Each week, we search New York City for the most exciting and thought-provoking shows, screenings, and events. See them below.
Monday, March 2–Sunday, March 8
Annemarie Ryan, Crazy Sweet Love (2019). Courtesy of the artist.
1. “A Changing Landscape: The Female I” at Van Der Plas Gallery
A group show featuring 98 paintings by 48 international women artists, this exhibition couldn’t be more timely as it presents varied perspectives from across demographics and generations. One highlight of the exhibition is the work of Annemarie Ryan, a Washington, DC-based painter whose lyrical compositions harken back to the female abstract expressionists like Joan Mitchell and Helen Frankenthaler, with contemporary sentiments imbued with societal and cultural sensitivities.
Location: Van Der Plas Gallery, 156 Orchard Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, Wednesday, March 4, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Monday–Sunday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.
—Caroline Goldstein
Tuesday, March 3
Daria Price, director of Driven To Abstraction with the fake Mark Rothko at the heart of the Knoedler forgery scandal. Photo courtesy of Daria Price.
2. “Film Screening & Conversation: Driven to Abstraction” at the Art Students League
The infamous Knoedler forgery scandal that saw collectors buy some $80 million of fake Abstract Expressionist art over a period of 15 years, is one of the most fascinating art stories of the current century. Director Daria Price is screening her 2019 documentary Driven to Abstraction at the Art Students League, followed by a discussion with New York Times journalist Patricia Cohen, who wrote extensively about the story as it developed—as did many staff members at Artnet News, including senior market editor Eileen Kinsella, who is one of the experts featured in the film.
Location: Art Students League, the Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery, 215 West 57th Street
Price: Free with RSVP
Time: 6 p.m.–8 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Tuesday, March 3
Barbara London’s Video/Art: The First 50 Years, published by Phaidon Press.
3. “Barbara London in Conversation with Paul Pfeiffer” at 192 Books
In conjunction with the release of her new book Video/Art: The First 50 Years, Barbara London, the founding curator of MoMA’s video collection and exhibition program, will embark on a wide-ranging discussion with pioneering multimedia artist Paul Pfeiffer, the man responsible for the first video piece that ever stopped me in my tracks. Together, the duo will address topics that loom large in London’s text and Pfeiffer’s practice, such as how technological advancement impacts artworks made using video, and how mass-media images impact our thinking about both ourselves and each other.
Location: 192 Tenth Avenue
Price: Free
Time: 7 p.m.
—Tim Schneider
Wednesday, March 4
The Museum of Modern Art Armory party. Photo by Alycia Kravitz, courtesy of MoMA.
4. Armory Show Party at the Museum of Modern Art
If you want to party during Armory Week, look no further than MoMA. This year’s fete will have a live performance by Orville Peck—it’s his only New York stop on his current tour—plus DJ sets by Kitty Cash, Hank, and Mona. There’s an open bar, and tickets include fair admission plus a chance to see some MoMA exhibitions after hours.
Location: The Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street
Price: General admission $125
Time: VIP hour 8 p.m.–9 p.m.; 9 p.m.–12:30 a.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Wednesday, March 4–Saturday, April 11
Mamma Andersson, Holiday (2020). ©Mamma Andersson/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/Bildupphovsrätt, Sweden. Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner.
5. “Mamma Andersson” at David Zwirner
Opening this Wednesday at David Zwirner’s 19th Street location is an exhibition of new works by contemporary Swedish painter Mamma Andersson. Made between 2018 and 2020, these works revisit motifs common in Andersson’s works including domestic interiors, women, horses, and foliage. In “Holiday,” figures on horseback float up a deep plum road lined with teal grass. A mountain range sits at the horizon below an open, burnt orange sky. The photo-realistic lighting on the figures’ and horses’ backs provide a stark contrast against the tie-dye effect of the background. “I paint slowly, gently, thin, beautiful, ugly, thick, hard. I love it, it’s my life. But I hate it too,” Andersson has said. “It is a quiet, messy, illogical confusing disorder. In 2003, Andersson represented Norway in the 50th Venice Biennale. Three years later, in 2006, she was the recipient of the Carnegie Art Award. This will be the artist’s fourth exhibition with the gallery.
