9 Art Events to Attend in New York City This Week

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 27

Exhibition: David Hockney at Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Met is honoring David Hockney’s 80th birthday this week with the opening of a traveling retrospective that first appeared at Tate Modern in London and then later at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Featuring paintings, photography, videos, and even recent works made with the help of an iPhone, the exhibition offers a look into Hockney’s ongoing exploration of perception and representation. The British painter’s famed Pop-inspired landscapes, as well as earlier experiments in abstraction and realism, will be on view.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 5th Avenue, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29

Opening: Arturo Herrera at Sikkema Jenkins & Co.
Arturo Herrera, a Venezuelan artist best known for his collage and sculpture work, will exhibit a series of paintings that reference abstraction and popular culture at this gallery show. The new canvases look sometimes like the leftovers of torn advertisements, often with patterning painted on or behind them. For Herrera, the new works attempt to find order in a time of complete and total disarray.
Sikkema Jenkins & Co., 530 West 22nd Street, 6–8 p.m.

Talk: Alfredo Jaar at the New School
Alfredo Jaar’s polemical approach to public art began in the 1980s, when he started questioning how the public conceived of America as both a country and a set of political beliefs. A famed 1987 billboard of his in Times Square featured text that read “THIS IS NOT AMERICA,” superimposed over a map of the U.S. It shocked many, and it continues to have impact on artists today. The Chilean-born artist will talk about that work, A Logo For America, as part of the Public Art Fund’s “Messages to the Public” series, in a lecture that will address how artists can activate public spaces.
The New School, 66 West 12th Street, 6:30 p.m. Tickets $10

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30

Opening: René Magritte at Bruce Silverstein Gallery
In the mid-1970s, a trove of photographs and films made by famed Belgian surrealist René Magritte came to light. Discovered around a decade after the artist’s death, the archive revealed how he used photography to experiment with many of the ideas he later incorporated into his paintings. (Birds, gloved hands, and paintings within paintings—some of the artist’s favorite visual motifs—show up in Magritte’s photographs.) A number of those pictures will be on view in this exhibition, which also looks into Magritte’s personal life, to introduce viewers to his collaborators and the changing ways he thought of himself over the course of his career.
Bruce Silverstein Gallery, 529 West 20th Street, 6–8 p.m.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1

Exhibition: Ahmed Mater at Brooklyn Museum
For centuries, Muslims have made an annual holy pilgrimage to the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca, which in the last decade has been transformed by urban development. Saudi artist Ahmed Mater has documented this period of transition as part his ongoing photographic project “Desert of Pharan: Unofficial Histories Behind the Mass Expansion of Mecca.” This exhibition will feature these photographs together with large-scale videos and installations that help convey the frenzy of activity that has marked a period of great change.
Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2

Talk: “Who’s Afraid of the New Now? 40 Artists in Dialogue” at New Museum
To celebrate its anniversary, the New Museum already announced that, on December 2 and 3, admission is free for everyone—and for extended hours. But the downtown institution will also hold a series of 20 artist talks under the collective title “Who’s Afraid of the New Now?” Among the pairs coupled together for talks all weekend are George Condo and Jeff Koons, Ragnar Kjartansson and Carolee Schneemann, and Simone Leigh and Lorraine O’Grady. See the New Museum website for the full lineup and times.
New Museum, 235 Bowery, 10 a.m.–8 p.m. Tickets for each conversation $5

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 3

Gathering: “Day of Mending” at Bridget Donahue
As something of a therapeutic riposte to our scary political moment, artists India Salvor Menuez and Misty Pollen have organized what they’re calling a “Day of Mending.” Visitors are invited to bring unfinished sewing and craft projects to Bridget Donahue gallery on the Lower East Side—and then to complete them with strangers as helpers. Sewing expertise is not needed: the free event is open to beginners and aficionados alike. Menuez and Pollen will also be releasing a new zine that will be available at the event, which coincides with the close of Susan Cianciolo craft-minded show.
Bridget Donahue, 99 Bowery, 2–5 p.m. RSVP to info@bridgetdonahue.nyc

Opening: Nan Goldin at Pioneer Works
This exhibition features a series of photographs Nan Goldin took of her friend, the artist Kathleen White, in the 1980s and ’90s, at the height of the AIDS crisis. The photographs, some of which were only just printed and will be on view for the first time, capture a tumultuous time, showing candid shots of sadness as well as moments of levity that speak to an enduring friendship between Goldin and White. The show opens alongside another exhibition at Pioneer Works devoted to White’s installations and sculptures.
Pioneer Works, 159 Pioneer Street, Brooklyn, 5–7 p.m.

Opening: Troy Michie at Company Gallery
Currently on view as part of the New Museum’s expansive survey “Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon” are Troy Michie’s photographs, which are collaged from images from amateur gay publications. By cutting them up and by putting pictures back together, “Trigger” curator Johanna Burton has said, Michie is able to rethink queer and black history. This gallery show, Michie’s first solo exhibition in New York, will include new work by the Brooklyn-based artist. Its title is somewhat peculiar: “Fat Cat Came to Play.”
Company Gallery, 88 Eldridge Street, 5th Floor, 6–8 p.m.