Plus, an exceptional show of Cuban artist Wifredo Lam at Pace and a survey of climate change at the Museum of the City of New York.
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 E.S.T. unless otherwise noted.)
Laurie Anderson, The Witness Protection Program (The Raven) (2020). Installation view from “Laurie Anderson: The Weather” at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, 2021. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Ron Blunt.
1. “Virtual Realities: Artist Talk with Laurie Anderson and Hsin-Chien Huang“
In conjunction with her largest exhibition to date, “Laurie Anderson: The Weather,” Laurie Anderson will talk with Taiwanese media artist Hsin-Chien Huang about their collaborative virtual reality work. (One piece, 2017’s La camera insabbiata, which won “Best VR Experience” at the Venice International Film Festival, is included in the show.) A pre-recorded conversation between the artists will be followed by a Q&A moderated by Hirshhorn curator Marina Isgro.
Price: Free with Zoom registration, or to watch on YouTube, or Facebook Live
Time: 7 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
“Legacy Russell: On Footnotes” at the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at the New School, New York.
2. “Legacy Russell: On Footnotes” at the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at the New School, New York
For the 15th annual AICA-USA distinguished critic lecture at the New School, writer and curator Legacy Russell considers the power of the footnote, and how it functions as space that expands the realm of the book or the essay to include radical Black, queer, and feminist thought.
Price: Free with registration
Time: 7 p.m.–8:30 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Martine Gutierrez, ANTI-ICON, Judith (2021) in New York City as part of “Martine Gutierrez: Anti-Icon,” an exhibition on 300 JCDecaux bus shelters across New York City, Chicago, and Boston. Photo by Nicholas Knight, courtesy of Public Art Fund, New York. Artwork courtesy the artist and Ryan Lee Gallery, New York.
3. “Public Art Fund Talks: Martine Gutierrez” at Cooper Union, New York
New York-based artist Martine Gutierrez will speak with Public Art Fund associate curator Katerina Stathopoulou about her recent exhibition “Anti-Icon,” which took over advertising space on 300 JCDecaux bus shelters across New York, Chicago, and Boston. In-person attendance is limited, but the event will be livestreamed on YouTube.
Location: Cooper Union, Frederick P. Rose Auditorium,
Price: Free with registration
Time: 6:30 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Film still from Cayeye 28 (2003-04).
4. Cayeye 28 (2003–2004) film screening with Banana Craze
Banana Craze is an ongoing virtual curatorial project organized by Juanita Solano and Blanca Serrano that traces the appearances, origins, and complex significances of the banana in Latin American art. In the past year, the project has hosted online conversations with the likes of Mexican author Valeria Luiselli, Colombian artists Elkin Calderón and Alberto Baraya, and Costa Rican artist Victoria Cabezas. This week, Banana Craze is hosting an online screening of the documentary film Cayeye 28 (2003–04), directed by Armando Bolaño. The documentary recounts the tragic and long-obscured banana strikers massacre committed by the Colombian army at the Ciénaga Magdalena train station in 1928, and seeks to uncover the reality of the dark episode through the stories of both victims and survivors. The screening coincides with the 93rd anniversary of the massacre.
Location: Youtube via the Banana Craze website
Price: Free
Time: The documentary is available 24 hours a day during the four-day window
—Katie White
Diane and Arthur Abbey’s collection of Japanese bamboo baskets at the Japanese galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2017 and ’18. Photo courtesy of Asia Week New York.
5. “Ahead of the Curve: Collecting Contemporary Asian Art” at Asia Week New York
Asia Week New York and Joan B. Mirviss gallery have put together a panel of experts ready to help collectors looking to expand into Asian art. Diane and Arthur Abbey, collectors of Japanese bamboo baskets; Anne Havinga, chair of photography at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and Manjari Sihare Sutin, head of sales in Sotheby’s Modern and contemporary South Asian department, are among those set to share their expertise.
Price: Free with registration
Time: 5 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Wifredo Lam, Hermès Trismégiste, (1945) ©2021 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP Paris.
7. “Wifredo Lam: The Imagination at Work” at Pace Gallery, New York
This stunning display of the Cuban artist’s work feels like stepping into a private museum, perhaps a reflection of the fact that it was organized in collaboration with Miami collector Gary Nader and Pace’s senior director and curator Andria Hickey with curatorial contributions by Michaëla Mohrmann, a scholar and curator of Latin American art.
It includes paintings, works on paper, and rarely seen bronze sculptures, including a major loan from the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Early in his career, Lam identified with major European artists in the surrealist and cubist movements and invented his own “syncretic visual language,” according to the gallery. The show traces the artist’s career from the late 1930s to the 1970s, exploring the influence of Lam’s heritage in his art.
Location: 510 West 25th Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday—Saturday 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Eileen Kinsella
Kadir van Lohuizen, New York from the marshes around the Hackensack River in New Jersey (2018). Photo ©Kadir van Lohuizen/NOOR.
8. “Rising Tide: Visualizing the Human Costs of the Climate Crisis” at the Museum of the City of New York
Dutch documentary photographer Kadir van Lohuizen offers a chilling visual representation of the effects of climate change—not only in New York, but across the globe from Greenland, Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Fiji, Amsterdam, Panama, to Miami—through photographs, video, drone footage, and sound.
Location: Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street, New York
Price: $20 suggested admission
Time: Friday–Sunday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Collaborative work by Ludovic Nkoth and John Rivas, 2021. Photo by Cristina Cruz.
9. “Ludovic Nkoth and John Rivas: Four Walls” at Ross and Kramer Gallery, New York
This show is the outcome of a years-long discussion between two studio neighbors regarding similarities in their distinct cultures, Cameroonian artist Ludovic Nkoth and Salvadoran-American artist John Rivas. Two of the works featured in the show at Ross and Kramer Gallery are collaborations (one pictured).
Location: Ross and Kramer Gallery, 515 West 27th Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Cristina Cruz
