COURTESY THE KITCHEN
THURSDAY, MARCH 5
Opening: Keith Haring at Skarstedt Gallery in Chelsea
Titled “Heaven and Hell,” this exhibition takes its name from William Blake’s 18th century poem, “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell,” and likewise concentrates on the duality of contemporary life as seen in five of Haring’s major works on canvas dating from 1984-85. “Haring’s work is replete with paradoxical themes: life and death; religion and sexuality; innocence and experience; heaven and hell; good and evil,” reads the press release. “Haring’s deep black lines do more to complicate this dichotomy than demarcate.” They marry them.
Skarstedt Gallery, 550 West 21st Street, 6-8 p.m.
Opening: Boomoon at Flowers Gallery
Boomoon is a South Korean photographer who has been producing large-scale images of sky, sea, and land since the 1980s, with an intent to convey the infinity of nature through these vast expanses devoid of human subjects. “Naksan,” his debut US solo exhibition, will feature a selection of photos taken from the eponymous beach overlooking the Sea of Japan (East Sea) during the snowstorms of 2005, 2010, and 2014.
Flowers Gallery, 529 West 20th Street, 6-8 p.m.
Opening: “Selma March 1965” at Steven Kasher Gallery
Following this year’s Oscar-winning film on the same topic, this exhibit presents upwards of 150 photographs depicting the three Selma-to-Montgomery marches that would catalyze the Civil Rights Movement in 1965, captured by James Barker, Spider Martin, and Charles Moore. “Selma March 1965” celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Selma marches in addition to the Voting Rights Act they inspired, and marks the 30th public exhibition of Civil Rights Movement photography that owner Steven Kasher has curated.
Steven Kasher Gallery, 515 West 26th Street, Floor 2, 6-8 p.m.
Opening: Anicka Yi at The Kitchen
In her latest show, “You can call me F,” Yi uses The Kitchen as a laboratory in which to compare society’s increasing fear of contagion with the longstanding patriarchal fear of feminism. Gathering biological information from a hundred women, Yi will cultivate the idea of a female figure as a viral pathogen, and will consequently attempt to contain and neutralize it.
The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, 6-8 p.m.
FRIDAY, MARCH 6
Opening: “Destroy, she said” at The Boiler
The destruction and creation of art are intrinsically intertwined actions, both historically and theoretically . The Boiler, along with Pierogi, present preexisting works by Beth Campbell, Jeff Gibson, Serban Ionescu, Nina Katchadourian, Miranda Lichtenstein, Jeanine Oleson, Peter Rostovsky, Ward Shelley, Dexter Sinister, Bob and Roberta Smith, Ray Smith, Kate Teale, and Olav Westphalen, work that has been deliberately destroyed. The exhibit asks us to consider issues such as material, performance, and memory, as well as the changing conditions of art history in the digital age.The exhibition coincides with the establishment of the Foundation for Destroyed Art, a unique non-profit that restores physically destroyed artworks in a virtual media archive.
The Boiler, 191 North 14th Street, Brooklyn, 7-10 p.m.
Opening: Paul Chan at the Guggenheim Museum
As a result of winning the biennial Hugo Boss Prize in November 2014, Paul Chan will exhibit his first U.S. show, titled “The Hugo Boss Prize 2014: Paul Chan, Nonprojections for New Lovers,” at the Guggenheim. Featuring a body of work comprised of video projectors with no corresponding surface on which to display images, turning the visual impressions inward as the human mind does, the exhibition will also contain a ghost-like sculptural composition of white nylon fabric set in motion by industrial fans, a work that signals a new direction for the artist. Additionally, the show will also launch a series featuring emerging erotica writers, New Lovers, via Chan’s experimental publishing enterprise, Badlands Unlimited.
Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, 10 a.m.-5:45 p.m.
SATURDAY, MARCH 7
Event: Target First Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum
The theme of this month’s Target First Saturday will be “Women Changemakers.” You can look forward to events including a curator talk on the exhibition “Judith Scott—Bound and Unbound,” a conversation with feminist editor of Rookie magazine, Tavi Gevinson, and a reggae/dancehall/hip-hop/house/electronic set by DJ duo JSMN and MeLo-X. The events are all free, but some require tickets for which availability is limited.
Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, 5-11 p.m.
Talk: David Cohen and Suzan Frecon at David Zwirner
David Cohen, critic, writer, publisher, and editor of artcritical.com, will lead a tour and discussion of Suzan Frecon’s exhibition, “oil paintings and sun.” An authority on the artist, Cohen has written about Frecon’s work in Art in America, and will be contributing an essay in an upcoming catalog about her show.
David Zwirner, 525 West 19th Street, 10:30 a.m.
Opening: Hito Steyerl at Artists Space
This show surveys the work of German filmmaker and writer Hito Steyerl, showcasing eight existing works and one new commission with a particular emphasis on Steyerl’s output from 2004 onwards. During this period, Steyerl’s work focused on the contemporary status of image politics, specifically the idea that global communication technologies have had a dramatic impact on conceptions of government, culture, economics and subjectivity itself. The exhibition, which spans both Artists Space venues, also also includes a program of talks, screenings, and an online collection of Steyerl’s writing.
Artists Space, 55 Walker Street and 38 Greene Street, 3rd floor, 6-8 p.m.