First it was Berlin; then Detroit joined in. Now, for the second year in a row, New York kicks off its own Gallery Week. NYGW features nearly 60 commercial galleries and non-profits. In an effort to bring greater public awareness to art spaces throughout the city, participating venues will extend their hours throughout the long weekend (May 6–8). NYGW is packed with solo exhibitions, panel discussions, artist talks, film screenings and just as many satellite events.
We’ve compiled a list of what we think will be the highlights of NYGW week and beyond.
Tuesday, Friday and Saturday
“Flight” by Liz Magic Laser
Times Square, Broadway between 46th and 47th Streets, New York
Tuesday, May 3: 12pm and 1pm; Friday, May 6: 7pm, 8pm and 9pm; Saturday, May 7: 1pm, 2pm, 8pm and 9pm
Liz Magic Laser’s work is often laced with wry humor, which we will no doubt see plenty of in “Flight,” a sequence of live re-imaginings of clips from films like Battleship Potemkin, M, Niagara, American Psycho and 28 Days Later. On three different days at the large red staircase in Times Square, Laser will choreograph six professional actors performing a series of chase scenes from these legendary movies. Free and open to the public.
Wednesday–Sunday
Festival of Ideas
Various times and locations
With a schedule as dense as NYGW itself, the New Museum’s Festival of Ideas will take over several locations downtown. Events include Jon Kessler’s all-day “theater of situations,” the Center for Urban Pedagogy’s workshop exploring questions like “What happens when I flush the toilet?” and The Hole gallery’s “Zine Night.”
Friday
Opening Reception for Sculpture Center Photo Portfolio
Leo Koenig Projekte, 541 West 23rd Street
6:00–8:00pm
Long Island City’s Sculpture Center is just across the East River, but for those unwilling to venture into Queens, the nonprofit is setting up shop in Chelsea for the weekend, in Leo Koenig’s project space. The show includes newly commissioned photographs by Leslie Hewitt, Marlo Pascual, Erin Shirreff, Kathrin Sonntag and Sara VanDerBeek that investigate the intersection of photography and sculpture. On Saturday, May 7, at 2:30pm, VanDerBeek and Sculpture Center curator Fionn Meade will discuss the two mediums. Both events are free.
Artist Talk with Kim Beck: Hosted by Friends of the High Line
Bumble and Bumble, 415 West 13th Street, 3rd Floor
6:30–7:30pm
In March, Kim Beck installed “Space Available”—three cutout plywood sculptures of the empty armature where billboard advertisements once appeared-on the roofs of buildings adjacent to the High Line. Viewable from various locations along the elevated park, these skeletal remains reference the impact of the recession, and draw our attention to oft-overlooked urban spaces. Beck will give a public talk on the evolution of this project. Free, with RSVP.
Saturday:
Brunch and Newspaper Launch
Taxter & Spengemann
459 West 18th Street, New York
11:00am–1:00pm
For his first exhibition at Taxter & Spengemann, Carter Mull will present five photographs that source newspaper fragments and found images, creating metallic abstractions. The show will be on view during a brunch celebrating the release of “Sara & Gerald,” the third issue of P & Co., a broadsheet created by Mull with collaborators Jesse Willenbring and Aram Moshayedi. Each issue of P & Co. is organized around a personality of historical significance, in this case, Gerald and Sara Murphy, wealthy American expatriates who lives in the French Riviera in the early 1900s.
Chelsea Gallery Walking Tour
Starting at Alexander Gray Associates
508 West 26th Street
11:00am
Whitney curator Carter Foster will lead a walking tour of exhibitions at 303 (photos by Florian Maier-Aichen), Alexander Gray Associates (paintings by Joan Semmel), CRG (photos by Ori Gersht), and D’Amelio Terras (conceptual photography installation by Matt Keegan).
Rashaad Newsome Performance
St. Patrick’s Basilica
263 Mulberry Street
Just before midnight
As part of the Festival of Ideas, just before the witching hour Rashaad Newsome and fellow dancers will perform at St. Patrick’s Basilica, the oldest cathedral in the country. If men in hoodies and gold chains, Gregorian chanting, a Carnegie Hall opera singer, and an emerging MC, all under one roof, are your idea of entertainment, this piece is not to be missed. Free, limited space available.
Sunday:
Opening receptions for all downtown galleries
Various locations
6:00–8:00pm
When galleries began moving into the Lower East Side a couple years ago, most decided to stay open on Sundays, unlike their Chelsea brethren, who keep a strict Tuesday-Saturday schedule. This Sunday’s openings include a new suite of airbrushed abstractions by Michael Williams at Canada; a book launch for Jesse Willenbring, whose vivid paintings are often made on tablecloths, at Laurel Gitlen; and Stephen Vincent’s new group of black and white drawings, plus a poetry reading by the artist, at Jack Hanley.