Each week, we search New York City for the most exciting, and thought-provoking, shows, screenings, and events. See them below.
Monday, September 17
“B. Wurtz: Kitchen Trees” on view at City Hall Park. Photo by Jason Wyche courtesy of the artist; Metro Pictures, New York; Kate MacGarry, London; Maisterravalbuena Madrid/Lisboa; Richard Telles Fine Art, Los Angeles; and the Public Art Fund, New York.
1. B. Wurtz Public Art Fund Talk at the New School
On the occasion of his Public Art Fund exhibition “B. Wurtz: Kitchen Trees” (on view through December 7), the artist will give a talk about his practice’s use of everyday utilitarian objects. He’ll also speak with the Public Art Fund’s Daniel S. Palmer about creating his first public art commission and expanding to a monumental scale.
Location: New School, John L. Tishman Auditorium, University Center, 63 Fifth Avenue, Room U100
Price: $10 general admission
Time: 6:30 p.m.–8 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Linda Stillman, a handwritten copy of the Constitution, part of Morgan O’Hara’s “Handwriting the Constitution” project. Courtesy of Jeanette May Morgan.
2. “Handwriting the Constitution” at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts
Morgan O’Hara’s “Handwriting the Constitution” project, begun in response to President Donald Trump’s inauguration, celebrates Constitution Day, held September 17, with its 66th session. O’Hara, who is having the event filmed in preparation for an upcoming documentary about the project, asks participants to consider the words of the Constitution by handwriting them.
Location: Elizabeth Foundation for the Art, 3rd-floor conference room, 323 West 39th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues
Price: Free with RSVP
Time: 6:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Monday, September 17–Tuesday, September 25
Victoria Keddie will present new videos each night at Fridman Gallery’s 5th Anniversary Festival. Courtesy of Fridman Gallery.
3. “5th Anniversary Festival” at Fridman Gallery
In celebration of its fifth anniversary, Fridman Gallery welcomes back 40 artists who have performed at the gallery over the years for a sound and performance art festival. There will be new works as well as collaborations between different artists, such as sculptor and performance artist Tamar Ettun and sound artist Miya Masaoka.
Location: Fridman Gallery, 287 Spring Street
Price: $20 advance general admission
Time: 8 p.m.–10 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, September 20–Sunday, September 23
Printed Matter Inc.’s booth at NYABF14. Photo courtesy BJ Enright Photography.
4. The New York Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1
Printed Matter’s New York Art Book Fair returns for its 13th edition, with 356 exhibitors offering everything from artist zines to antiquarian zines. DJ Monchan, Roe Enney, and Odwalla1221 will perform live at the Thursday night preview, and the Contemporary Artists’ Book Conference is presenting two days of talks and programming about art publishing.
Location: MoMA PS1, 22-26 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, Queens
Price: Opening reception $20, other days free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–9 p.m.; Friday, 1 p.m.–7 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.–9 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.–7 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, September 20–Saturday, November 3
Abby Leigh, Sea Life (2018). Courtesy of the artist and Johannes Vogt Gallery.
5. “Abby Leigh: Sledgehammer Paintings” at Johannes Vogt Gallery
Johannes Vogt leaves the Lower East Side, debuting his new Upper East Side space with the layered oil and wax paintings of Abby Leigh, who hasn’t had a solo show in New York in 10 years. She works on aluminum dibond surface that has been scraped, sanded, pierced, and sledgehammered.
Location: Johannes Vogt Gallery, 958 Madison Avenue
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Thursday, September 20–December 2018
Rendering of “Peter Halley: New York, New York,” Lever House Art Collection, 2018. Image courtesy of the artist and Greene Naftali, New York.
6. “Peter Halley: New York, New York” at Lever House
For his largest New York City project to date, Peter Halley will transform Mies van der Rohe’s glass-walled lobby at the Lever House with interlocking spaces—reached via a passageway collaged with pages from the artist’s notebooks from the 1980s—that host murals, including one illuminated by black light. The building’s transformation is also visible from the street, thanks to yellow-tinted windows that extend to the building’s second floor. Roya Sachs serves as curator.
Location: Lever House, 390 Park Avenue
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Monday–Friday, 11 a.m.–7 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Friday, September 21
Installation shot of Tatyana Fazlalizadeh’s street campaign “Stop Telling Women To Smile.” Courtesy of the artist.
7. “Stop Telling Women to Smile International Wheat Paste Night”
Tatyana Fazlalizadeh invites women and their allies across the world to join the fight against street harassment with her fifth annual Stop Telling Women to Smile wheat pasting night. The Brooklyn-based street artist is making her black and white posters available for download for the occasion, so print them out and get pasting.
Location: Everywhere
Price: Free with RSVP
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Friday, September 21–Sunday, September 23
300 Ashland Plaza. Photo: Giles Ashford.
8. Downtown Brooklyn Arts Festival in Downtown Brooklyn
Brooklyn’s inaugural arts celebration kicks off at the borough’s burgeoning downtown cultural district this weekend, presenting a bevy of performances, talks, and other activities—most of which are free. Partnering institutions include BRIC, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Theatre for a New Audience, and UrbanGlass.
Location: 300 Ashland Place, Brooklyn
Price: Free
Time: Varied
—Taylor Dafoe
Through Saturday, October 20
Installation view of “Jonathan Paul: To the Victor Belong the Spoils” at Unix Gallery. Photo courtesy of Unix Gallery.
9. “Jonathan Paul: To the Victor Belong the Spoils” at Unix Gallery
Jonathan Paul has transformed Unix Gallery’s white cube into a colorful immersive installation divided into pink and yellow halves to represent humanity’s absurdly competitive, tribal nature. Visitors are forced to choose sides and carry a flag representing their selection. If you go on Saturdays, there will be live Nigerian pygmy goats wearing colored uniforms wandering the galleries, unknowingly competing to release strawberries from the piñatas hanging overhead.
Location: 532 West 24th Street
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone
Kirschenbaum, Monument to the Earth, 1984. Image courtesy of Postmasters.
10. “Kirschenbaum” at Postmasters
Over the course of his career, Bernard Kirschenbaum went from collaborating on architecture and design with Buckminster Fuller to being among the first artists to show with a young Paula Cooper to ushering algorithmic art out of his Minimalist vocabulary using early computer logic. His posthumous debut at Postmasters spans the intimate and the monumental in pursuit of what mathematicians and computer scientists would call “elegant solutions” to complex problems—something we could all use a lot more of right now.
Location: Postmasters, 54 Franklin Street
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m., with hours extended to 8 p.m. on Thursdays
—Tim Schneider
Elizabeth Osborne, Painter in the Catskills (Louis Sloan), 2016–17. Courtesy of Danese/Corey.
11. “Elizabeth Osborne: People and Places” at Danese/Corey
Danese/Corey presents figurative paintings by Elizabeth Osborne from the 1960s to the present day. Her masterful use of color and light infuses deeply personal scenes drawn from her life with a meditative beauty.
Location: Danese/Corey, 511 West 22nd Street
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone