Each week, we search New York City for the most exciting and thought-provoking shows, screenings, and events. In light of the global health crisis, we are currently highlighting events and digitally, as well as in-person exhibitions open in the New York area. See our picks from around the world below. (Times are all EST unless otherwise noted.)

Tuesday, November 24

1. “50 Women Sculptors: Publication Launch and Discussion Panel“

Aurora Metro Arts and Media celebrates its latest publication, 50 Women Sculptors, with a webinar featuring discussion led by artist and academic Joanna Sperryn-Jones. They will also screen a film on some of the artists featured in the book, which pairs historic and famous figures such as Ruth Asawa, Judy Chicago, Eva Hesse, and Sarah Lucas, with less-well-known contemporary artists such as Laury Dizengremel—who designed Aurora’s forthcoming Virginia Woolf statue in London—Susan Stockwell, and Frances Richardson.

Price: Free
Time: 1:30 p.m.–3 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Magritte Parti. Courtesy of Xavier Hufkens.

2. “Nicolas Party and Michel Draguet: Magritte Parti Online Talk and Book Launch“

In 2018 (a year that now seems like a lifetime ago), fast-rising contemporary Surrealist Nicolas Party became the first living artist to be honored with a solo exhibition at the Magritte Museum in Brussels. The newly published Magritte Parti expands on the connections the show drew between Party’s work and that of institutional namesake René Magritte, his forebear in gimlet-eyed, tradition-tweaking imagery. Xavier Hufkens will remotely connect Party with Michel Draguet, the director of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, to further unwind the bonds the two artists share across generations.

Price: Free with registration
Time: Noon ET

—Tim Schneider

Friday, November 27

ETHEL. Photo: Erin Patrice O’Brien.

3. ETHEL and Friends: Balcony Bar from Home at the Met (online)

Who needs in-person concerts when you can wear cozy socks, whip up a cocktail, and enjoy the sounds of string quartet ETHEL from the comfort of your own home? The Met’s Balcony Bar from Home program is presenting a concert from the contemporary music group, who blend familiar classical tunes with modern inflection.

Location: Online via Facebook
Price: Free
Time: 5 p.m.–5:30 p.m.

—Tanner West

Friday, November 27–Tuesday, December 3

The Whitney Museum store.

4. Member Holiday Shopping Week at the Whitney Museum

Beginning Friday, November 27, members will be treated to special discounts at the museum store to get a jump start on holiday shopping—and help provide much-needed support to the institution.

Location: Whitney Museum, 99 Gansevoort Street & online at shop.whitney.org 

—Nan Stewart

Saturday, November 28

Luchita Hurtado in 2020. ©Luchita Hurtado. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo by Fredrik Nilsen.

5. ForYourArt Celebration of Luchita Hurtado

On the date of what would have been artist Luchita Hurtado’s 100th birthday, ForYourArt is presenting an unseen interview between Hurtado and super-curator Hans Ulrich Obrist. The almost two-hour long conversation was recorded back in October 2019 following her exhibition “I Live I Die I Will Be Reborn” at London’s Serpentine Galleries.

Location: Online via ForYourArt
Price: Free
Time: streaming all day

—Caroline Goldstein

Through Sunday, December 27

Kenny Rivero, The Passion (2020). Courtesy of Charles Moffett Gallery.

6. “Kenny Rivero: I Still Hoop” at Charles Moffett Gallery 

When Kenny Rivero began his new series of paintings currently on view at Charles Moffett Gallery he knew that death, and its rituals, would be their unifying theme. He could not have known how this year would bring the realities of death—particularly in Black and brown communities—so painfully into focus. Raised in Washington Heights, Rivero grew up in a Catholic Dominican family—but with relatives who continued the Afro-Caribbean traditions of  Voodoo and Santeria. These disparate references combined in 14 haunting new paintings that together appear like a fever dream of mourning, ritual, and traditions more than of anything of the real world. “The more mystical aspects of my own spiritual practice are where my faith comes into the paintings,” Rivero stated of the series.

But the paintings are not at all doom-and-gloom. Perhaps unexpectedly, one finds a sense of hope and resilience in the works—amid the darkened corners to his paintings appear light-filled windows and street lamps casting halos on the darkened city streets. 

Location: Charles Moffett, 511 Canal Street Second Floor (Buzzer #3)
Price: Free
Time: By appointment

—Katie White

Through Saturday, January 16

Cleve Gray: New Paintings on Paper, Installation View Courtesy of Anders Wahlstedt Fine Art

7. Cleve Gray: New Paintings on Paper at Anders Wahlstedt Fine Art

Anders Wahlstedt Fine Art presents a series of abstract works by artist Cleve Gray in collaboration with Loretta Howard Gallery. The works range from the Ceres series from the 1960s to the calligraphic abstraction in the 1980s. According to the gallery’s statement, these works “touch upon the rigors of French modernism, the ethos of Abstract Expressionism and the meditative restraint of Chinese and Japanese scroll painting.”

Location: Anders Wahlstedt Fine Art, 521 West 26th Street, New York, New York
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m. by appointment

—Neha Jambhekar

Through Wednesday, January 1, 2021

Installation view of Mia Fonssagrives Solow pop-up show at Leila Heller Gallery. Image courtesy of the artist and Leila Heller Gallery.

8. Mia Fonssagrives Solow Pop-Up Show at Leila Heller Gallery, New York

This retrospective shows the range and breadth of the artist’s works, from seminal abstract forms cast in bronze or carved from wood to her most recent bronze and aluminum aliens and monumental fiberglass forms. 

Her “Forms” series examines the simplicity of scale and movement, form and color. And “Aliens,” which touch on the nature of artificial intelligence, are comprised of figurative sculptures made of polished bronze and aluminum. “Imbued with a name, a story, and a personality, each of these sculptures is equal parts human, alien and machine,” the gallery writes.

Location: Leila Heller Gallery, 17 East 76th Street, New York; and pop-up is at 10 West 58th Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Monday–Friday 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; Saturday 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Eileen Kinsella