TUESDAY, JANUARY 14
Screening: Derek Jarman’s Caravaggio at Light Industry
There are very few films about artists (by artists) that come close to this one. For starters, the late great Jarman shot this 1986 biopic, which follows Caravaggio from his youth on the streets of Rome to his death, like a painting by the Renaissance master. With seductive chiaroscuro, Jarman frames his actors (including a young Tilda Swinton in her debut film role as the painter’s prostitute girlfriend) in velvety black shadows and radiant golden light. Really not to be missed. —Zoë Lescaze
Light Industry, 155 Freeman Street, Brooklyn, 7:30 p.m., $7
Opening Performance: Nicolás Guagnini and Ei Arakawa at David Lewis
Is there anything in the world better than Ei Arakawa performances? I sort of doubt it, but if there’s one thing that can give those a run for their money it’s probably an Ei Arakawa and Nicolás Guagnini performance. Richard Aldrich, Lola Kramer, Piper Marshall and Aura Rosenberg are the featured performers this night, which is part of a Guagnini show/installation that runs through Sunday. It’s called “Ode to Joy.” —Andrew Russeth
David Lewis Gallery, 88 Eldridge Street, Fifth Floor, New York, 8 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15
Reading: Lucy Ives at Rachel Uffner
Someone told me that Lucy Ives’ new book, Orange Roses, is really good, and though I can’t remember who that was right now, I know that I believed them, that this was someone who knows about books, someone I trust with literary matters. So I imagine this reading will be pretty great. Note the unusual start time, which suggests punctuality and precision, of which I approve. —A.R.
Rachel Uffner Gallery, 170 Suffolk Street, New York, 7:15 p.m.
Opening: “Looking Back: The Eighth White Columns Annual” at White Columns
Pati Hertling, the lawyer-impresario who is the organizer of this year’s edition of White Columns’ venerable look back, is really killing it with her list of artists, which includes a good percentage of cool, interesting artists who popped up in New York last year. Among the names: Ei Arakawa, Lucy Dodd, Marie Karlberg, Carissa Rodriguez, Zilia Sánchez, Danh Vo, Amy Yao and many, many more. Exciting stuff. —A.R.
White Columns, 320 West 13th Street, New York, 6–8 p.m.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 16
Opening: Lynda Benglis at Cheim & Read
Instead of biomorphic metal, latex and polyurethine foam forms, feminist sculptor extraordinaire Lynda Benglis is serving up smaller ceramic work she made recently in New Mexico. —Z.L.
Cheim & Read, 547 West 25th Street, New York, 6-8 p.m.
Opening: Wade Guyton at Petzel
The artist’s first solo show with the gallery in seven years! You’ve got some site-specific works and that new sculpture of his that is “the coat check counter at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, where he has installed four paintings for the International.” Dive right in! —Dan Duray
Friedrich Petzel Gallery, 456 West 18th Street, New York, 6-8 p.m.
Opening: “Bad Conscience” at Metro Pictures
John Miller organizes this group show with artists including Dan Graham, Marilyn Minter, Walter Robinson and Wangechi Mutu. —Michael H. Miller
Metro Pictures, 519 West 24th Street, New York, 6–8 p.m.
Opening: Robert Bechtle at Gladstone
Artist Robert Bechtle will exhibit new photorealist work about San Francisco, his hometown. —M.H.M.
Gladstone Gallery, 515 West 24th Street, 6–8 p.m.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 17
Performance: David Greenspan “Composition … Master-Pieces … Identity” at Triple Canopy
A solo performance of two lectures and a short play by Gertrude Stein. Plus, at least two more canopies than you usually get for the price. A great deal. —D.D.
Triple Canopy, 155 Freeman Street, Brooklyn, 8 p.m., $10
Benefit: “Postcards from the Edge 2014” at Luhring Augustine Gallery
Here’s how it works: the walls are covered with a slew of original postcard-sized pieces that you can buy for a song. You only learn the artist upon purchase, but for the bigger names you can pretty much guess. Make money for yourself, and for Visual AIDs, hooray! —D.D.
Luhring Augustine Gallery, 531 West 24 Street, New York, 6-8 p.m., $85
SATURDAY, JANUARY 18
Opening: “Dale Henry: The Artist Who Left New York” at Clocktower Gallery
The first iteration of this show was the last at Clocktower’s historic downtown space, which closed in November after more than 40 years of programming. Now, founder Alanna Heiss is kicking off a one-year residency at artist Dustin Yellin’s Red Hook project, Pioneer Works, with more by Dale Henry, a former fixture of the downtown scene who, exasperated with the city’s art world, fled for rural Virginia. —Z.L.
Clocktower Gallery at Pioneer Works, 159 Pioneer Street, Brooklyn, 5-8 p.m.
Update, 2:20 p.m.: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated the day of White Columns’ opening. It is Wednesday, not Thursday.