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

Monday, June 25–Thursday, June 28

Alexandra Bachzetsis, “PRIVATE: Wear a mask when you talk to me” (2016). Kunstverein Hannover. Photo © China Hopson, courtesy of High Line Arts.

1. “PRIVATE: Wear a mask when you talk to me; Private Song” at the High Line

The Swiss artist Alexandra Bachzetsis will be at the High Line this week performing two works in a series. The first, “PRIVATE: wear a mask when you talk to me,” draws on her experience as a choreographer, and investigates the gendered references coded in traditional Greek dancing. The second work, “Private Song,” is performed by Bachzetsis, Sotiris Vasiliou, and Thibault Lac, and features popular songs from Rebetiko, a Greek style of folk music that was popularized from the early 20th century through the 1950s. The artist began her career as a professional dancer, and her work focuses on the ways that the female figure is articulated in mass media and the fine arts.

Location: The High Line at 14th Street
Price: Free
Time: “PRIVATE: Wear a mask when you talk to me,” June 25 & 27, 8–9 p.m.; “Private Song,” June 26 & 28, 8–9 p.m.

—Caroline Goldstein

Tuesday, June 26

Ellen Berkenblit, Lines Roar (2018). Film still courtesy of the Drawing Center.

2. “Musical Performance With Zeena Parkins” at the Drawing Center

Catch Ellen Berkenblit’s film Lines Roar (2018) with Zeena Perkins performing her original score live on harps, electronics, and tuning forks. The artist produced the film, which documents her studio practice and the creation of her paintings and drawings, with directors Mónica Brand and Francisco Lopez of Mogollon. It’s on view at the Drawing Center’s Lab June 27–August 12 in “Ellen Berkenblit: Lines Roar.”

Location: The Drawing Center, 35 Wooster Street
Price: $5
Time: 7 p.m.–7:30 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Wednesday, June 27

The New Museum’s “Hell, Yes!” party logo. Image courtesy of Toby Triumph.

3. “Hell, Yes!” Party at the New Museum

If you’re a member of the New Museum, don’t miss the institution’s annual summer fete, featuring drinks on the Sky Room terrace and a musical performance by Ambrosia Parsley. It’s also a good time to catch exhibitions of Aaron Fowler, Hiwa K, and others.

Location: The New Museum, 235 Bowery
Price: Free with membership, which starts at $70
Time: 7 p.m.–10 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Wednesday, June 27–Friday, August 3

Mel Chin, Aileen (2015). Image courtesy of the Kitchen.

4. “On Whiteness: Exhibition” at the Kitchen

In conjunction with the ongoing program of the Racial Imaginary Institute, the foundation established by MacArthur winner Claudia Rankine to study whiteness as a deliberate construct too often accepted as a sociocultural default, the Kitchen will host a group show of works interrogating precisely this idea. Featured artists include Toyin Ojih Odutola, Mel Chin, Anicka Yi, and Glenn Ligon. The show kicks off a full month of related events, ranging from symposia to residencies to performances, all seeking to reorient our understanding of institutional bias inside and outside the arts.

Location: The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception: 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Normal hours: Monday–Friday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Tim Schneider

Thursday, June 28

Julia Wertz, Searching for Soul Hero from her book Tenements, Towers & Trash: An Unconventional Illustrated History of New York City (2017). Courtesy of the artist.

5. “Searching for Soul: New York City in the Age of Hyper-Gentrification” at the Museum of the City of New York

The Museum of the City of New York tackles the hot-button issue of gentrification with a film screening and discussion. The night kicks off with Christopher Ming Ryan’s documentary short Joon Fish Market, from the film series Disappearing NYC, about neighborhood shops that are about to close. Writers Jeremiah Moss and Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts and cartoonist Julia Wertz will then talk with New Yorker staff writer Vinson Cunningham about whether gentrification is jeopardizing New York City’s soul, and how it is changing as rents continue to rise and new construction forces out independent shops in favor of chain stores.

Location: The Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue at East 103rd Street
Price: General admission $15
Time: 6:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Thursday, June 28–Friday, August 3

Gala Porras-Kim, For Learning Zapotec Verbs (2012). Courtesy of the artist and Tina Kim Gallery.

6. Summer Group Show at Tina Kim Gallery

The gallery organized its summer group exhibition in collaboration with Los Angeles-based gallery Commonwealth & Council. It will include 23 works by 11 artists working in Los Angeles, including Carolina Caycedo and Clarissa Tossin. They explore globalization and capitalism from a South American perspective, while Kang Seung Lee reinterprets protest photos to question how people are represented at times of social unrest.The exhibition coincides with a second New York presentation entitled “Commonwealth & Council” that will take place at 47 Canal, opening on July 1.

Location: Tina Kim Gallery, 525 West 21 Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception 6 p.m.–8 p.m. Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Eileen Kinsella

Thursday, June 28–Tuesday, August 17

JR, GIANTS, Kikito, September 7, 2017, 10:03 am, Tecate (2017), a 65-foot photo of a Mexican child erected overlooking the border fence between the US and Mexico. Photo courtesy of Perrotin.

7. “JR: Horizontal” at Perrotin

Many New Yorkers are familiar with the work of French street artist JR from his takeover of Ellis Island’s abandoned hospital facilities to a massive pro-immigrant pasting outside of this year’s Armory Show. Fresh off an Oscar nomination for directing Faces Places with veteran filmmaker Agnes Varda, JR will now finally get his first full-fledged New York solo show at Perrotin.

Location: Perrotin, 130 Orchard Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Through Friday, June 29

Baseera Khan, Seat #10 (2018), detail. Courtesy of the artist.

8. “Baseera Khan: precious not precious” at OSMOS Address

Expanding on work recently on view at a group show at SculptureCenter in Long Island City, Queens, Baseera Khan presents a series of collaged textile cushions that mix pleather, Islamic prayer rugs, and heirloom textiles traditionally used for women’s dowries with the Brooklyn-based artist’s underwear, speaking to her experience as an American-Muslim queer femme woman.

Location: OSMOS Address, 50 East 1st Street
Price: Free
Time: Monday–Friday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Through Saturday, June 30

Avenida de Mayo in Buenos Aires (1914). Photo courtesy of the Getty Research Institute).

9. “The Metropolis in Latin America, 1830–1930” at the Americas Society

This Getty-organized exhibition looks at 100 years of history in Latin America, as the capital cities of Buenos Aires, Havana, Lima, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, and Santiago de Chile were transformed from colonial outposts to monumental metropolises between 1830 and 1930. Rapid socioeconomic change is reflected in photographs, prints, plans, and maps, with architectures that reflects a unique blend of pre-Columbian, Spanish, Portuguese, and other European influences.

Location: The Americas Society, 680 Park Avenue
Price: Free
Time: Wednesday–Saturday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Sunday, July 1–Friday, July 29

Rainer Ganahl, Syria in “Cultural Programme,” from Kai Matsumiya Gallery, at the Surf Lodge. Courtesy of Rainer Ganahl.

10. “NADA Presents: Close Quarters” at Governors Island

The New Art Dealers Alliance is branching out with a pop-up exhibition—its first outside of an art fair—in one of the long abandoned former Coast Guard officers’ homes on Governor’s Island. Eight NADA member galleries, including Jack Hanley Gallery, Kai Matsumiya, and CANADA will each present work by a single artist in this unusual, intimate setting. 

Location: Colonels Row, Governor’s Island
Price: Free
Time: Friday–Sunday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Lillian Ball, WATERWASH, Bronx River wetland view in May, with recycled glass vortex sculpture for overflow leaving wetland and entering river. Photo by Lillian Ball.

11. “Ecological Consciousness: Artist as Instigator” at Wave Hill

Wave Hill’s summer show presents ecological artworks looking to solve local problems in New York City, including the Point’s South Bronx Resiliency Arts Fellowship, Jan Mun’s residency with the New York Hall of Science, and Lillian Ball’s WATERWASH, which is aimed, in part, at improving our water systems so that heavy storm waters don’t send sewage flooding into our rivers.

Location: Wave Hill, Glyndor Gallery, West 249th Street and Independence Avenue, Bronx
Price: General admission $8
Time: Opening reception, 2 p.m.–4:30 p.m.; Tuesday–Sunday, 10 a.m.–4:30 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone