9 Art Events to Attend in New York City This Week

MONDAY, JULY 23

Performance: Seung-min Lee at the Kitchen
Part of an events series related to “On Whiteness,” a group show curated by the Racial Imaginary Institute, Seung-min Lee’s performance Intolerable Whiteness considers white nationalists’ use of milk in protests and social media. The work examines dwindling consumption of milk and neo-Nazis co-opting the beverage as a symbol of white supremacy with a stainless-steel watercooler and a mounted screen that plays video of previous milk-minded performances by the Brooklyn-based artist.
The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, 7 p.m. Free with RSVP

Talk: Nell Painter and Vivian Gornick at Museum of the City of New York
As the final installment of this season’s “Core Conversations” series, the Museum of the City of New York presents a discussion between historian-turned-artist Nell Painter and writer Vivian Gornick. Painter’s new book Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over, traces her journey as an art student following her retirement from her role as a professor of American history at Princeton University. The talk will focus on transforming lived experiences into written narratives. A book signing with Painter will follow.
Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue, 6:30–8:30 p.m. Tickets $10/$12/$15

TUESDAY, JULY 24

Opening: “Strange Beach” at Fridman Gallery
“Strange Beach,” which brings together work by Arghavan Khosravi, Nate Lewis, and Tajh Rust, considers different ways to consider the human body. Figurative works abound, though each artist’s approach to the style is quite different. Lewis’s works on paper often center on social histories; Khosravi’s paintings, influenced by Persian miniature and Surrealism, grapple with notions of citizenship; and Rust’s portraits address perceptions of race.
Fridman Gallery, 287 Spring Street, 6 p.m.

Talk: Lynne Tillman and Andrew Durbin at 192 Books
The beloved Chelsea haven 192 Books presents a reading and conversation between the esteemed writer Lynne Tillman and Andrew Durbin, the senior editor of Frieze magazine. Both are based in New York and have recently published novels: Tillman’s sixth, Men and Apparitions, which was released earlier this year by Soft Skull Press, and Durbin’s MacArthur Park, which came out last year. Tillman and Durbin make work in multiple modes, often at the intersection of fiction and criticism, so expect an engaging night of talk.
192 Books, 192 Tenth Avenue, 7 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 25

Opening: John Russell at Bridget Donahue
The preview image that Bridget Donahue gallery provides for the British artist John Russell’s exhibition “Doggo” is a still from a 50-minute video of the same name featuring a sort of dog-man hybrid who also happens to have tentacles for fingers. Russell is a founding member of the legendary collective BANK, and a form of this exhibition first appeared at Kunsthalle Zurich last year—it featured the aforementioned film alongside sculptures, drawings, and large paintings specifically made for the space. In typical form for Russell, the film includes mutant animals rendered through a decidedly weird style that the artist calls “morphogenesis.”
Bridget Donahue, 99 Bowery, 6–8 p.m.

THURSDAY, JULY 26

Convening: “Convening for Contemporary Art, Education, and Social Justice” at New Museum
At this three-day event, which is part of a larger series of programming related to the Black School and Kameelah Janan Rasheed’s current New Museum show, artists, educators and activists consider “safer and braver spaces” at the intersection of contemporary art, learning institutions, and their surrounding communities. Each day of the convening, with a shared goal of fostering ideas to combat systemic inequalities, will be dedicated to one theme: Thursday’s is “Architectural Space,” to be followed Friday by “Social Space” and Saturday by “Curricular Space.”
New Museum, 235 Bowery, New York, 6–8:30 p.m.

Lecture: Amalia Ulman at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise
Work by the Argentinean-born, Los Angeles–based artist Amalia Ulman includes performance, installation, video, and internet-based projects, often dealing with issues of class, gender, and popular culture. Her 2014 durational performance Excellences & Perfections, which lasted for four months and transpired entirely on Instagram, saw the artist deploy a series of alternate online personas in the creation of an unfurling narrative that commented on, among other things, identity in the age of social media. Her “performative lecture” here, titled Agenda, will focus on the artist’s use of estrogen and “the effects of excess on her body,” per a release. A PowerPoint presentation, visual ephemera, and sound effects will be involved.
Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, 291 Grand, 7 p.m.

Screening: 2001: A Space Odyssey at Museum of Moving Image
To honor the film’s 50th anniversary, the Museum of the Moving Image will devote a week-long run to a 70mm print of Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Widely considered one of the greatest films ever made, 2001 offers a cryptic narrative that threads together events that occur in the distant past, the present, and the far-off future, in the process offering various meditations on the role humans play within the larger universe. The print screening here is a special one, the museum says: “This is a true photochemical film recreation: There are no digital tricks, remastered effects, or revisionist edits,” the museum remarks in a statement.
Museum of Moving Image, 36-01 35th Avenue, Queens, 7 p.m. Tickets $7/$20

 

SUNDAY, JULY 29

Screening: The Miseducation of Cameron Post at Film Society of Lincoln Center
Desiree Akhavan’s new film The Miseducation of Cameron Post, which will be released in full on August 3, will have a preview screening this week as part of a series about female cinematographers titled “The Female Gaze.” Set in 1993 and based on a novel of the same name, the film chronicles the experiences of its title character, a teenager who is forced to attend a center for gay conversion therapy. The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with Miseducation cinematographer Ashley Connor.
Film Society of Lincoln Center, 165 West 65th Street, 6 p.m. Tickets $12/$15