9 Art Events to Attend in New York City This Week

TUESDAY, JANUARY 17

Opening: “1966 – 2016” at Greene Naftali
Greene Naftali’s website offers scant information on this stacked group show, but with names like Bernadette Corporation, Tony Conrad, and Dan Graham, it seems hard to go wrong. “1966 – 2016” is one of two group exhibitions opening the same night at the gallery—the ground floor space sees the launch of the well-named “Infected Foot,” which includes Monika Baer, Laura Owens, and, once again, the late, great Tony Conrad.
Greene Naftali, 508 West 26th Street, 8th Floor, 6–8 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, JANUAY 18

Opening: A. K. Burns at New Museum
“Shabby But Thriving” is the name of A. K. Burns’s New Museum show, but it also might as well describe the artist’s work in general, which often takes the form of lo-fi video installations about queerness, feminism, and other political concerns relating to bodies. Here, Burns will debut a new video, Living Room (2017–), which she made as an artist-in-residence at the museum. Using 231 Bowery as a metaphor for a body, Burns weaves through the building’s architecture, pondering the ways in which architecture can reflect the goings-on inside us. An installation featuring a dysfunctional couch and fishing lines will also be on view with the video.
New Museum, 235 Bowery, 11 a.m.–9 p.m.

Opening: “Cuban Socialist Posters from the 1970s” at Miguel Abreu Gallery
Could a poster push someone to change the world politically? This was the question that preoccupied the minds of Cuban printers, who, during the 1970s, produced images intended to promote socialism. Following a decade where posters were essential to rebuilding a government after the 1959 fall of Fulgencio Batista, Cuban artists had to figure out how they would promote their nation and its relatively radical new set of politics. This 14-work show, which includes one poster for International Women’s Day, surveys some of their methods and themes.
Miguel Abreu Gallery, 36 Orchard Street, 6–8 p.m.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 19

Opening: “Acts of Intimacy: The Erotic Gaze in Japanese Photography” at the Walther Collection
This show, curated by the International Center of Photography’s Christopher Phillips, features work by Nobuyoshi Araki, Daido Moriyama, and Kohei Yoshiyuki, three Japanese photographers whose work bridges erotica and high art. Having begun at a time when Japanese culture was radically changing, their work reflects shifting attitudes toward sex. Voyeurism, fetishism, and, of course, nudity are mainstays in their pictures. Among the art on show here will be works from Yoshiyuki’s photo series “The Park,” for which he shot exhibitionists—and the peeping toms who watched them—by night.
The Walther Collection, 526 West 26th Street, Suite 718, 6–8 p.m.

Opening: Katharina Grosse at Gagosian Gallery
Katharina Grosse’s work is instantly recognizable: it’s colorful, often big, and always eye-catching. The German artist’s canvases and site-specific installations—such as one such produced for MoMA PS1 last summer, a shack covered in shades of blood red and pale white—have appeared throughout New York over the past decade, but somehow, this is her first gallery show in the city. Here, she will show more of her tie-dye-like works, which are made using a spray gun, in an effort to distance herself from the canvas. They make use of unmixed acrylics—pure color that, in Grosse’s hands, occupies space.
Gagosian Gallery, 555 West 24th Street, 6–8 p.m.

Opening: Outsider Art Fair at Metropolitan Pavilion
Now in its 25th edition, the Outsider Art Fair returns to New York with some 60 exhibitors, eight of which are showing at the fair for the first time. The fair won’t close for the J20 Art Strike, but it will have what it’s calling “The Barack Obama Readings,” a marathon reading of selected quotes by our outgoing president. “We are confident that his voice will continue to be strong in the coming years,” Andrew Edlin, whose gallery will be showing at the fair, said in statement. Also among the fair’s other exhibitors are New York’s Jack Hanley Gallery and Philadelphia’s Fleisher/Ollman Gallery.
Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 West 18th Street, 6–9 p.m.

Opening: “Piss and Vinegar” at New York Academy of Art
In times such as these, when truth and common decency are in short supply, we could all do with a shot of some “Piss and Vinegar.” To that end, the New York Academy of Art has brought together five 1960s-era male artists and five contemporary female artists, all united by their shared subversive sensibilities and wit. What these artists may lack in pleasant subject matter, they more than make up for in their fierce conviction, marking them as names fit for recognition: Robert Arneson, Robert Colescott, R. Crumb, Peter Saul, Robert Williams, Nina Chanel Abney, Sue Coe, Nicole Eisenman, Natalie Frank, and Hilary Harkness.
New York Academy of Art, 111 Franklin Street, 6–8 p.m.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 20

Opening: “I’m Nobody! Who are you? The Life and Poetry of Emily Dickinson” at the Morgan Library & Museum
With an acclaimed book of her envelope poems released last year, Emily Dickinson is having yet another moment—some 130 years after her death. This show, named for one of the 19th-century American writer’s most popular poems, looks in depth at 24 works, showing them alongside daguerreotypes, photographs, illustrations, and other related ephemera. According to the Morgan, which organized the show with Amherst College, “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” is “the most ambitious exhibition on Dickinson to date.”
Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Avenue, 10:30 a.m.–9 p.m.

 

Screening: A Face In The Crowd at Anthology Film Archives
The screening of this 1957 Elia Kazan film is part of “Inauguration of the Displeasure Dome: Coping with the Election,” a four-day program at Anthology Film Archives that aims to offer “several different cinematic methods” for dealing with current affairs. In the movie—which Anthology describes as a “dark vision of American politics” and “alarmingly relevant”—a drunk with power celebrity uses his status to launch into political office. The film also features a “shockingly committed and disturbing performance” performance by Andy Griffith. Sounds like a good time?
Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Avenue, 6:30 p.m. Tickets $7/$9/$11