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

Monday, November 18

1. ARTWALK NY at Spring Studios

The Coalition for the Homeless is hosting its annual fundraiser for New York’s 62,000 homeless people, ARTWALK NY, now in its 25th year. The honorees are artist Katherine Bernhardt and philanthropist Michael Platt. Artworks by Jenny Holzer, Louise Fishman, and Deborah Kass, as well as a private tour of Yayoi Kusama’s current exhibition at David Zwirner will be on sale. Mia Moretti and Elle Dee will be handling the music, and actress Debi Mazar will be the evening’s special guest.

Location: Spring Studios, 50 Varick Street
Price: $500 and up
Time: Silent auction, 6:30 p.m.; 8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Nan Stewert

Tuesday, November 19

Courtesy of the Museum of Capitalism.

2. “Museum of Capitalism Book Launch” at Interference Archive

Artnet News’s own critic Ben Davis will be speaking on a panel to celebrate the museum’s new book, appearing alongside contributors Rose Linke and Lester Spence. The expanded edition of Inventory Press’s Museum of Capitalism juxtaposes drawings, photographs, essays, and other musings on the state of capitalism, race, historiography, ecology, and documentation of the exhibition, which is on view at the New School through December 10.

Location: Interference Archive, 314 7th Street, Brooklyn
Price: Free
Time: 7 p.m.–8:30 p.m.

—Tanner West

Tuesday, November 19

Jemima Kirke, Grey and Lillia (2019), courtesy of the artist and Sargent’s Daughters.

3. “Jemima Kirke: Scamp” at Sargent’s Daughters

Actress and painter Jemima Kirke’s new portrait series opens this week at Sargent’s Daughters, her second solo show at the gallery. The works show children wearing vintage costumes that the artist acquired over a period of years, but the viewer is left to imagine what the context of their pose signals—and rather than performing for us, the children are seemingly wide eyed and content to do as they please. Informed by both her background as an actor, and her experience as a mother, the images are nuanced depictions of both children and the notion of childhood itself, neither idealized nor categorically unvarnished.

Location: Sargent’s Daughters, 179 East Broadway
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Caroline Goldstein

Wednesday, November 20–Sunday, November 24

Tony Michale Estrada, Becoming Unfinished. Photo courtesy of the artist.

4. “Becoming Unfinished” at Hudson Guild Theater

For his latest show, Tony Michale Estrada will perform twice a day, transforming the art gallery into a theater as he acts out monologues against the backdrop of his work. He’ll also hang around the gallery in between performances, becoming a spectator as visitors take in the show and answering questions.

Location: Hudson Guild Theater, 441 West 26th Street
Price: Free with registration
Time: Daily performances, 1 p.m.–2 p.m. and 7 p.m.–8 p.m.; Wednesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–10 p.m.; Sunday, 12 p.m.–9 p.m.

—Tanner West

Wednesday, November 20–Saturday, January 25, 2020

Suzanne Jackson, Hers and His (2018). Courtesy of Ortuzar Projects.

5. “Suzanne Jackson: News!” at Ortuzar Projects

Despite having a busy career for the past five decades, dabbling in just about every medium out there, this is Suzanne Jackson’s first solo show in New York (better late than never). The Georgia-based artist’s retrospective at the Telfair Museum in Savannah just wrapped up, and this show focuses on her large-scale “anti canvases” that combine assemblage, painting, and textiles, achieving a sort of quilt-like combination of color, form, and texture.

Location: Ortuzar Projects, 9 White Street
Price: Free
Time: Public opening reception, Wednesday evening 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Caroline Goldstein

Wednesday, November 20–Sunday, March 22, 2020

Zilia Sánchez, Lunar con Tatuaje (circa 1968–96). Photo courtesy of El Museo del Barrio.

6. “ZILIA SÁNCHEZ: Soy Isla (I Am an Island)” at El Museo del Barrio 

A show of work by Zilia Sánchez, the Cuban-born 93-year-old artist, is traveling from the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, to El Mueso del Barrio this week. Featured in the hit “Radical Women” exhibition that headlined Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA before traveling to the Brooklyn Museum, Sánchez has struggled in recent years, with Hurricane Maria blowing the roof off her Puerto Rico studio in 2017. The show features more than 40 works, spanning from the 1950s to the present day, with sculptures, paintings, works on paper, graphic illustrations, and other media that often incorporate erotic imagery and female figures from ancient mythology, such as Antigone.

Location: El Museo del Barrio, 1230 Fifth Avenue at 104th Street
Price: $9 suggested donation
Time: Wednesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.; Sunday, 12 p.m.–5 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Thursday, November 21–Saturday, December 21

Hunter Reynolds, The Memorial Dress (1993). Photo: Charles Mayer. Courtesy of PPOW.

7. “Hunter Reynolds: From Drag to Dervish” at PPOW

An historic overview of exhibitions and performances enacted by Patina du Prey, the alter ego of artist Hunter Reynolds. For the first time, du Prey’s works The Banquet Dress, The Memorial Dress, Love Dress, and Mourning Dress will be brought together—each documenting 25,000 names of people who died due to AIDS-related illnesses.

Location: PPOW, 535 West 22nd Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Tanner West

Thursday, November 21–Saturday, January 19

Su-Mei Tse, A Whole Universe (Physalis) (2017). Courtesy of Peter Blum

8. “Su-Mei Tse: In the (very) beginning” at Peter Blum

Su-Mei Tse, who started off as a classically trained cellist, is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice has been described as “not solely seen and heard, but it is felt.” Don’t miss her new works at Peter Blum in an exhibition which promises to be beautiful and ethereal.

