Center. Photo by Dan Bradica, courtesy of Art Production Fund.
13. “Ryan Flores – Low Lifes: An Upside Down Love Letter” at Rockefeller Center, New York
New York City’s art museums won’t get the green light to open until stage four, and museums will likely take their time getting operations back off the ground. But Art Production Fund quietly unveiled a new public art installation last week, one of the first official exhibitions to open in the city since lockdown began in March. Drawing on Fifth Avenue’s long history of ornate commercial window displays, Ryan Flores, a ceramics artist who lives in Brooklyn, has taken over the window vitrines inside Rockefeller Center, as well as the vinyl mural spaces throughout the complex. For art-starved New Yorkers, it’s a welcome sign that life may soon return to normal, while still allowing for plenty of social distance.
Price: Free
Time: On view seven days a week, at all times
—Sarah Cascone