Each week, we search New York City for the most exciting and thought-provoking shows, screenings, and events. See them below.

Tuesday, May 29–Saturday, June 23

Maria Fernanda Cardoso, with Ross Rudesch Harley, Still from Circo de pulgas Cardoso (Cardoso Flea Circus) (1997).
©Maria Fernanda Cardoso and Ross Rudesch Harley, distributed by Video Data Bank. Courtesy of Hunter College, Video Data Bank, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and El Museo del Barrio.

1. “QUEENIE: Selected Artworks by Female Artists from El Museo del Barrio’s Permanent Collection” at Hunter East Harlem Gallery

While El Museo del Barrio’s galleries undergo renovations, the institution partnered with Hunter College to open this gem of a show nearby in March. (My fault that I missed it until now.) The exhibition integrates pieces in the museum’s holdings from big names in Latinx art, including Tania Bruguera, Carmen Herrera, and Anna Maria Maiolino, with a host of lesser-known but no less deserving artists. Together, the panoply of voices addresses big questions about society and gender, as well as more intimate ones about local history—specifically, about the lasting (and continuing) influence of women on both El Museo del Barrio and its civic context in the East Harlem neighborhood it shares with Hunter’s gallery.

Location: Hunter East Harlem Gallery, Silberman School of Social Work, 2180 Third Avenue at 119th Street
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, noon–5 p.m.

—Tim Schneider

Wednesday, May 30–Friday, August 10

Left, Delano Dunn, Yesterday’s Chicken, Today’s Gravy, in “Hopes Springing High,” curated by Dan Halm at Spring/Break Art Show 2018. Photo courtesy of the artist.

2. “Delano Dunn: Dreams of Fire and Starshine” at Project for Empty Space

Inspired in part by the hopes he has for his own daughter, Delano Dunn takes an intersectional view of feminism, with a new body of work created during a yearlong residency at Project for Empty Space. The three-part exhibition is at once personal and about society as a whole, investigating the societal structures, or “Jane Crow” laws that hold back women of color, and imagining a potential future, infused with the neon palette of 1980s Los Angeles, that offers equality for all genders.

Location: Project for Empty Space, 2 Gateway Center Gallery, Newark
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Monday–Friday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Thursday, May 31

Tania Bruguera reading from Hannah Arendt’s book “The Origins of Totalitarianism.” Photo by Enrique de la Osa.

3. “The 2018 Ungala” by Cool Culture

Cool Culture’s third annual benefit helps support their work providing free access to New York City cultural institutions to 50,000 low-income families. Artist and activist Tania Bruguera and Eugenie Tsai, the Brooklyn Museum’s senior curator of contemporary art are among the evening’s honorees.

Location: Ogilvy & Mather-636 11th Avenue (between 46 & 47th street)
Price: $275
Time: 7 p.m.–10 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Thursday, May 31–June 16

Tom Murray, The Beatles, Mad Day Out (1968). Photo courtesy of Soho Contemporary.

4. “Tom Murray’s the Beatles Collection, the Mad Day: Summer of ’68” at Soho Contemporary

Fifty years ago, on July 28, 1968, Tom Murray shot the final publicity photographs of all four of the Beatles, shooting on the run across the city of London in order to avoid the group’s adoring fans. The show will also include the first look at the bronze maquette for an eight-foot-tall sculpture, by Andrew Edwards, based on the day’s best-known photograph, in which Paul McCartney nearly falls off the roof while the four are clowning around.

Location: Soho Contemporary, 259 Bowery
Price: Free
Time: Monday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Thursday, May 31–July 16

Heidi Lau, The Blue Peacock (2018). Courtesy of Geary Gallery.

5. “The Sentinels: Rachel Frank and Heidi Lau” at Geary Contemporary

Pairing the work of Rachel Frank and Heidi Lau, this two-person show of sculpture and video features figures who could be perceived as sentinels, standing guard over their domains, such as a massive ceramic serpent by Lau. Frank, who grew up near the important paleontology site of Big Bone Lick, Kentucky, has created patterns for a yurt-like structure that could serve as protection in the event of some future disaster, while her video Vessels stars a person in a wooly mammoth suit.

Location: Geary Contemporary, 185 Varick Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Wednesday–Saturday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Thursday, May 31–Sunday, July 1

Image © Gerard & Kelly, courtesy of Pioneer Works.

