Each week, we search New York City for the most exciting and thought-provoking shows, screenings, and events. See them below.
Tuesday, June 4
The Bombing of Osage Avenue by by writer Toni Cade Bambara and director Louis Massiah.
1. “Hilton Als Presents Louis Massiah’s The Bombing of Osage Avenue” at Light Industry
In May 1985, the Philadelphia police department conducted a military-style raid on the communal home of MOVE, a black liberation organization founded in the city in 1972. Five hundred cops were dispatched to barrage the commune with automatic gunfire and tear gas. Circling helicopters dropped bombs from above. In the end, six adults and five children were killed. Fires ignited by the attack were left to burn dozens of nearby homes. While the nightly news presented MOVE as little more than a terrorist organization, The Bombing of Osage Avenue (1986), a documentary made by writer Toni Cade Bambara and director Louis Massiah in the aftermath, presented a radically different narrative of the history of state-sanctioned racist violence. Writer and cultural critic Hilton Als will provide an introduction.
Location: Light Industry, 155 Freeman Street, Brooklyn
Price: $8, first-come, first-served
Time: 7 p.m., box office opens at 6:30 p.m.
—Katie White
Tuesday, June 4
This Land Is Our Land: An Immigrant’s Manifesto by Suketu Mehta. Courtesy of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
2. “This Land Is Our Land: Suketu Mehta with Molly Crabapple” at the New York Public Library
Suketu Mehta, author of This Land is Our Land: An Immigrant’s Manifesto, will speak with artist and writer Molly Crabapple about how fear of immigrants has become a destructive force in society, one that overlooks all the positive contributions immigrants make to their communities.
Location: The New York Public Library, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Wachenheim Trustees Room (2nd Floor), 42nd Street & 5th Avenue
Price: Free with RSVP
Time: 6:30 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Tuesday, June 4
The MoMA Garden Party. Photo by Scott Rudd courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art.
3. “MoMA’s Party in the Garden” at the Museum of Modern Art
The forecast is good for this year’s garden party at MoMA (last Wednesday’s garden party for Frick fellows saw torrential rain), so if you’ve been waiting to pull the trigger on tickets, now is the time. The event honors Alice and Tom Tisch, Yvonne Rainer, and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. The after party features a live performance by singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers and DJ sets by Nina Sky and the Knocks.
Location: The Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street
Price: Dinner, from $2,500; after party, $250
Time: Cocktails, 7 p.m.; dinner, 8 p.m.; after party 9 p.m.–12 a.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Tuesday, June 4–Friday, August 9
André Butzer, Untitled (2019). Courtesy of Metro Pictures.
4. “André Butzer” at Metro Pictures
André Butzer recently moved from his native Germany to Los Angeles, and has shifted directions in his painting. Where his last show featured monochromatic black canvases, the artist has embraced color in his vibrant new works. But Butzer doesn’t see the change as particularly dramatic. “Nothing was ever not about color. Color is a potency, a fusion,” he said in a statement. “The blacks and light were color, too. I only left things behind in order to reach a limit to return from. I consider myself a colorist.”
Location: Metro Pictures, 519 West 24th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Nan Stewert
Tuesday, June 4–Sunday, September 29
Mrinalini Mukherjee, Vriksh Nata (Arboreal Enactment) (1991–92). Photo courtesy of Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi.
5. “Phenomenal Nature: Mrinalini Mukherjee” at the Met Breuer
The Met is turning the Whitney Museum of American Art’s old home over to the Frick Collection in 2020, but it still has more to offer. Nita Ambani, the art collector and philanthropist who sponsored a solo show for Indian abstract painter Nasreen Mohamedi (1937–1990) when the Met Breuer first opened in 2016, is helping the museum to present the first retrospective in the US of another female Indian artist, sculptor Mrinalini Mukherjee (1949–2015). She’s primarily known for her fiber works, and for drawing on nature for inspiration.
Location: The Met Breuer, 945 Madison Avenue
Price: $25 general admission
Time: Tuesday–Thursday, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday: 10 a.m.–9 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Wednesday, June 5
Artist Alex Katz. Photo by Christopher Lane/Contour by Getty Images.
6. “Downtown Painting” at Peter Freeman
This show, which is organized in collaboration with Alex Katz, is curated in the spirit of the downtown New York painting scene of the 1950s and ’60s, when artists created works that were “intuitive, self-indulgent, and not made to fit comfortably into a home or institution,” according to a release. The show includes works by 70 artists, and each living contributor (Dana Schutz, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, and Lois Dodd among them) will show a picture of his or her choice.
Location: Peter Freeman, 140 Grand Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Pac Pobric
Thursday, June 6
Still from “Happy Birthday, Marsha!”, courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York.
