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 24
Virtual Curatorial Leadership Summit. Courtesy of the Armory Show.
1. “What’s in the X?: Making Sense of the Latin American/Latinx Art Debate” at the Armory Show, New York
The Armory Show kicks off its 2022 Curatorial Leadership Summit, chaired by Mari Carmen Ramírez, curator of Latin American art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, with a conversation about whether to say Latin American, Latino, Latina, or Latinx. The panel, moderated by Ramírez, will discuss the terminology’s historical and theoretical foundation, and how it relates to curatorial and institutional practices.
Price: Free with registration
Time: 1 p.m.–2:15 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Wednesday, May 25
Installation view “Peter Nadin, The Distance From A Lemon To Murder” at Off Paradise. Photo: Guillaume Ziccarelli. Courtesy of the artist and Off Paradise New York.
2. Peter Nadin in Conversation with Randy Kennedy at Off Paradise, New York
This week, artist Peter Nadin and author Randy Kennedy will be in conversation at Tribeca’s Off Paradise gallery, where an exhibition of Nadin’s work, titled “The Distance From a Lemon to Murder,” is on view through June 23. The show marks Nadin’s return to “painting from life,” after an extended departure from the commercial art world. In the series, Nadin focuses on the meticulous process of grafting a lemon scion (the fruit and branches that stick above ground) to the rootstock of a sour orange (the underground root system and trunk). Nadin’s sculptural paintings are musings on the notion of grafting information and experiences to form our individual realities. Speaking to the Paris Review ahead of their conversation, Nadin recalled reading that Stalin grafted lemon trees, a practice he would take part in between signing the death warrants of hundreds of individuals. “That difference between the actions, the careful grafting and the mass horror,” Nadin said, “I realize now, must have been in my mind without knowing it.”
Location: Off Paradise, 120 Walker Street (the talk will also be livestreamed at @offparadise, and available later for viewing online.)
Price: Free with RSVP
Time: 6:30 p.m.
—Caroline Goldstein
“Just Wide Enough to Hold the Weight,” installation view. Photo courtesy of Baxter St Camera Club of New York.
3. “In Conversation: Just Wide Enough to Hold the Weight” at Baxter St Camera Club of New York
Baxter St. Camera Club of New York presents a virtual conversation with curators Drew Sawyer and Phalguni Guliani and photographers Marvel Harris and Siddhartha Hajra, in conjunction with the gallery’s current show, “Just Wide Enough to Hold the Weight” (through June 8). The exhibition, which also features work by Soumya Sankar Bose, is an exploration of the three artists’ queer and trans identities through self-portraiture and staged scenes.
Price: Free with registration
Time: 11 a.m.
—Neha Jambhekar
Faith Ringgold, Matisse’s Model: The French Collection Part I, #5 (1991). © Faith Ringgold / ARS, NY and DACS, London, courtesy ACA Galleries, New York 2022.
4. “On Faith: Artists on Faith Ringgold’s Influence” at the New Museum, New York
Catch artists Diedrick Brackens, Tomashi Jackson, and Tschabalala Self in conversation about the massive artistic influence of Faith Ringgold, timed to the nonagenarian’s current retrospective at the New Museum, “Faith Ringgold: American People” (through June 5, 2022). Writer and curator LeRonn Brooks, a contributor to the exhibition catalogue, will moderate.
Location: New Museum, 235 Bowery, New York
Price: $15 general admission
Time: 7 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, May 26–Friday, June 24
Audrey Flack, Glass Forest I (1954). Courtesy of Hollis Taggart, New York.
5. “Audrey Flack: Force of Nature” at Hollis Taggart, New York
Audrey Flack celebrates her upcoming 91st birthday (on May 30) with a show of never-before-seen works on paper, as well as Abstract Expressionist paintings from the 1950s and ’60s. The gallery uncovered the early works on paper while conducting archival research in the artist’s studio. Dating from the period between Flack’s graduation from the High School of Music and Arts in Harlem, her time at New York City’s Cooper Union, and her studies under Josef Albers at Yale, these paintings show the young artist’s development as she came to embrace the Ab-Ex movement.
