9 Art Events to Attend in New York City This Week

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5

Opening: Shake at International Studio & Curatorial Program
Taiwanese artist Shake has always been curious about the complex political reality and history of her home country, and this exhibition, titled “Re-re-poisitioning the Present,” will continue her inquiry. The exhibition features a group of video installations, “The Subduction Zone Series,” in which the topography of Taiwan serves as a metaphor for geopolitical history, its ridged plains becoming symbols of uneven political terrains. Alongside the videos, Shake will exhibit her archives and personal writings, which span the post–World War II and Cold War periods and help illuminate some of the changes Taiwan went through as a result of colonialism.
International Studio & Curatorial Program, 1040 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn, 6–8 p.m.

Screening: The Cool World at Film Society of Lincoln Center
Set on the streets of Harlem in the summer of 1963, Shirley Clarke’s 1964 film The Cool World tells the story of 15-year-old Duke Custis as he navigates the violent turf wars and internal hierarchies of his neighborhood’s gangs. Shot with a cinema verité style, Clarke’s film, an essential work in the history of black cinema, features mostly nonprofessional actors who illuminate the contrast between fantasy and reality. It screens here as part of a larger series called “The Non-Actor,” which focuses on films featuring star turns from amateur performers.
Film Society of Lincoln Center, 70 Lincoln Center Plaza, 8:45 p.m. Tickets $11/$14

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6

Fundraiser: Zinefest Puerto Rico at Word Up Community Bookshop
Word Up, the multilingual, volunteer-run bookstore and art space in the Bronx, will host “Hecho a Mano y Corazón: A Zine Reading + Fundraiser to Support Puerto Rico Recovery Efforts” in their recovery efforts following the destruction of Hurricane Maria. (Its title translates to “Made by Hand and Heart.”) There will be readings, and zines will be available for purchase. All funds raised at the event, which is co-hosted by the NYC Feminist Zinefest, will go to help Puerto Rico.
Word Up Community Bookshop, 2113 Amsterdam Avenue, the Bronx, 6:30 p.m.

Talk: Leslie Hewitt at International Center of Photography
Leslie Hewitt creates conceptual works that, in presentations framed in wood and often rested against a wall, suggest a relationship between photography and sculpture. Through assemblage and abstraction, her still-life pictures of books and old photos imbue everyday pop-cultural items with a certain spiritual depth. The artist’s International Center of Photography talk will move through the development of her work and touch on newer pieces, like Untitled (Structures), a recent two-channel film that Hewitt created by culling from the civil rights photography archives of Houston’s Menil Collection.
International Center of Photography, 1114 Avenue of the Americas, 7–9 p.m.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7

Talk: “Art & AIDS: The Influence of Art in the AIDS Epidemic” at Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art
This panel discussion runs concurrently with the Gay Men’s Health Crises–curated exhibition “Art & AIDS: 35 Years of Survival,” on view until December 30 at the Leslie-Lohman Museum in SoHo. Moderated by museum cofounder Charles Leslie, the talk, like the exhibition as a whole, will focus on art’s role within the AIDS epidemic. Panelists include artist and philanthropist Sally Fisher, artist and GMHC senior health care community specialist Luna Ortiz, activist and Visual AIDS executive director Nelson Santos, and AIDS activist and artist Robert Vázquez-Pacheco.
Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, 26 Wooster Street, 6–8 p.m.

Screening: Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Masks at NYU
Isaac Julien’s 1995 film about the Afro-Caribbean theorist and activist Frantz Fanon was titled after a 1952 book by the writer of the same name. Fanon’s book is regarded as an important text within the history of anti-colonial thought. In homage, Julien, using everything from staged reenactments to archival footage, explores the writer’s ideas and legacy in a decidedly essayistic manner. After the screening, there will be a discussion between Julien and Mark Nash, the film’s producer.
Heagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at NYU, 255 Sullivan St, 6–9 p.m.

Opening: “The Shadow Archive: An Investigation Into Vernacular Photography” at the Walther Collection
“The shadow archive” is a term coined by the theorist and photographer Allan Sekula that refers to a collection of photographs of anonymous people. This exhibition will present such an archive through its inclusion of 19th-century daguerreotype family portraits, a set of 16 tintypes, mugshots from Californian prisons in the 1890s, a sequence of photographs depicting a French medical patient under hypnosis, and several dozen portraits taken from a 1980s Midwest high school yearbook. This show will be the first in a multi-year series at the Walther Collection focused on the history of vernacular photography.
The Walther Collection, 526 West 26th Street, Suite 718, 6–8 p.m.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9

Screening: Breaking the Frame at Metrograph
How does one sum up the life of the avant-garde polymath Carolee Schneemann? In Breaking the Frame, filmmaker Marielle Nitoslawska attempts this difficult task through an inventive approach that involving filming Schneemann’s country house and looking through the feminist artist’s diaries. This footage is accompanied by voiceover narration that offers biographical snippets and is intercut with scenes from Schneemann’s work, including her iconic film Fuses (1965), which featured the artist having sex with her partner, the composer James Tenney. Schneemann, who is currently the subject of a retrospective at MoMA PS1, and Nitoslawska will be present at this screening to discuss the film.
Metrograph, 7 Ludlow Street, 3:30 p.m. Tickets $15

Performance: The Dyke Division of the Two-Headed Calf at New Museum
The Dyke Division is a live performance series that explores contemporary queer discourse through the tropes of soap operas. Set in a fictional “lesbian enclave” in Sappho, Massachusetts, the series of performances is centered around a group of queer individuals of differing age and orientation who explore the politics of their relationships with each other and society. Three new episodes of the series, which ran for several seasons at New York’s La Mama Experimental Theatre, will be developed through public rehearsals in the New Museum’s galleries and public spaces, forming part of the programming for the museum’s current exhibition “Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon.”
New Museum, 235 Bowery, 6:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tickets $10/$15