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

Thursday, September 5–Saturday, October 19

Louise Bonnet, Interior with Pink Blanket (2019). Courtesy the artist and Nino Mier Gallery and Gagosian.

1. “Domestic Horror” at Gagosian 

Gagosian’s fall opener at their Park & 75th gallery is curated by Bill Powers and takes on the potent subject matter of domesticity. Whether referring to the psychological interior, the physical space of the home, or the grand-scale politics of the world, the theme is ripe for artists including Chloe Wise, Vaughn Spann, Natalie Ball, Louise Bonnet, Ginny Casey, and Genieve Figgis, among others.

Location: Gagosian, 821 Park Avenue
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Caroline Goldstein

Thursday, September 5 and Saturday, September 7

Autumn Knight, Sanity TV: On Location (2018). Performance view, Akademie der Kunste, Berlin. Courtesy of the artist.

2. “Autumn Knight: Sanity TV” at the Whitney Museum of American Art

As part of the Whitney Biennial’s final month of programming, artist Autumn Knight presents two more editions of Sanity TV, the performance series she inaugurated during a residency at the Studio Museum three years ago. In Sanity TV, Knight plays the host of a fictional television talk show—one that hinges on improvisation and absurdist interactions with audience members, who may be instructed to change seats or become performers for various segments. By turns humorous and uncomfortable, but always thought-provoking, Sanity TV brings our current era of madness into focus through one of the media mechanisms most responsible for it.

Location: 99 Gansevoort Street
Price: $10 Adults; $8 Students, Seniors, and Visitors With Disabilities; Free for Members
Time: 7:30 p.m. both days

—Tim Schneider

Thursday, September 5–Sunday, September 29

John Chamberlain, EROTIC ESKIMO (2006). © 2019 Fairweather and Fairweather LTD/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Thomas Barratt.

3. “John Chamberlain: Baby Tycoons” at Hauser & Wirth

John Chamberlain is revered for his large-scale works, but his smaller, more intimate objects—and specifically those from his “Baby Tycoons” series—have not been the subject of an exhibition in 15 years. This show remedies that situation through a presentation of works from his estate as well as loans from private collections. Hauser & Wirth is using the exhibition as a teaser for a larger presentation of the artist’s work in New York in 2020. This is the first show since the gallery announced worldwide representation of the artist’s estate in May 2018.

Location: Hauser & Wirth, 32 East 69th Street
Price: Free
Time: Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Tanner West

Thursday, September 5–Saturday, October 19

Jessica Warboys, River Wax Painting, Snake Shape Lake (2019). Image courtesy of the artist and Hales Gallery.

4. “Jessica Warboys: Snake Shape Lake” at Hales Gallery

“Snake Shape Lake” is the Welsh artist’s first solo show in the US, featuring painting, glasswork, film, and sculpture. Her multifaceted practice is informed by personal and collective memory, landscape, history, ritual and mythology.

Location: Hales Gallery, 547 West 20th Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception 6 p.m.— 8 p.m. Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Eileen Kinsella

Thursday, September 5–Saturday, November 2 

Jenna Gribbon, Sand in her shoe (2019). Courtesy of Fredericks and Freiser.

5. “Jenna Gribbon: When I Looked At You The Light Changed” at Fredericks & Freiser

Jenna Gribbon melds art history, memory, and her own intimate experiences into a dream-like cohesion for her first solo exhibition with the gallery. Two recent bodies of work make up the show: portraits of her friends and family, and paintings of women wrestling. In these works, Gribbon draws on a deep historical well—from the Rococo indolence of Fragonard, to the haptic homoeroticism of archaic Greek athletes, to the lively brushstrokes of the Impressionists—with remarkable fluidity. One has the sense that she is as familiar with art history as she is with her subjects, and is allowing her viewers a coveted glimpse into a private sphere. It’s all done so eloquently that the gesture is as disarming as it pleasing.    

Location: Fredericks & Freiser, 536 W 24th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening, 6 p.m.–8 p.m, Tuesday–Sunday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Katie White 

Friday, September 6

Arne Svenson’s photograph of Claude Hankins. Courtesy of apexart.

6. “The Criminal Type” at apexart
The 19th-century field of positivist criminology used the burgeoning medium of photography to put a face on felonious activity, introducing the world to the idea of the “mugshot”—and producing reductive, stereotypic tropes along the way. Curated by Elizabeth Breiner, “The Criminal Type” examines the lingering visual legacy of those tropes and how they continue to define our legal system today.

Location: 291 Church Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Taylor Dafoe

Friday, September 6–Saturday, October 26

Image courtesy of the artist and Blain/Southern Gallery

7. “Rachel Howard: L’appel du vide” at Blain/Southern

“Rachel Howard: L’appel du vide” (“the call of the void”) is the artist’s first exhibition at Blain/Southern’s new Chelsea location. The show consists of sculptures and works on paper, but five large-scale paintings in alizarin crimson dominate the space. By pushing the crimson paint through lace, Howard creates a measured chaotic effect where the pattern is visible in some places and completely absent in others.

Location: Blain/Southern, 547 West 25th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, Thursday, September 5, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Neha Jambhekar

Saturday, September 7

The Black Rock Coalition orchestra.

8. “Black Rock Coalition: History of Our Future” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

To coincide with the exhibition “Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll,” the museum has invited the Black Rock Coalition to perform a “sonic timeline” of pioneering black music from American history. A number of special guests will be joining the coalition’s regular company, including Fantastic Negrito, Nona Hendryx, Vernon Reid, Corey Glover, Will Calhoun, “Captain” Kirk Douglas, Stew, The Family Stand, Carl Hancock Rux, and Toshi Reagon.

Location: The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue
Price: Tickets start at $40
Time: 7 p.m.

—Nan Stewart