9 Art Events to Attend in New York City This Week

TUESDAY, APRIL 18

Opening: Allan D’Arcangelo at Garth Greenan Gallery
Allan D’Arcangelo’s work is usually associated with the Pop art movement, but to call him a Pop artist might be reductive. His semi-figurative paintings tread the lines between Pop, Minimalism, and hard-edged abstraction, evoking in the process a distinctly American landscape of signage. Despite his work’s weirdness, D’Arcangelo described his subjects as “icons that mattered”—something spiritual was at stake. This show focuses on paintings that D’Arcangelo, who died in 1998, made between 1974 and 1982. Included is Landscape (1976–77), a strange image of a part of a parking deck and a telephone pole that, if briefly glanced, might resemble a crucifix.
Garth Greenan Gallery, 545 West 20th Street, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

Opening: Cindy Sherman at Mnuchin Gallery
A woman in high-waisted harem pants lies on the floor, propped against a chair, as though knocked over by someone. What is she doing there? And why is her expression so blank? Such are questions that surround Untitled #94 (1981), one of Cindy Sherman’s “Centerfold” photographs that, like so many of her other works, has no narrative but feels as if it should include a hidden story. This exhibition, titled “Cindy Sherman: Once Upon a Time, 1981–2011” and curated by Philippe Ségalot and Sukanya Rajaratnam, focuses on Sherman’s use of stories, or lack thereof, in her work. Featuring Sherman’s photographs of herself presented in the manner of clowns and high-society women, the show will include works from a series did for which she inserted herself into traditionally male art-historical images, in a sort of commentary on the conventional role of women in narratives.
Mnuchin Gallery, 45 East 78th Street, 6–8 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19

Opening: Mel Bochner at Peter Freeman Inc.
One of Mel Bochner’s latest paintings is Obsolete, and the text within the work makes good on its title. The word “OBSOLETE” is printed over and over again, in Bochner’s signature bubble-letter font, against fiery magenta background. As the viewer’s eye scrolls down the painting, the word becomes gradually less visible and, in its own self-reflexive way, obsolete. Like many of Bochner’s paintings, it examines what happens when the viewer becomes a reader and ways that words can communicate meaning. With this show, Bochner’s first since his Jewish Museum retrospective in 2014, the veteran conceptualist will unveil new works.
Peter Freeman Inc., 140 Grand Street, 6–8 p.m.

Lecture: Lyle Ashton Harris at Pratt Institute
Currently on view at the Whitney Biennial is a room-size installation by Lyle Ashton Harris, an underrated artist whose work reconciles various tragedies in recent queer and black history. His Whitney work takes the form of various photo-based works, all of which are tinged with a sadness for that which has been lost. These are typical works for Harris, whose photographs and videos trace the ways images can create identities—and vice versa. At this lecture, Harris will discuss his practice and his recent pieces.
Pratt Institute, ARC Building, 200 Willoughby Avenue, Brooklyn, 6:30–8 p.m. Register on Pratt’s website

THURSDAY, APRIL 20

Opening: “Regarding the Figure” at the Studio Museum in Harlem
Figuration, long considered an outmoded style, has made a comeback in a big way, with the Whitney Museum staging several exhibitions in its tribute and many young painters receiving acclaim for avoiding abstraction. Now, the Studio Museum in Harlem will showcase various figurative work from its collection. On view will be mid-century portraits by artists such as Eldzier Cortor alongside postmodern reflections on the history of art by Barkley L. Hendricks and Lorraine O’Grady. Among the works are paintings by Njideka Akunyili-Crosby, the young Nigerian-born artist whose tableaux often feature sitters whose surroundings are covered in ready-made images.
The Studio Museum in Harlem, 144 West 125th Street, 12–9 p.m.

Opening: “Body Language” at Company Gallery
This four-person group show features work by artists pondering bodies, often in surreal ways. The oldest works here are Jimmy DeSana’s photographs, which were shot during the ’80s and ’90s, and often include bodies, both male and female, that are contorted in strange arrangements in suburban homes. Tschabalala Self and Niv Acosta will bring DeSana’s sensuality into the present day with new works that explore the role of gestures. Even more explicit will be Jacolby Satterwhite’s work, which typically takes the form of digital animations where orgiastic arrangements of bodies take place in futuristic settings.
Company Gallery, 88 Eldridge Street, 5th Floor, 6–8 p.m.

FRIDAY, APRIL 21

Opening: “We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85” at Brooklyn Museum
As scholars continue to plumb the depths of art history for forgotten figures, the Brooklyn Museum will dedicate an entire major exhibition to black women artists working between 1965 and 1985. A few of the artists will be well-known to today’s viewers—such as the filmmaker Julie Dash, who made Daughters of the Dust, and Beverly Buchanan, herself the subject of a previous Brooklyn Museum show—but in their day, many of these women went under-recognized. At a critical moment when art history is being revised to look beyond white males, this show promises to be vital.
Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

Opening: “Henri Cartier-Bresson: India in Full Frame” at Rubin Museum of Art
In 1948, while on assignment for Magnum Photographers, Henri Cartier-Bresson met Mahatma Gandhi in Delhi, India. The resulting images are among Cartier-Bresson’s most iconic. In one portrait, Gandhi sits on the floor, pensively reading a book. This would become one of the last images of Gandhi ever produced—he was assassinated that same year, and Cartier-Bresson wound up photographing his funeral, too. This exhibition features 69 photographs that the French artist took as part of a three-year trip through Asia, with immaculately composed street photographs alongside more conventional portraits of Gandhi.
Rubin Museum of Art, 150 West 17th Street, 6–10 p.m.

SATURDAY, APRIL 22

Opening: Justin Matherly at Paula Cooper Gallery
Justin Matherly’s sculptures typically take the form of ancient Greek and Roman works that have been eroded, remade, and placed on what appear to be walkers. For Matherly, such forms suggest a way of reflecting on art’s fragility—nothing lasts forever, not even the greatest masterpieces. For this show, Matherly, who will have work later this year in the 2017 edition of Skulptur Projekte Münster, will re-stage works initially made for a 2016 show at Galerie Eva Presenhuber. The works on view here take their inspiration from three Greek deities: Asclepius, Telesphoros, and Hygeia (the gods of medicine, recovery, and health, respectively).
Paula Cooper Gallery, 521 West 21st Street, 6–8 p.m.