Location: David Zwirner, 533 West 19th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Cristina Cruz
Thursday, March 5
Claudia Bitran, Lauren Carly Shaw, Lauren Powell, and Gracelee Lawrence. Photo courtesy of Postmasters Gallery.
6. <IRL CHATROOM> at Postmasters Gallery
As Postmasters’s current group show, “Vicious Frames: Claudia Bitran, Lauren Carly Shaw, & Gracelee Lawrence” (on view through March 7), draws to a close, the artists and exhibition curator Lauren Powell will speak with gallery director Manan Ter-Grigoryan about the unique anxieties of the modern world and how the internet and social media inspire the show.
Location: Postmasters Gallery, 54 Franklin Street
Price: Free
Time: 7:30 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, March 5–Sunday, March 8
Matisse Picasso. Image courtesy of Honey & Wax Booksellers
7. New York International Antiquarian Book Fair at the Park Avenue Armory
Universally referred to as one of the world’s best antiquarian book fairs, the show is the highlight of the spring calendar for bibliophiles, collectors of the curious and quirky, scholars, connoisseurs, and enthusiastic laymen alike. More than 200 exhibitors will present a vast trove of material: rare books, maps, illuminated manuscripts, incunabula, fine bindings, illustrations, historical documents, rare prints and print ephemera. In addition to regular hours (below), Sunday includes “Discovery Day” from 1 to 3 p.m., where guests can bring up to five treasures to be evaluated by the fair’s experts.
Location: The Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Avenue
Price: Preview night $60; general admission $25
Time: Thursday preview 5 p.m.–9 p.m.; Friday, 12 p.m.–8 p.m.; Saturday 12 p.m.–7 p.m.; Sunday 12 p.m.–5 p.m.
—Eileen Kinsella
Thursday, March 5–Saturday, March 21
Emily Kama Kngwarreye, Untitled (1990). Courtesy of D’Lan Davidson.
8. “EMILY” at D’Lan Davidson Gallery
Australia’s D’Lan Davidson Gallery touches down stateside at the High Line Nine with the first-ever US survey of celebrated Indigenous Australian painter Emily Kame Kngwarreye, who began painting in 1988 at age 78. She quickly became the leading light of the remote desert community of women painters in Utopia, outside Alice Springs, painting some 3,000 works before her death in 1996 at age 86. Among the expected highlights will be Kngwarreye’s first large-scale work, My Country (1990), which is being shown publicly for the first time since its creation.
Location: D’Lan Davidson Gallery, High Line Nine, 507 West 27th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, March 5–Sunday, April 5
TOP ROW: Janiva Ellis, Keebler’s Revenge, (2018); Jessica Jackson Hutchins, My Friend the Poet (2019); Trenton Doyle Hancock, Ferroneous & The Monk (1999); Nicholas Galanin, Everything We’ve Ever Been, Everything We Are Right Now – Untitled (Black Figure), 2019; Mike Cloud, F of J (2016). BOTTOM ROW: Lonnie Holley, Busted Without Arms II (2016); Rona Pondick, Magenta Swimming in Yellow (2015–17); Sheila Hicks, Caid Nejjai (1977); Henry Taylor, Portrait of Deana Lawson (2014).
9. “2020 Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts” at the American Academy of Arts and Letters
This year, more than 150 artists were nominated by members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an honorary society of architects, artists, composers, and writers, for the organization’s annual show. There are some impressive names—both emerging and established—among the 28 who made the final cut, including Henry Taylor, Janiva Ellis, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Betye Saar, Sheila Hicks, Diana Al-Hadid, and Arthur Jafa. If you’ve never visited the academy, it’s worth the trip uptown.