6. “Gerard & Kelly: Clockwork” at Pioneer Works

Fresh off a high-profile collaboration with Solange Knowles, artists Brennan Gerard and Ryan Kelly are coming to Red Hook’s Pioneer Works. Their new exhibition focuses on Schindler/Glass (2017), the inaugural film in their Modern Living series, in which the duo create and shoot performances in modernist homes that are conceived to draw out domestic possibilities beyond traditional norms. Gerard and Kelly will also debut new installations and a performance sited to Pioneer Works itself—one engineered to transform the entire building into a meditative, living clock face.

Location: Pioneer Works, 159 Pioneer Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception: Thursday, May 31, 6 p.m.–9 p.m.; Normal hours: Wednesday–Sunday, 12 p.m.–7 p.m.

—Caroline Goldstein

Thursday, May 31–Saturday, September 1

Oliver Lee Jackson, No. 4 (2015). Courtesy of Burning in Water.

7. “Oliver Lee Jackson: Untitled Original” at Burning in Water

At 83, Oliver Lee Jackson gets his first solo show in New York in over 25 years. The Oakland-based artist, who will have a major exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, next year, was heavily influenced by avant-garde jazz, and will present works dating from 1988 to 2016.

Location: Burning in Water, 317 10th Avenue
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m., Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–7 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Friday, June 1

Thelma Golden at Museum of Modern Art on June 2, 2015, in New York City. Courtesy of Neilson Barnard/Getty Images.

8. “Thelma Golden and Kaitlyn Greenidge: Notes from the Reading Life” at the New York Public Library

Thelma Golden, director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, speaks with Kaitlyn Greenidge, author of We Love You, Charlie Freeman, about the books that have inspired each of them throughout their careers.

Location: Harry Belafonte 115th Street Library, 203 West 115th Street
Price: Free with RSVP
Time: 6:30 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Friday, June 1–

Vincent Lindon in Rodin. Film still courtesy of Rodin.

9. Rodin at Quad Cinema

Jacques Doillon’s biopic of famed French sculptor Auguste Rodin, starring Vincent Lindon, is screening for the first time in the US. Before forewarned, however: It was savaged by the Guardian after its Cannes debut in 2017.

Location: Quad Cinema, 34 West 13 Street
Price: $16
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Friday, June 1–Saturday, June 30

10. “Karine Rougier: Wild waves in our hands” at Catinca Tabacaru

This marks the first solo show at the gallery for the Maltese-French artist. Women are the artists’ muses and her paintings depict power and strength in their gathering. The painting that inspired the title of the show depicts three women walking with one holding an impaled human heart on a stick. The artist borrowed the imagery from an Edward Curtis photograph showing Native American men and put her own take on the narrative.

Location: Catinca Tabacaru, 250 Broome Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Wednesday–Sunday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Eileen Kinsella

Friday, June 1–Friday, July 5

Performance still from Kalyna by Zinaida. Courtesy the artist.

11. “Zinaïda: 4.5.0.” at White Box

Ukrainian multidisciplinary artist Zinaïda makes her US solo debut with this show at nonprofit art space White Box titled “4.5.0.” It focuses on images and myths that reflect women’s issues and female identity by drawing inspiration from Ukraine’s culture, heritage, and symbols. The title refers to a code originally used by the Ukrainian military that means everything is “okay” or “at peace” but was later adopted by veterans as a wish for everyday peace and harmony.

Location: White Box, 329 Broome Street
Price: Free with RSVP 
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Sunday, 10:30 a.m.–6:30 p.m.

—Eileen Kinsella

Friday, June 1–Saturday, October 13

Marcus Kenney, Girl with Gun. Photo courtesy of Jonathan Ferrara Gallery.

12. “#UNLOAD: Guns in the Hands of Artists” at Fairfield University Art Museum

New Orleans gallerist Jonathan Ferrara’s traveling exhibition, first staged in 1996, invites artists to make art using decommissioned guns. Still as timely as ever over 20 years later, sadly, the show comes to Connecticut, seeking to generate dialogue about guns and gun violence. The opening reception will include a panel discussion from Ferrara and several of the participating artists, moderated by Helen Klisser During, co-founder and artistic director of #UNLOAD, an arts initiative dedicated to gun violence.

Location: Quick Center for the Arts, Fairfield University Art Museum, Walsh Gallery, 200 Barlow Road, Fairfield, Connecticut
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 5 p.m.–8 p.m.; Wednesday–Saturday, 12 p.m.–4 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone