Each week, we search New York City for the most exciting and thought-provoking shows, screenings, and events. See them below.
Monday, May 14
1. “The Museum of Lost Art: Noah Charney” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Carrie Rebora Barratt, the Met’s deputy director for collections and administration, speaks with art historian and novelist Noah Charney about his new book, The Museum of Lost Art, and works of art that have been saved from destruction, such as the murals at Pompeii, as well as various pieces in the museum’s collection that have undergone significant restoration.
Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue
Price: $30
Time: 6:30 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Marina Abramoviç and Nadya Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot. Photos courtesy of Times Talks.
2. “Times Talk: Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova and Marina Abramoviç” at Florence Gould Hall
Nadya Tolokonnikova of Russian feminist protest band Pussy Riot chats with famed performance artist Marina Abramoviç. Need we say more?
Location: Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th Street
Price: $40
Time: 7 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Monday, May 14–ongoing
A New York 7 train. Courtesy of the MTA.
3. “Soundtrack” at the Queens Museum
Technically speaking, there isn’t actually anything to “see” here, but there is plenty to do. Commissioned in conjunction with the museum’s multi-site exhibition “Mel Chin: All Over the Place” (through August 12), “Soundtrack” is a collaborative audio composition shaped from field recordings of the 1, 5, 7, E, and F trains. Overseen by Chin and curated by Jace Clayton (better known by his stage name, DJ /rupture), the work features contributions from five NYC-based sound artists, as well as readings from novelists and other local authors. As of yesterday, the full work is available as a free download from the museum’s website, and the raw audio files are being offered to the public for further tinkering under a Creative Commons License. Bonus points to the first person who remixes them into a Cynthia Nixon 2018 campaign ad.
Location: The Internet
Price: Free
Time: 24/7/365
—Tim Schneider
Tuesday, May 15–Thursday, May 24
Gallim. Photo by Stephanie Berger.
4. “Gallim: (C)arbon” at the Met Breuer
Catch the world premiere of (C)arbon, a new piece from Andrea Miller, the Met’s first choreographer artist in residence, at the Met Breuer. The performance, by the dancers of Gallim, is being held in conjunction with “Like Life: Sculpture, Color, and the Body (1300–Now),” on view through July 22, as though the sculptures in the show have come to life.
Location: The Met Breuer, 945 Madison Avenue, Fifth floor
Price: Free with $25 museum admission
Time: Open rehearsals May 15, 16, 17, 2 p.m.–5 p.m.; World premiere May 18 and 19, 2 p.m.–3:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m.–6 p.m., and 6:30 p.m.–8 p.m.; May 20, May 22–24, 11 a.m–12:30 p.m., 1 p.m.–2:30 p.m., and 3:30 p.m.–5 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Wednesday, May 16–Saturday, June 30
Geoff Blackwell and Ruth Hobday, 200 Women: Who Will Change the World. Courtesy of Chronicle Books.
5. “200 Women: Who Will Change the Way You See the World” at Pen + Brush
Geoff Blackwell and Ruth Hobday’s storytelling project and book 200 Women, featuring interviews with subjects including Ashley Judd, Margaret Atwood, Angela Davis, and Jane Goodall about five fundamental questions, gets a gallery show featuring the photographs of Kieran E. Scott. Each woman, regardless of her age, race, religion, or other identifying factors, is photographed against a plain fabric backdrop. The portraits and their stories invite the viewer to consider issues of diversity and equality.
Location: Pen + Brush, 29 East 22nd Street
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, May 17–Saturday, May 26
Aidan Barker-Hill, Xanthe in Red. Courtesy of the New York Academy of Art.
6. “2018 MFA Thesis Exhibition” at the New York Academy of Art
The New York Academy of Art holds its annual MFA thesis show, featuring the 44 graduating members of the class of 2018.
Location: New York Academy of Art, 111 Franklin Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 5 p.m.–7 p.m.; daily, 9 a.m.–8 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, May 17–Saturday, June 23
Melanie Daniel, The New Gods (2018). Courtesy the artist and Asya Geisberg Gallery.
7. “Melanie Daniel: Late Bloomers” at Asya Geisberg Gallery
For her fourth solo show at the gallery, the artist presents narrative paintings packed with psychedelic hues and papier mache sculptures of fantastical plants. Daniel introduces viewers to “a desolate sun-drenched paradise in the near future” where characters attempt to reconnect with nature and rebuild their world.
Location: Asya Geisberg Gallery, 537b West 23rd Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Eileen Kinsella
Thursday, May 17–Sunday, June 17
Nathaniel Robinson, Cup 2 (2018). Photo courtesy of Magenta Plains.
8. “Nathaniel Robinson: No One’s Things” at Magenta Plains
The obscure inspiration for Nathaniel Robinson’s new show is a bit of legal jargon: res nulls, the concept of property without an owner, that can be claimed by anyone. He’s created sculptures of everyday objects that fit this designation, such as a milk carton or a bent paper cup.
Location: Magenta Plains, 94 Allen Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Wednesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, May 17–Sunday, July 8
Maia Cruz Palileo’s Lover at Woodland Creek (Bat’s Land) (2018). Courtesy of the artist and Pioneer Works.