7. “Portraits of Pride: Stormé, Marsha, and Stonewall” at the Museum of the City of New York
To celebrate Pride month, the Museum of the City of New York is screening two short films about the Stonewall uprising of 1969. Stormé: The Lady of the Jewel Box looks at the life of lesbian activist Stormé DeLarverie, who is rumored to have taken the first swing at Stonewall, while Happy Birthday, Marsha! is a fictionalized account of the hours leading up to Marsha P. Johnson’s arrival to the legendary club on that fateful night. After the screening, Stormé director Michelle Parkerson, historian John T. Reddick, and performance artist Rose Wood will participate in a discussion moderated by Jessica Green.
Location: Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue
Price: $15; $10 museum members
Time: 6:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m.
—Rachel Corbett
Thursday, June 6
John Edmonds, Two Spirits (2019). Courtesy of Company Gallery.
8. “John Edmonds: Between Pathos & Seduction” at Company Gallery
If you couldn’t get enough John Edmonds at this year’s Whitney Biennial, you’re in luck, as the Brooklyn-based photographer opens a new solo exhibition at Company Gallery on the Lower East Side. In his works, Edmonds captures his models in varying states of dress, often wearing masks or occluding their faces in other ways, to capture portraits that are endlessly layered.
Location: Company, 88 Eldridge Street, 5th Floor
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.
—Caroline Goldstein
Thursday, June 6–Friday, July 12
Sven Lukin, Honeymoon (1964). Courtesy of the artist and Hollis Taggart Gallery.
9. “Sven Lukin: Objects in Space” at Hollis Taggart Gallery
The Latvian-born artist Sven Lukin made a career out of blurring the lines between so-called “fine art” painting and design, working in the post-war era when they were still pretty well delineated. Inspired by architect Louis Kahn, Lukin’s painted art objects look like they could unfurl themselves from the wall and be just as well suited to three-dimensionality.
Location: Hollis Taggart, 521 West 26th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Caroline Goldstein
Thursday, June 6–Saturday, June 8
Robert Mapplethorpe, Frank Diaz, 1979. Photo: artnet Auctions.
10. “Robert Mapplethorpe: Triptych (Eyes of One on Another)” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
Composer Bryce Dessner of grown-up indie rock mainstays The National and director Kaneza Schaal unite with a host of collaborators to turn the works of Robert Mapplethorpe into a 70-minute multimedia experience. Monumental projections of Mapplethorpe’s photographs are accompanied by an original score written by Dessner (a “lifelong” fan of the pioneering photographer) and performed by a cappella octet Roomful of Teeth and a chamber orchestra.
Location: Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn
Price: Tickets for non-members start at $30
Time: 7:30 p.m.
—Tim Schneider
Thursday, June 6–Friday, August 16
Sam Gilliam, PARADE IV (detail, 2015). Photo by Lee Thompson, courtesy the artist and David Kordansky Gallery.
11. “Sam Gilliam: New Works on Paper” at FLAG Art Foundation
Color Field painting great Sam Gilliam, now 85, says his new paintings, made in 2019, evoke “the drama of music and the drama of colors coming together.” These 12 works on paper, which are on view for the first time in this exhibition, precede a large-scale installation of his work at Dia: Beacon this August.
Location: FLAG Art Foundation, 545 West 25th Street, 9th Floor
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Friday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.
—Tanner West
Friday, June 7
Teens at the Whitney Biennial. Photo by Filip Wolak, courtesy of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
12. “Biennial Teen Night” at the Whitney Museum of American Art
Teens are invited to enjoy refreshments and make art while checking out the 2019 Whitney Biennial at this free event. Artist Maia Ruth Lee, whose The Nine Tools for Self-Defense—an installation of talismanic runes made from scrap metal—is a highlight of the exhibition, will speak to the teens about her practice and lead an art workshop.
Location: Whitney Museum of American Art, 99 Gansevoort Street
Price: Free
Time: 4 p.m.–6:30 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Saturday, June 8
Jeffrey Gibson, Mx. Oops and Xavier (2018). Courtesy the artist, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., Kavi Gupta, and Roberts Projects. Photo: Peter Mauney.
13. “Jeffrey Gibson: To Name an Other” at New Museum
To celebrate the culmination of Jeffrey Gibson’s solo show and residency, “The Anthropophagic Effect,” at the New Museum, a special closing performance will take place Saturday, June 8. The event will feature 50 performers in a “drumming event” responding to the current political and social climate. The show is on view at the New Museum through Sunday, June 9.
Location: New Museum, 235 Bowery
Price: Free with RSVP
Time: 3 p.m.
