Welcome to Things to Do, our weekly roundup of happenings in the ever-buzzing New York art scene. Here, we present an expertly curated list of the best goings on that don’t require an invite—but might require that you reserve a spot in advance.
Tuesday July 11
Opening: This Too Shall Pass
Venus Over Manhattan, 55 Great Jones Street, 6-8 p.m.
This group show curated by Racquel Chevremont features the work of Alex Anderson, Leilah Babirye, Coady Brown, Marc Dennis, Melissa Joseph, Natia Lemay, Diana Sofia Lozano, Maia Cruz Palileo, Charles Mason III, Ferrari Sheppard and Shinique Smith and “explores concepts of impermanence, transience, personal memory, and ongoing change.” Chevremont is a curator and former model; flowers feature prominently here.
Thursday July 13
Opening: The Moon and I
GRIMM gallery, 54 White Street
If you’ve been following this column these past few weeks you should know that almost anything can feature as the unifying thesis for your summer group show. This one takes its inspiration from two sources: The song The Sun Whose Rays Are All Ablaze from the 1885 opera The Mikado and its spoken word rendition in Rian Johnson’s 2005 neo-noir, Brick. That’s good, that’s unique. I like it. Featuring the work of Jessica Taylor Bellamy, Marcus Cope, Anthony Cudahy, TM Davy, Matthias Franz, Michael Ho, Matthew Day Jackson, Wanda Koop, Ian Lewandowski, Mevlana Lipp, Alice Tippit and Eric White.
Opening: Downbeat
Marian Goodman Gallery, 24 West 57th Street, 6-8 p.m.
Marian Goodman Gallery’s summer show revolves around Denniston Hill, the Catskills artist residency founded by artists Julie Mehretu and Paul Pfeiffer and architect Lawrence Chua. The show features Rosa Barba, Pelenakeke Brown, Renee Gladman, Autumn Knight, Zoe Leonard, Joseph Liatela, Emma McNally, Maia Cruz Palileo, Sojourner Truth Parsons, Carlos Reyes, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Downbeat focuses on “Denniston Hill’s concept of the ‘downbeat’: a rhythmic kind of time stretched out to make space for rest, reflection, research, and rejuvenation—essential components of the creative process.”
Opening: Lake
Laurel Gitlen, 465 Grand Street, Suite 4C, 6-8 p.m.
This exhibition is the first solo show for painter Owen Westberg. For over a decade, Westberg has painted “discreet scenes in oil on smoothed birch panels or aluminum flashings that fit smartly into a purse or piece of hand luggage.” Inspired by the short works of Robert Walser, these may include “late afternoon landscapes, round, glowy fruits, a fictional painter or pair of sneakers, tinted windows on a corporate building, and often, patterned fabrics.”
Opening: Carol Bruns, Pol Morton / Sara Murphy, Everette Ball
White Columns, 91 Horatio Street, 6-8 p.m.
White Columns isn’t doing a group show exactly, just three little shows by Carol Bruns, Pol Morton with Sara Murphy and Everette Ball. Bruns is a sculptor of arcane masks and totems in paper. Morton is “a chronically ill non-binary artist with an unreliable body making assemblage paintings about queerness, transness, and disability” while Murphy “uses a variety of media, including wood, paper, fabric, drywall, ink and paint. Hybridizing 2-D and 3-D forms, she constructs deceptively simple objects that can appear at once familiar and unidentifiable.” Ball has been featured at White Columns before, in their show on the nonprofit Healing Arts Initiative.
Reminder: Check StubHub, SeatGeek and Craigslist for ticketed events that may have sold out thanks to our promotion. People in the art world are often double booked and love secondary markets. Have an upcoming event that may be worth our readers’ time? Drop Dan an email at artnews@observer.com with Things to Do in the subject line.
