Each week, we search for the most exciting and thought-provoking shows, screenings, and events, both digitally and in-person in the New York area. See our picks from around the world below. (Times are all ET unless otherwise noted.)

Tuesday, May 17

Photo by Susannah Ray.

1. “Susannah Ray in Conversation With Sean Corcoran” at the Rockaway Hotel and Spa, Queens

The Rockaway Hotel is organizing a new conversation series featuring artists and authors with ties to the Rockaway community. This week, Sean Corcoran, curator of prints and photographs at the Museum of the City of New York, will talk with Rockaway photographer Susannah Ray about how her work explores the way the water shapes the lives of New Yorkers.

Location: The Rockaway Hotel and Spa, 108-10 Rockaway Beach Drive, Queens
Price: Free with RSVP
Time: 7 p.m.–8 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Tuesday, May 17–Sunday, May 22

Installation view of “Oscar Zabala: Above/Below” at the Museum of Future Experiences, Brooklyn. Photo courtesy of the artist.

2. “Oscar Zabala: Above/Below” at the Museum of Future Experiences, Brooklyn

To create the audio-visual installation for his first solo show, Oscar Zabala combined A.I.-generated images trained on his photos of underground raves with his images of skies in New York City, New Mexico, and Arizona, shot on 35 mm film. The resulting footage will be screened on a rotating seven-foot LED display cube in New York’s only Ambisonic 3D spatial-sound theater, at the Museum of Future Experiences in Williamsburg. Still images from both the “Above” and “Below” series have also been made into large-format mixed-medium prints on view in the venue’s traditional gallery space, while related work is available for purchase in Zabala’s new “The ORBS Series” NFT drop.

Location: Museum of Special Experiences, 148 Grand Street, Brooklyn
Price: $25
Time: Wednesday and Thursday, 5 p.m.–11 p.m.; Friday, 5 p.m.–12 a.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 12 p.m.–12 a.m.

—Tanner West

Tuesday, May 17–Tuesday, May 24

Pedro Reyes, Amnesia Atómica in Mexico City in 2020. Photo courtesy of the artist and Times Square Arts.

3. “Amnesia Atómica NYC: Zero Nukes” at Times Square, New York

An inflatable mushroom cloud sculpture—ZERO NUKES by Mexican artist Pedro Reyes—will spend the week in the heart of Times Square as part of an effort to raise awareness of the anti-nuclear movement. The project, presented by Times Square Arts and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which run the Doomsday Clock, includes two-day Mobilization Expo on May 19 and 20 with talks from experts in the field, a VR experience, and other activities. Reyes will also stage a new participatory work, Stockpile, handing out 12,075 rocket shaped balloons to members of the public who share the ZERO NUKES hashtag on social media or follow participating organization.

Location: Times Square, Duffy Square, Broadway at West 46th Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Mobilization Expo, Thursday, 12 p.m.–8 p.m. and Friday, 12 p.m.–8 p.m.; ZERO NUKES performance series, Tuesday–Friday and Monday, 2 p.m.–4 p.m.; Stockpile handout, daily, 4 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Tuesday, May 17–Sunday, November 27

Kiyan Williams, Ruins of Empire, installation view in “Black Atlantic” at Brooklyn Bridge Park, New York City. Photo by Nicholas Knight, courtesy of Public Art Fund, New York.

4. “Black Atlantic” at Brooklyn Bridge Park

Artist Hugh Hayden worked with Public Art Fund curator Daniel S. Palmer to curate this group show inspired by the African diaspora in both the Americas and Europe, staged at a historic port in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Sculptures by Hayden, Leilah Babirye, Dozie Kanu, Tau Lewis, and Kiyan Williams draw on both personal and global histories to speak to how transatlantic cultural exchange has led those of African descent of their generation to develop complex hybrid identities.

Location: Brooklyn Bridge Park, Piers 1, 2, and 3, Brooklyn
Price: Free
Time: On view daily at all times

—Sarah Cascone

Through Wednesday, May 18

Khatia Esartia, See Something Say Something (2022). Courtesy of Marisa Newman Projects, New York.

5. “Khatia Esartia: My Sweet Potato” at Marisa Newman Projects, New York

The lead character in Khatia Esartia’s new series of paintings is Fluffy, who is trying to retrieve a sweet potato that has gone missing from the dinner table. But this absurdist quest has darker undertones, inspired by the artist’s own search for normalcy after fleeing to the U.S. as a refugee from Georgia. “When I came to this country, I was fleeing the war, but I didn’t see actual war, I didn’t see dead bodies in the streets, I got out easy,” the artist said in a statement. “Or easier than most.”

Location: Marisa Newman Projects, 38 West 32nd Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: 1 p.m.–6 p.m.; closing reception 6 p.m.–8 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Wednesday, May 18

The Brooklyn Museum on March 20, 2020. Photo: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images.

6. “Plates for Change Annual Chef Showcase” hosted by Neighbors Together at the Brooklyn Museum

Celebrate 30 local chefs, wineries, breweries, and caterers and contribute to the tireless housing advocacy group and community cafe Neighbors Together at the organization’s annual fundraising gala, returning after a two-year hiatus. Menus will include food from Brooklyn favorites Colonia Verde, Buttermilk Channel, Mayfield, and Marlow Events, among others. Neighbors Together is dedicated to providing meals and social services to 10,000 New Yorkers in the predominantly Black and low-income Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bed-Stuy, Brownsville, and Ocean Hill.

Location: Brooklyn Museum, Beaux-Arts Court, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn
Price: General admission, $200
Time: 6:30 p.m. — 9:30 p.m.

—Rachel Corbett

Thursday, May 19

Spike Lee. Photo by Marc Baptiste.