Location: Hollis Taggart, 521 West 26th Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Open reception (RSVP required) 5 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, May 26
Robert Motherwell’s studio in Greenwich, Connecticut, January 1986. Photo by Renate Ponsold, courtesy of Kasmin, New York.
6. “In Conversation: Robert Motherwell’s Lyric Suite” at Kasmin, New York
Katy Rogers of the Dedalus Foundation, the director of the Robert Motherwell catalogue raisonné project, will talk with Kasmin senior director Eric Gleason about the artist’s “Lyric Suite” series, which is currently featured in a show of 60 works on paper at the gallery (through June 4). Motherwell painted the works over just a few weeks in 1965, translating his mastery of color and form to an unusually small scale: nine-by-11-inch sheets of unryu paper, purchased at a Japanese store in New York.
Location: Kasmin, 297 Tenth Avenue, New York
Price: Free with registration (attendance is limited)
Time: 6:30 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Courtesy Seven Stories Press.
7. “Art & Crime: Stefan Koldehoff and Tobias Timm in Conversation” at Goethe-Institut New York
New York Times critic-at-large Jason Farago and artist Hito Steyerl will be speaking during what will surely be a lively conversation with Stefan Koldehoff and Tobias Timm, the German authors of a new book called Art & Crime. The book lifts the hood and looks at the secretive—and rather unregulated—global business of art, exposing the inner workings of its various criminal activities, from museum thefts to money laundering schemes. Vividly capturing the stories of brazen crimes, some of which are almost too bizarre to believe (there is a chapter on the art owned by former president Donald Trump and a chapter on the somewhat botched theft of a huge golden dollar in Berlin), this informative nonfiction book analyzes episodes in modern history, looking at how billionaires hide their wealth—the two ask what must change to make the art industry a better place.
Location: Goethe-Institut New York, 30 Irving Place, New York
Price: Free with registration
Time: 5:30 p.m.
—Kate Brown
Thursday, May 26–Saturday, July 16
Keisha Prioloeau-Martin, Morning Routine: Water the Plants (2022). Courtesy of Olympia.
8. “Keisha Prioleau-Martin: Garden Party” at Olympia, New York
Olympia presents the first solo exhibition of New York artist Keisha Prioleau-Martin, curated by Nilufa Yeasmin. Having spent her whole life in New York, Prioleau-Martin paints verdant scenes of indoor and outdoor urban spaces. The joyful works depict people coming together to share and enjoy nature as it is available to those in populated cities. The show also presents a new body of sculptures by the artist.
Location: Olympia, 41 Orchard Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Opening Reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.
—Neha Jambhekar
Saturday, May 28–Sunday, July 24
9. “What a Long Strange Trip” at Analog Diary, Beacon, New York
Derek Eller, Abby Messitte, Katharine Overgaard, and Franklin Parrasch are teaming up to open a new gallery, Analog Diary, in Beacon, New York. The new venture will be “a space where thinking about art without the mind clutter of an Instagrammable frame of reference is possible,” according to a statement for the inaugural exhibition. “What is off the table is the notion of ‘off the table’—concepts of exclusion and a restricted mindset are not a thing here.” Reflecting this rejection of prescribed categories, the gallery is opening with a wide-ranging group show featuring Jose Alvarez (D.O.P.A.), Radcliffe Bailey, Nicole Cherubini, Zoë Charlton, Al Freeman, Miles Huston, Lee Quiñones, and Dorothea Tanning, among others.
Location: Analog Diary, 1154 North Avenue, Beacon, New York
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 4 p.m.–6 p.m; Saturday and Sunday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Sunday, May 29 and Monday, May 30
Neil deGrasse Tyson, Manhattanhenge (2001), sunset looking down 34th Street. One of two days when the sunset is exactly aligned with the grid of streets in Manhattan. Photo ©Neil deGrasse Tyson, courtesy of the American Museum of Natural History.