Location: The American Academy of Arts and Letters, 633 West 155th Street, entrance on Audubon Terrace at Broadway between West 155th and 156th Streets
Price: Free
Time: Thursday–Sunday, 1 p.m.–4 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, March 5–Saturday, April 11
Adrienne Elise Tarver, The Dreamers (2019). Courtesy of Hollis Taggart.
10. “History Reclaimed: Suchitra Mattai and Adrienne Elise Tarver” at Hollis Taggart
Suchitra Mattai and Adrienne Elise Tarver both make undeniably beautiful work that is unafraid to address a challenging history of colonialism and racial oppression. Mattai has created a new site-specific large-scale installation for the exhibition using hundreds of vintage saris. Tarver is showcasing two paintings series, one of portraits of black women, both archetypal and historical, and of tropical foliage that spills off the canvas, disrupting the white cube of the gallery. (It’s something of a moment for Tarver, who also has a solo show, “Escape,” at Victori + Mo , also in Chelsea, through March 14, and work in the new, hands-on “Inside Art” exhibition at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan.)
Location: Hollis Taggart, 514 West 25th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, March 5–Thursday, April 30
Méïr Srebriansky, Watermelon (2019.) Courtesy of 81 Leonard Gallery.
11. “Méïr Srebriansky: Age of Resin” at 81 Leonard Gallery
French-born New York-based artist Méïr Srebriansky gets his first solo show in the city, featuring new resin paintings that he made following a sabbatical from painting after his studio burned down, destroying all his work.
Location: 81 Leonard Gallery, 81 Leonard Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–9 p.m.; Monday–Friday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.
—Tanner West
Thursday, March 5–Sunday, May 3
Julie Blackmon, Bathers (2019). Photo ©Julie Blackmon, courtesy of the artist and Robert Mann Gallery.
12. “Julie Blackmon – Fever Dreams” at Fotografiska New York
Julie Blackmon’s photographs hinting at the dark side of otherwise innocuous domestic scenes are inspired by growing up in a big family in her hometown of Springfield, Missouri—a place she describes as “the generic American town.”
Location: Fotografiska New York, 5 Wooster Street
Price: General admission $28
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Friday, March 6–Sunday, June 14
Photo ©AMUSE INC., courtesy of Amuse Museum/Chuzaburo Tanaka Collection.
13. “Boro Textiles: Sustainable Aesthetics” at the Japan Society
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, northern Japanese peasants unable to grow their own cotton became, by necessity, experts of hand-pieced boro—meaning rags or tatters—textiles. Using patchwork techniques to create utilitarian garments from used scraps of cloth, these artisans eschewed wastefulness while imbuing their handiwork with traditional Japanese aesthetics. The Japan Society will highlight boro pieces from the collection of cultural anthropologist Chuzaburo Tanaka (1933–2016), showcasing the imperfect beauty of such garments. Pairing the work of avant-garde Japanese fashion greats such as Rei Kawakubo and Issey Miyake with contemporary textile artists such as Susan Cianciolo and Christina Kim, the exhibition will also illustrate the legacy of this little-known yet influential craft.
Location: Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street
Price: General admission $12
Time: Tuesday–Thursday,12 p.m.–7 p.m.; Friday, 12 p.m.–9 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Saturday, March 7
Suzan Frecon, Study for Blue God Verona (2016/2019). Photo courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner Gallery.
14. “EFAbstract Closing Reception & Publication Release” at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts
The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts is closing out both Armory Week and its current exhibition, “EFAbstract,” curated by Bill Carroll (through March 8), with a release party for a new edition of end_notes about the show.
Location: Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, 323 West 39th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues, 3rd Floor
Price: Free
Time: 2 p.m.–4 p.m.
—Nan Stewert
A participant at the Wikipedia Asian Month: Edit-a-thon on Exhibition Histories, A Space, AAA, November 2019. Photo by Winnie Yeung @iMAGE28, courtesy of M+.