7. “The Gordon Parks Foundation Awards Dinner and Auction” at Cipriani 42nd Street, New York

This year’s Gordon Parks Foundation gala has an especially impressive list of honorees: artist Mark Bradford, philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, producer Tonya Lewis Lee, filmmaker Spike Lee, and the Ford Foundation’s Darren Walker. Plus, LaToya Ruby Frazier will present a special tribute to Cora Taylor, one of Parks’s subjects in his groundbreaking 1956 Life magazine essay about segregation in the Jim Crow South.

Location: Cipriani 42nd Street, 110 East 42nd Street, New York
Price: Tickets from $1,500
Time: 6:30 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Thursday, May 19–Friday, June 24

Courtesy of Monya Rowe Gallery

8. “Emily Marie Miller: Ring of Fire” at Monya Rowe Gallery, New York

Monya Rowe Gallery presents Emily Marie Miller’s second solo exhibition with the gallery. In this new body of work, Miller reimagines a condensed timeline for a female-centric world after the European witch trials in the 17th century. The paintings follow seasonal and moon cycles in which women have forged new lives and cultivated their own culture. In a departure from her previously monochromatic paintings, these works burst with color and celebrate solidarity and collaboration.

Location: Monya Rowe Gallery, 224 West 30th Street, No. 1005, New York, New York
Price: Free
Time: Opening Reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.

—Neha Jambhekar

Thursday, May 19–Saturday, June 25

Chloe Chiasson, The Renegades, (2022). Image courtesy the artist and Albertz Benda.

9. “Chloe Chiasson: Fast Hearts and Slow Towns” at Albertz Benda, New York

This is the first New York solo show for Brooklyn-based Chloe Chiasson, whose mixed-media paintings highlight queer life and visibility by focusing on a range of domestic and social settings. Her process is notable for its combination of painting and carpentry, as well as mixing imagery from different time periods. Chiasson received her BS from the University of Texas at Austin before moving to New York and earning an MFA at the New York Academy of Art. She has been part of international exhibitions in the UK, Germany, and Hong Kong.

Location: Albertz Benda, 515 West 26th Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception 6-8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Eileen Kinsella

Thursday, May 19–Saturday, June 18

Installation view of “Carlito Carvalhosa: Matter As Image” Photo by Charles Roussel. Image courtesy Galeria Nara Roesler.

10. “Carlito Carvalhosa: Matter As Image” at Galeria Nara Roesler, New York

This marks the first solo exhibition since the artist’s passing last year. Carvalhosa was a member of the São Paulo-based collective Grupo Casa 7 in the 1980s, along with Rodrigo Andrade, Fábio Miguez, Nuno Ramos, and Paulo Monteiro. Like his colleagues, he produced large paintings with an emphasis on pictorial gesture. In the late 1980s, after the group disintegrated, he began to experiment with encaustics, making pictures with wax and mixed pigments. In the mid-1990s, he turned to sculpture, making organic and malleable pieces with materials such as the so-called “lost waxes” and also experimented with ceramics. This comprehensive look includes works he produced between 1987 to 2021.

Location: Galeria Nara Roesler, 511 West 21st Street, New York.
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception 6-8 p.m. Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Eileen Kinsella

Friday, May 20–Sunday, June 26

Gary Petersen, Orange Slice, 2022 Courtesy of the artist and McKenzie Fine Art

11. “Gary Petersen” at McKenzie Fine Art, New York

Make sure to see the third solo exhibition of New York-based artist, Gary Petersen, at McKenzie Fine Arts. Working in geometric abstraction, Petersen starts each painting by first sketching out forms and lines on the surface and then adding a thin layer of white paint on top. Then he uses bright, exuberant colors to map out geometric shapes and cutouts. The layer of painting underneath creates an “active spatial play” between the two surfaces. Some of the drawings from Petersen’s recent fellowship at the Bogliasco Foundation in Italy will also be on view in this show.

Location: McKenzie Fine Art, 55 Orchard Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Opening Reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.

—Neha Jambhekar

Friday, May 20–Sunday, October 16, 2022

Marc Quinn, Self 1991 (1991). © Marc Quinn studio

12. “Marc Quinn: History Painting +” at the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

British artist Marc Quinn offers his take on history painting in this exhibition of six works, mostly from the past decade, paired with Yale Center for British Art collection highlights, including examples by Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds, and J. M. W. Turner. Quinn, best known for his extraordinary sculptural self-portraits made of pints of his own blood, says the recent history paintings are “about overturning art historical tropes.”

Location: Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel Street, New Haven, Connecticut
Price: Free
Time: Tuesdays–Saturdays, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; Sundays, 12 p.m.–5 p.m.

—Pac Pobric

Through Monday, May 23

Emma Webster, Chorus (2022). Courtesy of the artist.

13. “Life in an Ivory Tower” at 75 Kenmare Street, New York

Collector and art advisor Jack Siebert presents his first curatorial project in New York City, a group show that celebrates artists whose work conjures worlds that are in some way exotic or out of touch, or disconnected from the mundane realities of everyday life. Featured artists include Amanda Baldwin, Louise Bonnet, Ariana Papademetropoulos, and Emma Webster.

Location: 75 Kenmare Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Through Tuesday, May 24

Nicole Wittenberg, Big Sur (2022). Courtesy of the artist and SFA Advisory.

14. “Nicole Wittenberg: Pastels” at SFA Advisory, New York

Art advisor Lisa Schiff presents the first exhibition dedicated to Nicole Wittenberg’s work in pastels, landscape drawings made en plein air during vacations with friends. Made quickly to capture a fleeting moment—both the view but also the fleeting conditions of the light and weather—the vibrant works on paper serve both as the source for later paintings once Wittenberg is back in the studio, and finished works in their own right.

Location: SFA Advisory, 45 White Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone