9 Art Events in New York This Week: Purvis Young, Alice Neel, Ricardo Brey, and More

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26

Opening: Alice Neel at David Zwirner
Titled “Freedom,” this exhibition features paintings and works on paper that span six decades of Alice Neel’s career. Organized by Ginny Neel, Alice’s daughter-in-law, the show focuses on the artist’s depictions of nude figures and their relationships to motherhood, sexuality, and beauty standards. Among the earliest works is Well Baby Clinic (1928–29), a meditation on childbirth that Neel painted after giving birth to her second daughter.
David Zwirner, 537 West 20th Street, 6–8 p.m.

Opening: Purvis Young at James Fuentes Gallery and Salon 94 Freemans
With a Purvis Young solo show now on view at the Rubell Collection in Miami, two New York galleries are surveying the late artist’s output. Salon 94 Freemans is showing a selection of paintings and artist’s books, while James Fuentes is shining a spotlight on the artist’s assemblages, found objects, paintings, and drawings. The pieces often reflect Young’s experience living in an impoverished area of Miami that was designated as a black neighborhood in the segregated American South.
James Fuentes Gallery, 55 Delancey Street, 6–8 p.m.; Salon 94 Freemans, 1 Freeman Alley, 6–8 p.m.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28

Opening: Camilo Godoy at CUE Art Foundation
Curated by artist Tania Bruguera, this show includes installations, films, and photographs by Camilo Godoy, whose work considers the ways in which history is written and presented. Among the highlights of the exhibition, titled “En Vivo y En Directo,” are the video works Noticiero (2002/17) and Shock and Awe (2003/18), both of which focus on the dissemination of news during George W. Bush’s presidency and the beginning of the War on Terror. Another is “Everybody knows that they are guilty:,” an ongoing series of U.S. presidential signatures drawn in human blood. Performances by the New York–based artist will be part of the program on March 9 and 27.
CUE Art Foundation, 137 West 25th Street, 6–8 p.m.

Opening: Ricardo Brey at Alexander Gray Associates
Ricardo Brey is best known for his assemblages of diverse materials, and his recent works have explored mythologies, cycles of time and nature, and human history. The centerpiece of this show is Rose of Jericho (2013–14), which includes a box lined with Baroque-inspired patterns, a wilted flower beneath a glass dome, strands of rope, and papers with the artist’s drawings and handwriting folded accordion style. Speaking of similar works, Brey once said, “The box is our head, the box is our cave, the box is the attic, the box is the memory and the world.”
Alexander Gray Associates, 510 West 26th Street, 6–8 p.m.

Opening: Kiki Smith at Pace Gallery
Kiki Smith’s latest New York outing brings together new etchings, cyanotypes, contact prints, and sculptures. Smith’s work has long focused on gender and sexuality, and her new work continues to explore these themes, with an added interest in the natural and spirit worlds. Titled “Murmur,” the exhibition offers a sampling of Smith’s output alongside a retrospective now on view at the Sara Hildén Art Museum in Tampere, Finland. (After that institution, the show will make a stop at the Belvedere Museum in Vienna this June.)
Pace Gallery, 537 West 24th Street, 6–8 p.m.

Talk: “Physical Tactics for Digital Colonialism” at New Museum
Presented in conjunction with the exhibition “The Art Happens Here: Net Art’s Archival Poetics,” this event features the premiere of a performance-lecture by artist Morehshin Allahyari, whose work is included in the show. The talk is based on the artist’s concept of digital colonialism, which Allahyari has said refers to the ways digital information technologies are further complicit in colonialism. Her talk at the New Museum will focus specifically on 3D-printing technology—“a tool of witchcraft and magic,” according to the artist. She will create live 3D scans of objects while offering source material for them.
New Museum, 235 Bowery, 7 p.m. Tickets $10/15

FRIDAY, MARCH 1

Exhibition: Simon Evans™ at James Cohan Gallery
Simon Evans™ is a collaborative venture operated by the British-born artist and former professional skateboarder Simon Evans and the American-born artist Sarah Lannan. Together, the duo creates images and collages filled with short phrases, drawings, and detritus culled from both the street and the studio. Evans and Lannan’s art often acts as a catalogue of sorts—their 2008 work Everything I Have depicts the couple’s possessions using images and text. Their latest show is titled “Passing through the gates of irresponsibility.”
James Cohan Gallery, 291 Grand Street, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

Opening: Christina Forrer at Luhring Augustine
Los Angeles–based artist Christina Forrer makes large, colorful figurative tapestries featuring bodies undergoing various activities. Her subjects have ranged from playful children jumping rope to monsters preparing to eat women. Graphically bold and dense with narrative, Forrer’s tapestries recall the histories of pop and folk art. Her new show—her first since being added to the roster of Luhring Augustine—will include new tapestries and works on paper.
Luhring Augustine, 531 West 24th Street, 6–8 p.m.

SUNDAY, MARCH 3

Opening: Fin Simonetti at Company Gallery
The New York–based artist Fin Simonetti started a stone-carving practice in 2017, after her father died. Her new exhibition includes a series of sculptures made from Spanish blue alabaster balanced perilously on a metal railing. According to the artist, the works allude to the process of grieving for a loved one and offer a critical look into the culture of masculinity. Also included in the show are a video of weight lifters and disembodied dog paws.
Company Gallery, 88 Eldridge Street, 6–8 p.m.