15. Art+Feminism: Wikipedia Edit-a-thon 2020 at the New York Public Library
Each March, for Women’s History Month, Art+Feminism encourages groups around the world to hold Wikipedia Edit-a-thon events to help close the gender gap on the free online reference source. (The initiative was founded in response to a 2011 survey that sound that only 11 percent of Wikipedia editors were women.) One of those Edit-a-thons is being organized by the Asia Art Archive in America and the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs of the New York Public Library and in collaboration with Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong. Stop by the library’s main reference branch to help add information about women artists Wikipedia, with the aid of provided books and research materials. The event will also include a talk with Brooklyn-based artists Jaishri Abichandani and Jean Shin.
Location: The New York Public Library, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, 476 Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street
Price: Free with RSVP
Time: 11:30 a.m.–5 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Sunday, March 8
Photo courtesy of the Times Square Edition.
16. “WOMEN DRIVING CHANGE: Today’s Female Leaders Across Creative Industries” at the Times Square Edition
This art-adjacent panel discussion and afternoon tea is being thrown for International Women’s Day, with women creatives as designer and activist Julia Watson and Brazilian-Italian journalist and artist Tansy Kaschak speaking with moderator Lauren DeCarlo of Condé Nast Traveler. The tea party portion comes courtesy of actor and art world regular Waris Ahluwalia, who was recently spotted selling his $27 House of Waris tea at Frieze Los Angeles.
Location: The Terrace Restaurant, the Times Square EDITION, 701 7th Avenue, 9th Floor
Price: Free with RSVP
Time: 4:30 p.m.–6:30 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Sunday, March 15
17. “JEF by Jeremy Couillard Presented by TSS x Daata” at Times Square Space
Collector Tiffany Zabludowicz is back with her first new show at Times Square Space in over a year. As usual, she’s taking over an empty office space in the building, this time with a sci-fi flavored animation and video game work from Jeremy Couillard. The show opened over the weekend and has expanded hours for Armory Week.
Location: Times Square Space, 1500 Broadway, Times Square, entrance on West 43rd Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, Monday, March 2, 6 p.m.–8 p.m. daily this week, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.; after March 8, Wednesday–Sunday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Saturday, March 28
Jesse Amado, Untitled (E) (2020). Courtesy of Ruiz-Healy Art.
18. “Jesse Amado and Alejandro Diaz: Double Pleasure” at Ruiz-Healy Art
“Double Pleasure” is an insightful meeting of the the works of Jesse Amado and Alejandro Diaz, two artists who have been friends and colleagues for over 40 years, and whose post-conceptual practices are each grounded in Mexican-American culture and South Texan aesthetics. Each artist explores distinctive aesthetic aims: Amado engages color with an Yves Klein sense of the spiritual, while Diaz taps into politics and societal concerns through a bricolage, materially rich approach. What they have in common, however, is a contemporary interest in carrying forward the Beuysian ideal of the societal sculpture, with its interest in everyday materials.
Location: Ruiz-Healy Art, 74 East 79th Street, 2D
Price: Free
Time: Wednesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.
—Katie White
Through Sunday, April 26
Hilary Pecis, Party Dog (2020). Courtesy of Rachel Uffner.
19. “Hilary Pecis: Come Along With Me” at Rachel Uffner
Hilary Pecis has a knack for creating paintings that synthesize the natural world and the domestic interior into a vibrant, colorful rhythm. In “Come Along With Me” the Los Angeles-based artists pulls her viewers along on what feels like a trip through her own life—into friends’ homes, on a trip to the liquor store, up the spiral ramp of the Guggenheim Museum. In one painting, Party Dog, we see the corner of a stocking-ed knee viewed from above—it seems to belong to the painter herself. If this is the world viewed through her eyes, what’s prized are the objects and colors of daily life, of couch cushions and art books and the storefront window, and a quilt-like layer of pattern and color, with equal parts care and affection.
Location: Rachel Uffner, 170 Suffolk Street
Price: Free
Time: Wednesday–Friday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m., Saturday–Sunday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Katie White