Tuesday, June 14

Fashion illustration by Antonio Lopez. Courtesy El Museo del Barrio.

1. “Antonio Lopez: Future Funk Fashion” at El Museo del Barrio
Puerto Rican fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez got his start as an artist when he was a child, drawing flowers for his mother, a seamstress, to embroider. During his prolific three-decade career in New York, Lopez was instrumental in bringing visibility to women of color in the fashion world. El Museo el Barrio brings together over 300 works by the artist, who died in 1987 of complications from AIDS, including clothing, shoes, drawings, and photographs.

Location: El Museo del Barrio, 1230 Fifth Avenue
Price: $9 general admission
Time: Wednesday–Saturday, 11:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.; performance on Wednesday, July 20, 6:30 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone 

The front steps and entrance to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images.

2. The 38th Annual Museum Mile Festival 
The plaza in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art will host the opening ceremony for the annual festival that unites the stellar string of museums along Fifth Avenue from 82nd Street to 105th Street. (In case of inclement weather, the ceremony will be held inside in the Great Hall.) Admission is free at all museums—the Met, the Neue Galerie, the Guggenheim, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, the Jewish Museum, the Museum of the City of New York, and El Museo del Barrio.

Location: Fifth Avenue between East 82nd and 105th Streets
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception June 16, 6:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m.
—Eileen Kinsella

Wednesday, June 15–Wednesday, July 27

Work by Melissa Brown. Courtesy Magenta Plains.

3. Melissa Brown, “Past Present Future” at Magenta Plains
Artist and tarot enthusiast Melissa Brown’s latest exhibition, “Past Present Future,” features a new double-sided aluminum painting series inspired by chance. Later on this summer, the artist will perform a public divination reading, so prepare to have your fortune revealed. (The artist is also participating in a group show at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise this summer, launching at 291 Grand Street on June 30.)

Location: Magenta Plains, 94 Allen Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception June 15, 6:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m.; Wednesday–Sunday, 11:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.; performance on Wednesday, July 20, 6:30 p.m.
—Kathleen Massara 

Thursday, June 16

© Laurie Anderson.

4. Laurie Anderson in conversation with Paul Holdengräber at the New York Public Library
Musician, artist, director, and writer Laurie Anderson discusses her artistic inspiration, multidisciplinary practice, and upcoming projects with the Public Library’s Paul Holdengräber.

Location: Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Celeste Bartos Forum, Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street
Price: $40
Time: 7:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone 

Thursday, June 16–Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Tim Cantor, Nostalgia. Courtesy of AFA.

5. “Tim Cantor: Sweet Favour & Fiend” at AFA
Surrealistic painter Tim Cantor‘s oil paintings offer a disquieting remix of historical Renaissance canvases. The artist, who creates album art for the Las Vegas rock band Imagine Dragons, will be on hand at the opening to sign copies of his book.

Location: AFA, 54 Greene Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception June 16, 6:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m.; book signing June 18, 12:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m.
—Sarah Cascone 

Friday, June 17

Dread Scott, On the Impossibility of Freedom in a Country Founded on Genocide and Slavery, performance, 2014. Photo © Mark Von Holden for More Art.

6. Fragments of the Peculiar Institution: A conversation with Dread Scott and Brian Boucher at Printed Matter
New York artist Dread Scott has for years been researching slavery in the US in preparation for a project in which he will reenact an 1811 slave uprising. His new book, Fragments of the Peculiar Institution, the inaugural title of CPinPrint, presents documentation of his findings, ranging from period documents to pop-culture renditions of this history, along with one man’s slavery museum, near New Orleans. Scott will discuss the book and his research, which he describes as “my effort to grapple with our present by looking at America’s past,” with artnet News’ senior writer Brian Boucher.

Location: Printed Matter, 231 Eleventh Avenue
Price: $40
Time: 6:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m.
—Brian Boucher

Friday, June 17–Sunday, September 25

Danny Lyon, Tesca, Cartagena, Colombia (1966). Courtesy Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York, © Danny Lyon.

7. “Danny Lyon: Message to the Future” at the Whitney Museum of American Art
The first comprehensive retrospective of the career of photographer Danny Lyon to be presented in 25 years, this exhibition—organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco—premieres at the Whitney before heading west. Consisting of some 175 photographs as well as films and ephemera, the show highlights the American street photographer’s concern with social issues and the lives of the marginalized.

Location: Whitney Museum of American Art, 99 Gansevoort Street
Price: $25 general admission
Time: Sunday–Thursday, 10:30 a.m.–6:00 p.m. (closed on Tuesday in June and September); Friday and Saturday, 10:30 a.m.–10:00 p.m.
—Christian Viveros-Fauné

Saturday, June 18–Wednesday, July 6

A women photography piece by David Samuel Stern. Courtesy of the Rubber Factory.

8. “Others Tell the Story Differently” at the Rubber Factory, 29c Ludlow Street
The pitch for this brand-new Lower East Side space, focused on experimental photo practices, is that it aims to “to provide entry points to viewers beyond framed, final pieces.” Intriguingly, this apparently means that the gallery is broken into “three distinct segments which act as spaces to explore documentation of the artist’s process, personal reference points, a prior body of work or simply an installation which contextualizes and personalizes the work.” The gallery’s debut outing previews six artists who will occupy this experimental set-up in its first six months: Anna Yeroshenko, Daniel Mayrit, David Samuel Stern, Jordanna Kalman, Moira McDonald, and Tal Barel.

Location: Rubber Factory, 29c Ludlow Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception June 18, 6:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m.
—Ben Davis

Sunday, June 19–Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Meriem Bennani, FLY (2016), video still. Courtesy of MoMA PS1.

9. “Meriem Bennani: FLY” at MoMA PS1 
Moroccan-born, Brooklyn-based artist Meriem Bennani is showing a new multimedia work in her first solo museum exhibition at MoMA PS1, involving a mischievous animated fruit fly who finds its way into private homes in Rabat and Fez. You can also catch Bennani’s work on Instagram, where she posts absurdist videos.

Location: MoMA PS1, 22-25 Jackson Ave. at the intersection of 46th Avenue, Long Island City
Price: $10 general admission
Time: Thursday–Monday, 12:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m.
—Kathleen Massara