Location: 176 Grand Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Friday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Neha Jambhekar

Thursday, November 21

KAWS. Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images.

9. “KAWS in Conversation With Sam Shikiar” at the 92nd Street Y

Brian Donnelly, better known as the street art sensation KAWS, has turned heads with his recent market ascendancy. Now, hear from the man himself on his creative process, how he’s influenced by pop culture, and the overlap between art and merchandise.

Location: 92nd Street Y, Kaufmann Concert Hall, 1395 Lexington Avenue
Price: $45
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Thursday, November 21–Saturday, January 18, 2020

Zipora Fried, Thadeo (2017). Courtesy of Sikkema Jenkins & Co.

10. “Zipora Fried: As the Ground Turns Solid” at Sikkema Jenkins & Co.

Israeli-born, New York-based artist Zipora Fried’s inaugural show with the gallery is informed by her stay in the Lamu Archipelago of Kenya, the most preserved Swahili settlement in East Africa. Fried drew inspiration from the colors of the islands’ distinct flora and fauna, as well as the spirit of the place. The works include colored-pencil drawings whose individual strokes are only visible up close; from far away they look more like lush woven tapestries.

Location: Sikkema Jenkins & Co., 530 West 22nd Street
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Nan Stewart

Thursday, November 21–Sunday, November 24

Emilio Rojas, Naturalized Borders (to Gloria) & m(Other)s: Hudson Valley. Photo courtesy of Bard College.

11. “2019 Live Arts Bard Biennial: Where No Walls Remain” at the Fisher Center

Lebanese artist Tania El Khoury, a 2019 Soros Art Fellow, and Gideon Lester, the Fisher Center’s artistic director for theater and dance, have curated Live Arts Bard’s four-day festival on the theme of borders—between nation states, between physical objects, or between bodies and the world. Events include Naturalized Borders (To Gloria), which is a 72-foot-long row of indigenous crops—the traditional three sisters of corn, beans, and squash—planted at the Bard Farm by Emilio Rojas, and a program of short films about concerns relating to the US-Mexico border titled “The Wall: The Effects of Its Imposing Presence on Migrant Families.”

Location: Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, Manor Avenue, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Thursday, November 21 – Saturday, December 14 

Langdon Graves, Prennial (detail) (2019). Courtesy of Victori + Mo

12. “Langdon Graves: Month’s Mind” at Victori+Mo

With roots in Medieval English tradition, a “month’s mind” is a requiem mass celebrated 30 days after a person’s death, traditionally accompanied by a feast. For the Virginia-born artist Langdon Graves, the mass encapsulates her fascination with mourning rituals, ghost stories, and the allure of occult beliefs and their relationship to grief. Here, Graves’s delicate drawings and sculptures pull from the artist’s own family stories, entwining personal narratives with flowers, votive offerings, and other funerary symbolism. She casts the narratives in relationship to 19th-century Spiritualism and folklore to ask the overarching questions about our contemporary relationship to death and mourning. 

Location: Victori + Mo, 242 West 22nd Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening, 6 p.m.–8 p.m., Saturday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. and by appointment

—Katie White

Friday, November 22–Sunday, August 9, 2020

Top 10 Countries of Origin for the Foreign-Born Population, 2014. Image courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York.

13. “Who We Are: Visualizing NYC by the Numbers” at the Museum of the City of New York

Featuring contributions from historians, journalists, census experts, data analysts, demographers, city planners, contemporary artists, and graphic designers, this exhibition tackles the complex origins of New York City’s eight and a half million residents, timed to the 2020 census. Perhaps the numbers will reveal important truths about who we are as a city and our collective sociocultural identity.

Location: Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue at East 103rd Street
Price: General admission $20
Time: 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Through Saturday, December 21

Robert Longo, Untitled (State of the Union; Washington, DC, USA; February 5, 2019) (2019). Image courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures.

14. “Robert Longo: Fugitive Images” at Metro Pictures

The eight epic charcoal drawings in Longo’s latest exhibition mark the next evolution of his “Destroyer Cycle,” which visualizes the “current politics of power, greed, aggression, and inhumanity” that impacts millions of lives in the US and abroad. Through their subject matter and their monumentality, these photorealist works aim to permanently memorialize harrowing media imagery that might otherwise be replaced all too quickly in our light-speed, ever-churning news cycle. But the final piece in the show supplies a glimmer of hope, embodied by the coalition of progressive female lawmakers who wore white as a silent—but unmistakable—act of solidarity at president Donald Trump’s 2019 State of the Union address.

Location: 519 West 24th Street
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Tim Schneider

Through Sunday, November 24

Yulia Iosilzon, The Misguided Pleasure. Courtesy of Carvalho Park.

15. “Yulia Iosilzon: Paradeisos” at Carvalho Park

Closing this Sunday is London-based artist Yulia Iosilzon’s solo show at Carvalho Park. Stylistically, Iosilzon’s paintings are breezy, recalling the work of Sophie von Hellermann and the children’s book illustrations of Ludwig Bemelmans (Madeline). Scenes from a Bacchanal birthday party are the subject matter. Birds frolic with smiling guests, cake is plentiful, and faces lurk in blades of grass and drops of water—who spiked the punch?

Location: 112 Waterbury Street, Brooklyn
Price: Free
Time: Friday–Sunday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.

—Cristina Cruz