—Caroline Goldstein
Saturday, June 8—Friday, June 28
Ken Salaz, The Eternal Now – Saint Mary’s Lake, Montana (2019). Image courtesy of Rehs Contemporary Galleries, NYC
14. “A Noble Pursuit: The Majestic Landscapes of Ken Salaz” at Rehs Contemporary
Salaz, an author and painter, assembled a who’s who of contemporary landscape painters (including Erik Koeppel, Joseph McGurl, Brett Scheifflee, Eleinne Basa, and TJ Cunningham) for his new book Landscapes in Oil: A Contemporary Guide to Realistic Painting in the Classical Tradition, which brings awareness to environmental preservation. As a partial descendant of the Yaqui tribe, Salaz spent much of his childhood in the southwestern United States and Mexico. This new exhibition accompanies the book.
Location: Reha Contemporary, 5 East 57th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception 1 p.m.–6 p.m.; Monday—Thursday 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
—Eileen Kinsella
Saturday, June 8
Phillippe Petit balances on a wire over Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan, New York as he walks towards the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on September 29, 1982. Photo by Joe Dombroski/Newsday via Getty Images.
15. The Summer Party at the Glass House
The Glass House turns 70 this year, and is celebrating with a live aerial performance by Phillippe Petit of Man on Wire fame during its annual summer party. “The Glass House, since its opening 70 years ago (we are the same age), has had many, many visitors: but all used the door to come in!” said Petit in a statement. “I wish to change that: I will enter through the sky!” Guests can also look forward to a farm-to-table picnic lunch, artisanal cocktails, and games including ping pong and life size chess. There is also a benefit auction from Paddle8, featuring works by artists including Josef Albers, Mary Heilmann, Maira Kalman, Alex Katz, Claes Oldenburg, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman, and Lawrence Weiner.
Location: The Glass House, 199 Elm Street, New Canaan, Connecticut
Price: $500
Time: 12 p.m.–4 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Saturday, June 8–Sunday, June 30
Work by Michael Hambouz, Inas Al-soqi, and Amanda C. Mathis. Courtesy of Lorimoto Gallery.
16. “(Cut) 3 x (Paste) 3” at Lorimoto Gallery
Artists Michael Hambouz, Inas Al-soqi, and Amanda C. Mathis each present their own unique take on old fashioned, handmade collage in this group show. While Al-soqi cuts images out of magazines and books and Mathis uses photographs of domestic architecture to tell personal stories, Hambouz creates images of familiar objects with colorful paper cut outs.
Location: Lorimoto Gallery, 1623 Hancock Street, Ridgewood, Queens
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–9 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 12 p.m.–5 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Sunday, June 9
Courtesy of Sena Space
17. “Sahana Ramakrishnan: You Were a Very Ugly Baby, and You Belong To Me” at Sena Space
Sahana Ramakrishnan’s solo show at Sena Space, an art gallery located inside a Little Italy tattoo shop, closes this Sunday. Don’t miss the Rhode Island School of Design grad’s saturated, mixed media works on paper depicting mutated, mythical beasts.
Location: Sena Space, 229 Centre Street
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Sunday, 12 p.m.–8 p.m.
—Cristina Cruz
Sunday, June 9–Sunday, September 8
Sable Elyse Smith, Allison Janae Hamilton, and Tschabalala Self. Photo by Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich, courtesy of MoMA PS1.
18. “MOOD: Studio Museum Artists in Residence 2018–19” at MoMA PS1
With the Studio Museum closed as it constructs its new building, the institution is staging programming across the city, including a new partnership with the Museum of Modern Art. That kicks off with a showcase of the current artists-in-residence, Allison Janae Hamilton, Tschabalala Self, and Sable Elyse Smith in an exhibition titled “MOOD,” a reference to the popular and versatile #mood hashtag. The show includes Hamilton’s immersive installation based on the threatened Florida landscape, Self’s new paintings inspired by Harlem bodega culture, and Smith’s conceptual sculptures inspired by the prison industrial complex.
Location: MoMA PS1, 22-25 Jackson Avenue, Queens
Price: $10 suggested admission
Time: Thursday–Monday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Monday, June 10
Installation view of “Marren Hassinger: Monuments” at Marcus Garvey Park. Photo by Adam Reich, courtesy of the Studio Museum Harlem.
19. “Maren Hassinger: Monuments” at Marcus Garvey Park
Meanwhile, it’s your last chance to catch one of the Studio Museum’s offsite projects up in Harlem: a public art exhibition scattered across Marcus Garvey Park. Local artist Maren Hassinger has created a series of eight sculptures inspired by forms in the park’s landscape, each formed from branches, vines, wood chips, and chicken wire. These large structures have a strange quality, as if they are the ruins of some ancient civilization, or a nest or dam created by a preternaturally clever animal.
Location: Marcus Garvey Park, at Fifth Avenue between East 120th Street and East 124th Street
Price: Free
Time: During park hours
—Sarah Cascone