9. “Maia Cruz Palileo: Meandering Curves of a Creek” at Pioneer Works
In her first institutional solo show, Maia Cruz Palileo presents recent paintings and drawings inspired by demeaning ethnographic photographs taken in the Philippines at the turn of the 19th century by American zoologist and Secretary of the Interior Dean C. Worcester. Informed by the artist’s Filipino-American heritage, the works also reference the 1820s watercolors of Filipino painter Damián Domingo, and the writings of Isabelo De Los Reyes, who documented pre-colonial Filipino culture in the 1889 manuscript El Folk-lore Filipino.
Location: Pioneer Works, 159 Pioneer Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 7 p.m.–9 p.m.; Wednesday–Sunday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
May 17–July 8, opening reception 7 p.m.–9 p.m.; 159 Pioneer Street
Friday, May 18
David Bowie (1973). Photo by Masayoshi Sukita. ©Sukita/The David Bowie Archive.
10. “Dance Party: Night of 1,000 Bowies” at the Brooklyn Museum
Pay homage to Ziggy Stardust at this David Bowie-themed dance party at the Brooklyn Museum—part of the programming for “David Bowie Is,” on view through July 15—which invites attendees to don their best looks inspired by the singer’s multi-faceted career.
Location: The Brooklyn Museum 200 Eastern Parkway
Price: $10
Time: 8 p.m.–11 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Friday, May 18–Sunday, September 23
Wayne Thiebaud, Candy Sticks (1964). © Wayne Thiebaud/Licensed by VAGA, New York.
11. “Wayne Thiebaud, Draftsman” at the Morgan Library & Museum
The California artist Wayne Thiebaud is best known for his paintings of pastries, cakes, and all manner of confections, but finally, he’ll get his due as a draftsman at the Morgan Library’s new exhibition. Thiebaud, like so many other artists of his generation, began his career as an illustrator and cartoonist, and in looking at his early sketches, charcoal drawings, and watercolor works, his heavily impasto paintings become that much more enjoyable, understanding the framework on which they’re built.
Location: Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Avenue
Price: $20 general admission; free Fridays 7 p.m.–9 p.m.
Time: Tuesday–Thursday, 10:30 a.m.–5 p.m.; Friday, 10:30 a.m.–9 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Caroline Goldstein
Saturday, May 19–Sunday, November 11
Mary Mattingly, Proposal for Storm King in Zone 10. Rendering courtesy the artist.
12. “Indicators: Artists on Climate Change” at Storm King Art Center
More than a dozen artists explore the potential impacts of climate change, illustrating the threats to our planet in indoor and outdoor installations, some specially created for Storm King. The works take a wide range of scientific, cultural, and aesthetic perspectives, and aim to promote awareness of this crucial issue.
Location: Storm King Art Center, 1 Museum Road, New Windsor
Price: $18
Time: VIP opening reception, 9 a.m.–1 p.m., open to the public 1 p.m.–5:30 p.m.; Wednesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.; open until 8 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday beginning May 25
—Sarah Cascone
Through Saturday, May 19
A collage of works by Ann Wilson that serves as the back cover of the catalogue for her new exhibition ” 1 SAINT IN 3 ACTS: A Retrospective of the Works of
Ann Wilson” at the Emily Harvey Foundation. Courtesy of the Emily Harvey Foundation.
13. “1 SAINT IN 3 ACTS: A Retrospective of the Works of Ann Wilson” at the Emily Harvey Foundation
Ann Wilson, whose work can be found in the collection of New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art, gets her first retrospective. Living and working in New York from the 1950s to the ’90s, Wilson had a wide-ranging oeuvre, from performance and installation to large-scale quilt paintings, all of which are represented or documented at the Emily Harvey Foundation, which is dedicated to promoting the work of “mature” artists.
Location: Emily Harvey Foundation, 537 Broadway, second floor
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 1 p.m.–7 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Sunday, May 20
Installation view of “Lucy Dodd: May Flower” at David Lewis Gallery.
14. “Lucy Dodd: May Flower” at David Lewis Gallery
The paint-splattered canvases and shaggy-dog draped furniture in Lucy Dodd’s show at David Lewis are supposedly imbued with mythological ideas, but they are just as compelling as experiments in texture, color, and form.
Location: David Lewis Gallery, 88 Eldridge Street Fifth Floor
Price: Free
Time: Wednesday–Sunday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Caroline Goldstein
Through Sunday, June 17
Installation view of Liz Deschenes’s “Rates (Frames per Second).” Miguel Abreu Gallery, New York, 2018. Courtesy of the artist and Miguel Abreu Gallery, New York. Photo: Adam Reich.
15. “Liz Deschenes: Rates (Frames per Second)” at Miguel Abreu Gallery
In 1889, scientist Étienne-Jules Marey created a machine that produced 60 photographs per second—an invention that laid the groundwork for motion pictures. However, Marey wasn’t interested in the technology’s capacity for illusion or entertainment; he was trying to use photography to understand the relationship between movement, space, and time. This is the jumping off point for “Rates (Frames per Second),” Liz Deschenes’s heady new exhibition at Miguel Abreu Gallery’s two locations. The show brings together several new series of silver-toned photograms—a material the artist has worked with before—meticulously spaced from one another. Like Marey’s machine, the experience of walking along the installation simulates the recorded passage of time.
Location: Miguel Abreu Gallery, 88 Eldridge Street and 36 Orchard Street
Price: Free
Time: Wednesday–Sunday, 10:30 a.m.–6:30 p.m.
—Taylor Dafoe