Each week, we search New York City for the most exciting, and thought-provoking, shows, screenings, and events. See them below.
Tuesday, May 16–27
Naudline Pierre, The Visit, paintings photographed at New York Academy of Art. Photo courtesy New York Academy of Art.
2017 MFA Thesis Exhibition at the New York Academy of Art
These artists are ready to graduate and enter “the real (art) world.” The New York Academy’s class of 2017 hosts its MFA thesis exhibition after two years of toil at the Academy, one of the leading art programs in figurative art in the country. The 56-person class includes students from 23 countries, including Portugal, Greece, Sri Lanka, the Ivory Coast, Chile, Thailand, and Iceland. They’ve exhibited internationally and have had works in shows at the Brooklyn Museum and Saatchi Gallery, and have been featured in The New York Times, the Huffington Post, and ARTnews.
Location: New York Academy of Art, 111 Franklin Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Monday–Saturday, 9 a.m.–8 p.m.; Sunday, 12 p.m.–8 p.m. or by appointment
—Sarbani Ghosh
Wednesday, May 17
“Clarice Jensen and Jonathan Turner: For this from that will be filled.” Courtesy of the Kitchen.
“Clarice Jensen and Jonathan Turner: For this from that will be filled″ at the Kitchen
This is the world premiere of three compositions by cellist Clarice Jensen and artist Jonathan Turner exploring the difference between acoustic and electronic sound, the single cello multiplied and made more sonically complex through effect pedals, tape loops, repetition, and layering.
Location: The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street
Price: $15
Time: 7:30 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Wednesday, May 17–Friday, June 30
Nicole Awai, Vista 2-Where is Joe?, 2013. Photo courtesy Lesley Heller Workspace.
“Nicole Awai: Vistas” at Lesley Heller Workspace
Nicole Awai‘s first show at Lesley Heller features work from her Vistas series, which she has been working on since the mid-2000s. Influenced by La Brea Pitch Lake in her home country of Trinidad, the largest natural deposit of asphalt in the world, and using unusual materials like melted vinyl, nail polish, nylon mesh, and found doll parts, Awai creates black oozing sculptures that become a fluid ground from which to explore cultural dialogues.
Location: Lesley Heller Workspace, 54 Orchard Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Wednesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m., Sunday 12 p.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarbani Ghosh
Thursday, May 18–June 24
Annie Morris, Stack 10 Cobalt Blue (2017). Image courtesy of the artist and gallery.
Annie Morris, “Cobalt Blue” at Winston Wächter Fine Art
In her most ambitious project to date, Annie Morris’s new solo exhibition features the more than 11-foot-tall sculpture Stack 10 Cobalt Blue. The piece consists of ten colorfully painted bronze boulders, stacked on top of one another to resemble a sort of whimsical totem, in the vein of Ugo Rondinone’s psychedelic Las Vegas sculptures, yet has clear lineage in minimalist earthworks. The sculpture was cast at the same foundry used by Barbara Hepworth, and utilizes a painstaking method of applying layers of pigments to the bronzed objects, imbuing them with a glowing quality that is luminous. The artist will be in attendance at the opening reception.
Location: 530 West 25th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Caroline Goldstein
Thursday, May 18–June 17
Jasper de Beijer, The Brazilian Suitcase (Part 2) #1 (2015). Courtesy the artist and Asya Geisberg Gallery.
Jasper de Beijer “The Brazilian Suitcase” at Asya Geisberg Gallery
The latest solo exhibition of photography by Dutch artist Jasper de Beijer is described as a “travelogue of imaginary expeditions in search of a lost civilization in the Amazon.” The work is a mix of research, fictional narrative, staged photography and virtual reality. De Beijer’s work often touches on themes related to colonialism, corruption and the idea of the “noble savage.” The show consists of three distinct sets—black and white footage stills, smaller color works, and large color landscapes. Each series describes fabricated events occurring in 1926, 1979 and 2016.
Location: 537b West 23rd Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Eileen Kinsella
Thursday, May 18–Sunday, June 11
Mary Heilmann, Vivian (2015). Courtesy 303 Gallery, New York, and Hauser & Wirth/photographer John Berens.
