9 Art Events To Attend In New York City This Week

WEDNESDAY, MAY 27

Workshop: “How To—Instagram | #ICPworkshop” at International Center of Photography
Truly a workshop of its time, this event features Instagram photographers with a minimum of 50-500K followers (professionals, in other words) to share “success stories, tips, and tricks.” Panelists include stylist Anka Itskovic (@the_line_up), BBDO creative Dave Krugman (@dave.krugman) and This American Life’s Miki Meek (@mikimeek) will also reveal how they grew their following, and how to monetize Instagram fame, as well as a “Feed Review” in which they will critique 3-5 volunteer Instagram accounts.
International Center of Photography, 1114 Avenue of the Americas, 7-9 p.m. The event is free.

THURSDAY, MAY 28

Opening: Lorraine O’Grady at Alexander Gray Associates
This exhibition focuses on two early projects: the performance art piece Rivers, First Draft and her first collage series Cutting Out The New York Times, showcasing “the artist’s nuanced perspectives on art history—specifically Dada and Surrealism— and the topical issues of the late-1970s and early 1980s, when Multiculturalism and Feminism were articulated and tested in the art world,” according to a press release. O’Grady’s practice intermingles with personal family history, which resulted in extremely personal portrayals of her New York community—“the city, its art world, and its media,” the release concludes.
Alexander Gray Associates, 510 West 26th Street, New York, 6-8 p.m.

Opening: Marcel Odenbach at Anton Kern
The centerpiece of Marcel Odenbach’s seventh show at Anton Kern is a portrait of Tupac, which is surrounded by images of urban plant life, a pair of gardener’s overalls drying on a clothesline, and collaged African seed pods. Viewed from a distance, the collages “convey a sense of tranquility and casualness,” a press release says, but a closer look will reveal hundreds of images referencing religious delusion, racism, murder, the life of painter Francis Bacon, and the recent Charlie Hebdo murders.
Anton Kern Gallery, 532 West 20th Street, 6-8 p.m.

Screening: Asylum at Pioneer Works (UPDATE: This event has been moved to June 4.)

As part of its “What Would The Community Think?” film series, which explores the way people form communities, Pioneer Works will be screening Peter Robinson’s compelling 1971 film, Asylum. A press release explains:

“In 1971, a group of filmmakers were granted the opportunity to film for several weeks at a unique home for “mentally troubled” individuals in London, UK. The Archway Community was based in large part on the theories of the late, radical psychiatrist R.D. Laing, including his belief that the hierarchical structure of the usual doctor-patient relationship could be broken down by communal living – an effort to break the cycle of people being fruitlessly shuttled between mental hospitals and their often dysfunctional homes. The film participates in this ethos, simply observing the housemates as they interact with each other, often in fascinating digressions that illustrate Laing’s thesis at the time that ‘madness,’ while painful, could sometimes have creative and socially positive outcomes. A tremendously humane and powerful document of community.”

Pioneer Works, 159 Pioneer Street (between Imlay & Conover streets), Brooklyn, New York, 7:30 p.m. Tickets $10  

Performance: “NEW INC and Deep Lab: Drone Painting Performance” at the New Museum
Drones have been steadily infiltrating contemporary life, including art, and viewers at this performance will be able to actually watch a drone painting, thanks to Deep Lab founder and artist Addie Wagenknecht, in collaboration with KATSU, NEW INC members Dan Moore and Becky Stern of Adafruit. This event is part of NEW INC’s weeklong privacy-, security-, surveillance-, anonymity-, and large-scale dale aggregation-themed residency with the cyberfeminist research collective Deep Lab for the IDEAS CITY Festival.
New Museum, 231 Bowery, 8-9 p.m. This event is only accessible from the street. No RSVP required.

Opening: Ellen Auerbach at Robert Mann Gallery

“Ellen Auerbach: Classic Works and Collaborations” is a kind of retrospective of the works of Weimar-era photographer Ellen Auerbach, who broke into a very male-dominated field with the advertising studio “ringl + pit” along with photographer friend Grete Stern. One of the pair’s most famous satirical images is a doll’s head substituted for a model’s, which “shrewdly disrupt[ed] the traditional advertisement pose for cosmetics at the time,” according to a press release. The show also features photos taken after Auerbach’s immigration to the United States, where she documented Mexican churches, strangers, and fellow artists such as Willem de Kooning and Renate Schottelius with her “third eye,” the camera.
Robert Mann Gallery, 525 West 26th Street, New York, 6–8 p.m.

Opening: Laurie Frick at Pavel Zoubok Gallery
For “Who are you? What day is it?”, Laurie Frick has created new sculptural work in the form of personalized data portraits, based on the first two questions asked of someone with a head injury. Made of paper, wood, and leather, the show’s two question tie back to Frick’s greater artistic focus: well-being and self-awareness as tied to one’s place and use of time. Three series of works are on view: Time-slices, which depicts the meticulously tracked and quantified life of Ben Lipkowitz on his website fennetic.net; 7 Days, which color-codes data tracking a man and a woman; and Leather Blocks, which uses a software called Manictime to plot a pattern mapping Frick’s daily technology usage.
Pavel Zoubok Gallery, 531 West 26th Street, 6-8 p.m.

FRIDAY, MAY 29

Opening: “Growing Up In The New York Underground: From Glam To Punk” at Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art
This 2-day show (May 30-31), presented by Tony Zanett (David Bowie’s longtime assistant) and Kymara, reminisces about the adolescence of photographer Paul Zone through pictures. Zone grew up during the death of glam and the birth of punk, and his photographs include players such as Blondie, Debbie Harry, The Ramones, The New York Dolls, Iggy and the Stooges, The Dead Boys, Suicide, T. Rex, The Fast, KISS, Richard Hell, Johnny Thunders, Patti Smith, Lou Reed, Jayne County, Alice Cooper, Lance Loud, Stephen Sprouse, Christopher Makos, Anya Phillips, Cherry Vanilla, Arturo Vega, Anna Sui, Sable Starr, James Chance, and Lydia Lunch.
Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, Kymara Gallery, 127-B Prince Street, New York, 6-9 p.m.

SUNDAY, MAY 31

Opening: Sam McKinniss at Joe Sheftel Gallery
“Black Leather Sectional” marks Sam McKinniss’s first solo exhibition at the gallery, as well as the artist’s solo New York debut. One large sectional sofa, and ten paintings inspired by murder, revenge, teenage passion, lust, and cartoon ghosts will be on view. McKinniss (or MoMA PS2/@wkndpartyupdate, if you’re on Twitter), a painter and photographer, “augments his practice with obsessive Internet searching, erratic quests for overlooked or outdated icons—cultural items that will attract and maintain his manic gaze,” says a press release.
Joe Sheftel Gallery, 24A Orchard Street between Hes­ter and Canal Streets, New York, 6-8 p.m.