Each week, we search New York City for the most exciting, and thought-provoking, shows, screenings, and events. See them below.
Monday, October 17
Chloe Wise at the “TOTAL PROOF: The GALA Committee 1995-1997” dinner. Courtesy of BFA.
1. Fun Problems with Smart People: A Book Opening at Red Bull Studios New York
Margaret Silva and Sean Kelley started Grand Arts in 1995, and the contemporary art space lasted for a cool 20 years. It was a strange and exciting rupture in the time-space continuum for Midwesterners and the odd coastal resident who would find him or herself in Kansas City, MO, in the late ’90s or aughts. The space closed its doors on 1819 Grand Boulevard last fall, and now houses a graduate program at the Kansas City Art Institute.
A survey of the space’s projects, Problems and Provocations: Grand Arts 1995-2015, gets a new life at Red Bull Studios in New York, in conjunction with the show TOTAL PROOF: The GALA Committee 1995-97, featuring another moment of late ’90s nostalgia (Grand Arts helped commission GALA’s In the Name of the Place, after all). On Monday, “transcendental tour guide” Speed Levitch will speak about the storied space, while artists Mel Chin, Michael Jones McKean, and Maria Buszek will weigh in. There will also be “guest appearances” by Rosemarie Fiore, Filip Noterdaeme, Stephen Lichty, Emily Roysdon, and John Salves, among others in the Grand Arts orbit.
Location: 220 West 18th Street
Price: Free, but RSVP here.
Time: 7:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m.
—Kathleen Massara
Tuesday, October 18:
Hank Willis Thomas. Courtest of Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images.
2. Hank Willis Thomas, “Townhall: Freedom of Speech” at the International Center of Photography
Ahead of the upcoming presidential election, the artist-run super PAC Four Freedoms, which took over Jack Shainman Gallery this summer, have organized four town hall meetings in Los Angeles and New York. Folks looking to air their grievances in the Big Apple will want to book their tickets to this week’s event soon. The panel discussion to be moderated by PAC co-founders Hank Willis Thomas and Eric Gottesman, and features NYU Law Professor Amy Adler and artist Emma Sulkowicz, among others.
Location: 250 Bowery
Price: Free
Time: 6:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m.
—Rain Embuscado
Tuesday, October 18–Saturday, October 29
Andrew Gori & Ambre Kelly, Couple – Teotihuacan, Mexico, 2014. Courtesy of Equity Gallery © Andrew Gori & Ambre Kelly.
3. “Andrew Gori & Ambre Kelly, SIGHTSEERS” at Equity Gallery
Have you ever wondered how many times you’ve popped up in the background of another tourists’ photograph? In their new show, Andrew Gori and Ambre Kelly have slyly captured images of travelers around the world documenting their vacations, often in selfie form.
“Even in the most photographed destinations, their subjects have a pioneer-like desire to document, collect, and preserve their memories,” said exhibition curator Arielle de Saint Phalle in a statement, noting that the artists “expose the raw, fragile, often humorous, and performative ways in which individuals choose to be remembered.”
Location: 245 Broome Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening 6:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, October 20
Peter Voulkos. Courtesy of photographer Oppi Untracht/American Craft Council Library and Archives.
4. “Panel Discussion: Voulkos, Then and Now” at the Museum of Arts and Design
Timed to the opening of MAD’s new exhibition, “Voulkos: The Breakthrough Years” (October 18, 2016–March 15, 2017), co-curated by former MAD executive director Glenn Adamson and Andrew Perchuk, deputy director of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, this panel discussion will focus on how Peter Voulkos redefined ceramics as a medium. Adamson will moderate the discussion, featuring Perchuk and ceramics artists Nicole Cherubini, Arlene Shechet, and Jame Melchert, Voulkos’s former student.
Location: The Theater at MAD, 2 Columbus Circle
Price: $10
Time: 7:00 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, October 20–Wednesday, October 26
Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, The Old Man of Castille (1907). Courtesy of Otto Naumann Ltd.
5. October Art Week
Inspired by the launch of TEFAF New York, 16 of the Upper East Side’s art galleries will take part in the inaugural October Art Week, showcasing the best they have to offer in Old Master and Impressionist works. All located between East 63rd Street and East 81st Street, participating dealers, including Otto Naumann Ltd., Taylor | Graham, and Andrew Butterfield Fine Arts, will welcome the public for opening night cocktail parties.
Location: 16 Upper East Side Galleries
Price: Free
Time: Opening night receptions, 5:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Friday, October 21–Saturday, October 22
Carolee Schneeman, Fresh Blood A Dream Morphology (1983). Courtesy of P.P.O.W.
6. Carolee Schneemann, “Further Evidence – Exhibit A” and “Further Evidence – Exhibit B” at Galerie Lelong and PPOW
The two-venue solo exhibition of work by Carolee Schneeman is the first since Galerie Lelong and PPOW announced joint representation of the artist last year. Both shows are focused on representation of bodies in captivity and issues related to repressed histories. While Schneeman is perhaps best known for her critically acclaimed works from the 1960s and ’70s, these shows also present later, lesser-known, but important works including large-scale, multi-media installations.
“Further Evidence-Exhibit A,” which will be on view at PPOW, will include the rarely seen work Known/Unknown: Plague Column (1995–96), which mixes collage, sculpture, wall text, photographs, and video. The title is a reference to a commemorative 17th century piece from Vietnam, where the Bubonic plague is represented as a witch. “Further Evidence-Exhibition B” at Galerie Lelong includes multimedia installations that are rooted in the artist’s protest of the Vietnam war as seen in Viet-Flakes (1965), Snows (1967), and Souvenir of Lebanon (1983).
Location: PPOW, 535 West 22nd Street, and Galerie Lelong, 528 West 26th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening night receptions, 6:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m.
—Eileen Kinsella
Friday, October 21–Saturday, October 22
German filmmaker Alexander Kluge on January 22, 2012 in Munich, Germany. Photo by Alexandra Beier/Getty Images.
7. Alexander Kluge at Anthology Film Archives
Alexander Kluge’s theoretical writings, films, and fictions all sit atop their respective forms, even if these works are under-seen and undervalued in the United States. Given the ratio of Kluge’s importance to how little he’s known, it’s doubly important that the great thinker and artist is coming to present some of his lesser known works for an audience at the Anthology Film Archives in New York this week.
What makes the arrival of Kluge all the more poignant is that Anthology’s first ever series (back in 1988) was a retrospective of the German thinker’s work. The conversation will no doubt be fascinating: Kluge’s breadth as a contributor to German art and culture is immense. Aside from his groundbreaking films and novels and philosophical works, he also served as an attorney for (and protege of) members of the Frankfurt School, and, later, he almost single-handedly changed the programming of German television.
Location: Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Ave
Price: $11
Time: Various, with Alexander Kluge in person on Saturday, October 22.
—Jonathon Sturgeon
Friday, October 21—Sunday, November 20
Anna K.E. and Florian Meiseinberg Late Checkout (2016). Photo: SIGNAL via Facebook.
8. Anna K.E. and Florian Meisenberg, “Late Checkout” at SIGNAL
Presenting a site-specific collaborative installation, artists Anna K.E. and Florian Meisenberg will show a series of videos shot in a variety of different transitional locations in New York City at the Bushwick-based gallery SIGNAL. The exhibition will serve as an introduction to the duo’s upcoming collaborative project Electric Forest.
Location: SIGNAL, 260 Johnson Ave., Brooklyn
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 7:00 p.m.—10:00 p.m.
—Henri Neuendorf