10. “Manhattanhenge” in New York City
Perhaps the year’s most eagerly awaited natural phenomena, Manhattanhenge— which sees the sunset align with the street grid, similar to Stonehenge on the Summer Solstice—is so beautiful it’s almost a work of art in its own right. And the canyon effect, with the red-gold glow of the setting sun, is catnip for photographers, many of whom document the event each year. If you’re out of town for Memorial Day Weekend (or if the weather doesn’t cooperate), you’ll have a second bite at the apple at 8:20 p.m. on July 11 and 8:21 p.m. on July 12. Plus, the Manhattanhenge effect will still be in evidence between the two sets of dates, so keep on the sunsets in general this time of year to get a sense of the astronomical wonder.
Location: Cross streets in Manhattan looking west, from 14th Street up to Washington Heights, with particularly good viewing points at 145th Street, 72nd Street, and 42nd Street, as well as in Long Island City at Gantry Plaza State Park
Price: Free
Time: May 29, 8:13 p.m., and May 30, 8:12 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Saturday, June 25
Moonlight Room, Installation View, Courtesy of Carvalho Park
11. “Moonlight Room: Krista Louise Smith and Rosalind Tallmadge” at Carvalho Park, Brooklyn
Carvalho Park presents a two-person painting exhibition by Brooklyn-based artists Krista Louise Smith and Rosalind Tallmadge. Both artists present serene, monochromatic works in various shades of pale pastel, “offering a transcendent cohesion” of their styles. Dreamy pink and blue hues of the sky appear in Smith’s paintings, often inspired by her travels, and particularly her recent trips to New Mexico’s desert. Tallmadge’s works are infused with light and glimmer, invoking geological elements through the use of materials such as fabric, mica flakes, and marble dust. The effect of them together is like “being wrapped in a serene, feminized glow,” according to co-founder Jennifer Carvalho.
Location: Carvalho Park, 112 Waterbury Street, Brooklyn
Price: Free
Time: Thursday–Saturday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.
—Neha Jambhekar
Through Sunday, August 28
Renee Cox, Miss Thang, from the series “The Discreet Charm of the Bougies” (2009). Photo courtesy of the artist.
12. “Black Venus” at Fotografiska New York
This wide-ranging show curated by Aindrea Emelife examines Western representations of the Black female body. By including archival images from 1793 to 1930, as well as contemporary photography from 1975 to the present, the exhibition allows Black women to reclaim their agency, rejecting the fetishization and sexual objectification faced by previous generations. Featured contemporary artists were born from 1942 to 1997, with an intergenerational mix that includes Kara Walker, Carrie Mae Weems, Zanele Muholi, and Renee Cox.
Location: Fotografiska, 281 Park Avenue, New York
Price: $26 general admission
Time: 9 a.m.―9 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Through Saturday, June 18
Evelyn Statsinger, Forest Gift (1987). Courtesy of Gray New York.
13. “Evelyn Statsinger: Currents” at Gray New York
For decades, the Chicago-based artist Evelyn Statsinger (1927–2016) created drawings, paintings, and sculptures of the natural world. The artist’s early works from the 1950s were kind of all-over botanical patterns and drew the admiration of the likes of Mies Van Der Rohe. In fact, Statsinger had two exhibitions of her work at the Art Institute of Chicago, first in 1952 and then again in 1957. Statsinger’s later works, though, are particularly beguiling, as this exhibition organized by writer and curator Dan Nadel makes clear. In these peculiar visions, the artist forgoes naturalism and identifiable forms for abstracted and fantastical depictions of nature that feel both wholly out of this world and of the moment.
Location: Gray New York, 1018 Madison Avenue, 2nd floor, New York
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m
—Katie White