“Exhibition of Work by Newly Elected Members and Recipients of Honors and Awards″ at the American Academy of Arts and Letters
Founded in 1898 by the likes of William Merritt Chase, Childe Hassam, Theodore Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson, the American Academy of Arts and Letters this year welcomes Mary Heilmann, Julie Mehretu, Annabelle Selldorf, and Stanley Whitney to its ranks. Their work will be exhibited along that of Wayne Thiebaud, honored with the Gold Medal for Painter, and architecture award members including Theaster Gates.
Location: American Academy of Arts and Letters, 633 West 155th Street, at Audubon Terrace in Washington Heights
Price: Free
Time: Thursday–Sunday, 1 p.m.–4 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, May 18–Saturday, June 17
Shirin Neshat, Untitled, from the “Roja” series (2016). Courtesy of Gladstone Gallery.
“Shirin Neshat: Dreamers″ at Gladstone Gallery
Iranian-born artist and filmmaker Shirin Neshat’s upcoming exhibition at Gladstone Gallery is perhaps her most timely work yet, given the Trump administration’s thus-far unsuccessful effort to ban immigrants from Iran and six other Muslim majority countries. In a film, Roja, and new photographs, Neshat explores the tensions of life as an Iranian in the US.
Location: 515 West 24th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, May 18–Friday, June 30
Cameron Welch, for Eurydice. Photo courtesy Yours Mine and Ours Gallery.
“Cameron Welch: Hide and Seek” at yours mine & ours
“Hide and Seek,” Cameron Welch‘s first show with yours mine & ours, presents a series of new large-scale works in which Welch examines his own identity on canvas and asks us to put the pieces together. His mixed-media works draw on nostalgia, repeating images from 20th-century advertising and media to critique and question stereotypes, associations, issues of class, gender, and race. Continuing a tradition of found and collaged objects and images, referencing Dada, Surrealism, and Arte Povera, Welch creates a messy, complicated reflection of society.
Location: yours mine & ours Gallery, 54 Eldridge Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Wednesday–Sunday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarbani Ghosh
Thursday, May 18–Friday, July 7
Markus Lüpertz, Untitled (2017). Image courtesy of Michael Werner Gallery New York and London.
Markus Lüpertz: New Paintings at Michael Werner
Markus Lüpertz is having a moment—this spring he is the subject of not one but two career retrospectives in Washington, DC, along with this gallery show at Michael Werner in New York. Lüpertz (b. 1941) began his career as part of the neo-expressionist movement in Germany, where the younger generation sought to distinguish themselves from the pop art and Abstract Expressionist aesthetics that had prevailed for decades. Lüpertz is still making new work, and the selection of paintings at Michael Werner provides a strong counterpoint to the retrospectives in DC.
Location: 4 E. 77th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
“Markus Lüpertz” at the Phillips Collection is open May 27–September 3; “Markus Lüpertz: Threads of History” is at the Hirshhorn Museum May 24–September 10.
—Caroline Goldstein
Emily Noelle Lambert, Pink Time (2017). Courtesy of Denny Gallery.
“Emily Noelle Lambert: Bellow″ at Denny Gallery
Emily Noelle Lambert′s work blends Cubism and Impressionism, abstraction and figuration, to create her own unique contemporary take on painting, informed by her work as a sculptor. Her second solo show at Denny Gallery was produced during a residency in the Brittany region of France, and draws on the region’s gardens and landscapes for inspiration.
Location: Denny Gallery, 261 Broome Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Saturday, May 20–Saturday, June 3
Emma Sulkowicz, The Ship is Sinking. Courtesy of Emma Sulkowicz.
Whitney Independent Study Program Studio Exhibition at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Project Space
The 14 participants in the 2017 Whitney Independent Study Studio Program share what they’ve been working on for the past year. Performance artist Emma Sulkowicz, known for her Columbia thesis, Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight) tells us that “if all goes according to plan, I’ll be suspended from the ceiling in a bikini at the opening reception.” Work from Eleana Antonaki, Sue Jeong Ka, Oma Mismar, Joe Riley, Laurie Robbins, and Elizabeth Webb, among other artists, will also be on view.
Location: Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Project Space, 323 West 39th Street, 2nd Floor
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 5 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone