Editors’ Picks: 6 Art Events to See in New York This Week

You'll want to swing by these shows.

Casey Jane Ellison, Touching the Art (2015).
Photo: Courtesy of YouTube.

Wednesday, March 23:

1. Casey Jane Ellison, “The Fake Art of Sex and the City” Lecture and Performance at the Swiss Institute Contemporary Art New York

Fans of Sex and the City and art world comedienne Casey Jane Ellison have reason to celebrate. This Wednesday, at the Swiss Institute Contemporary Art New York, Ellison will be turning a critical eye on the HBO series with a lecture and performance. At the center of this inquiry is the show’s character Charlotte York, who was depicted throughout the series as a blue-chip dealer at a Chelsea gallery.

“Why did Charlotte work in a commercial contemporary gallery and not a design firm,” Ellison asks in the project’s description. “What can we learn from the fake art of one of the most popular and lucrative shows to ever be on television? What other questions did the fake art of Sex and the City leave us with?” Hard-hitting questions, but we’re sure Ellison has the answers.

Location: 18 Wooster Street
Price: RSVP
Time: 7:00 p.m.

—Rain Embuscado

Thursday, March 24:

Tania Bruguera Photo via: pbs.org.

Tania Bruguera
Photo via: pbs.org.

2. Tania Bruguera, Artist Talk at City College of the City University of New York

After emerging from a tumultuous previous year, Cuban artist Tania Bruguera, who incorporates issues of immigration in her work, will be heading to City College for a talk with the school’s art department. As part of the City University of New York, City College has served as an institution of higher education for immigrant populations for over 100 years—a fact that’s sure to inform the artist’s discussion.

LocationCompton Goethals Hall at 160 Convent Avenue
Price: Free
Time: 7:00 p.m.–8:30 p.m.

—Rain Embuscado

Thursday, March 24–Saturday, April 30:

Anonymous, Untitled (c. 1886, printed later). Photo: courtesy Howard Greenberg Gallery.

Anonymous, Untitled (c. 1886, printed later).
Photo: courtesy Howard Greenberg Gallery.

4. “A Democracy of Imagery” at Howard Greenberg Gallery

Curator Colin Westerbeck challenged himself to put together a museum-quality history of photography survey based solely on Howard Greenberg’s backroom stock. The result includes work by 84 photographers, including Richard Avedon, Edward Burtynsky, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Saul Leiter, Vivian Maier, Man Ray, Robert Mapplethorpe, Joel Meyerowitz, and Gordon Parks, dating from the 1860s through 2002.

“From the beginning, the purpose of the exhibition was to include underappreciated photographs by famous photographers and great photographs by underappreciated photographers,” wrote Westerbeck in a forthcoming accompanying book, also titled A Democracy of Imagery. “To me, in the end, they’re all great photographs by great photographers.”

Location: The Fuller Building, 41 East 57th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception Thursday, March 24, from 6:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m.; 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday; 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Thursday, March 24–Saturday, June 18:

Mosaic panel with theatrical mask of Silenus (circa late 2nd century AD–early 3rd century AD). Photo: © Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Spots, Archaeological Receipts Fund, courtesy the Ephorate of the Antiquities of Pierie and the Dion Excavations.

Mosaic panel with theatrical mask of Silenus (circa late 2nd century AD–early 3rd century AD).
Photo: © Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Spots, Archaeological Receipts Fund, courtesy the Ephorate of the Antiquities of Pierie and the Dion Excavations.

5. “Gods and Mortals at Olympus: Ancient Dion, City of Zeus” at the Onassis Cultural Center NY 

After three years of renovations, the gallery space at the Onassis Cultural Center reopens with an exhibition of ancient Grecian art from Mount Olympus that is making its US debut.

Highlights will include a 3rd century mosaic of Dionysus that has never been publicly displayed, as well as sculptures, jewelry, ceramics, coins, glass, and other artifacts of daily life in Dion, an ancient city on the slopes of Mount Olympus. “During the past forty-five years of work at the site of the city of Dion, not only have we been able to locate ancient buildings and portable finds but also to chart the lives of many individuals throughout the centuries,” said Dimitrios Pandermalis, head archaeologist at of Dion and curator of Athens’s Acropolis Museum, in a statement.

Location: The Fuller Building, 41 East 57th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception Thursday, March 24, from 6:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m.; 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday; 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Ending Monday, March 28:

Installation view.<br>Photo: Courtesy of Invisible-Exports.

Installation view.
Photo: Courtesy of Invisible-Exports.

6. Cary S. Leibowitz, “Nearly 30 year old stuff | Flowers in vases | Bowls of fruit | Fishes on sticks | Clipper ships | Kay Ballard | Nipsey Russell | And a few cocksuckers” at Invisible-Exports

This is your last chance to see this show of drawings by Cary S. Leibowitz, best known for his prankish artistic alter ego “Candyass.” Invisible-Exports offers up a thicket of pre-Candyass works, showing off his characteristic sensibility: Diaristic goofballery, with an overriding air of good-natured raunchiness.

Location: 89 Eldridge Street
Price: Free
Time: 11:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday

—Ben Davis

Ending Saturday, April 9:

Larry Bell, <em>Glacier</em> (1999).<br>Photo: Courtesy of artnet News.

Larry Bell, Glacier (1999).
Photo: Courtesy of artnet News.

 

7. Larry Bell, “From the ’60s” at Hauser & Wirth

Hauser & Wirth present a survey of Larry Bell’s works from the 1960s. Bell played a key role in shaping the aesthetic of American West Coast art and the exhibition at Hauser & Wirth’s uptown gallery on 69th street reveals the diversity of his work, which spans painting, collage, and the artist’s signature glass sculptures. Highlights include Bell’s vacuum coated glass shelves, which project a dazzling array of colorful light, and his lesser-known playful shaped canvasses. Don’t miss the large-scale colored-glass installations in the gallery’s upstairs rooms.

Location: 32 East 69th Street
Price: Free
Time: 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday

—Henri Neuendorf


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