Editors’ Picks: 15 Things Not to Miss in New York’s Art World This Week

Each week, we search New York City for the most exciting and
thought-provoking shows, screenings, and events. See them
below.

Wednesday, December
4

1. “Present Bodies: Papermaking at Dieu Donné”
at the Gallery at BRIC House

The BRIC gallery is presenting a curated collaboration with
Dieu Donné, the Brooklyn-based studio where artists can learn
paper-making techniques. The exhibition features the work of eight
artists (Swoon, Noel W. Anderson, Lesley Dill, Candy Gonzalez, Lina
Puerta, Paul Wong, Saya Woolfalk, and Tricia Wright), each of whom
are presenting works based on the theme of paper as a repository of
memories.

Location: Gallery at BRIC House, 647
Fulton Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, Wednesday 7 p.m.–9
p.m.; Tuesday–Friday, 11 a.m.–7 p.m.; Saturday & Sunday, 11 a.m.–5
p.m.

—Caroline Goldstein

Thursday, December
5–Saturday, January 25, 2020

2. “John Dowell: Cotton, Symbol of
the Forgotten” at Laurence Miller Gallery

John Dowell’s sobering works reflect on the histories and
legacies of race relations in America. This show focuses in
particular on the lives of black Americans in New York state, and
includes a digital rendering of Seneca Village, a once-vibrant
community that was founded in 1825. In Dowell’s work, the hub,
which was razed to make space for Central Park, is imagined
alongside the apartment buildings that replaced it.

Location: Laurence Miller Gallery, 521
West 26th Street, 5th floor
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Nan Stewart

Friday, December
6

3. “The Lives of Artists—An
Evening with Calvin Tomkins” at the Metropolitan Museum of
Art

The New Yorker’s Calvin Tompins will discuss
his latest book box set, The Lives of
Artists—a compilation of over 80 of his most important
artist profiles from 1962 to 2019—with artist Paul Chan.

Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, 1000 5th Avenue
Price: Free with registration
Time: 6:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Friday, December 6 and
Saturday, December 7

4. “Jazz on a High Floor in the Afternoon: Michela Marino
Lerman’s Love Movement” at the Whitney Museum of
American Art

What better way to spend a frigid winter evening than cozied up
in the Whitney listening to jazz? As part of the programming for
composer and pianist Jason Moran’s exhibition, Moran and curator
Adrienne Edwards have orchestrated live performances alongside
Moran’s installations, which riff on iconic jazz venues from around
New York.

Location: The Whitney Museum of American
Art, 99 Gansevoort Street
Price: $25 general admission; $18 for members
and students

Time: Friday, 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.; Saturday,
2 p.m. and 4 p.m.

—Caroline Goldstein

Saturday, December 7–Sunday
December 8 and Friday, December 13–Sunday, December
15

5. “Peter & the Wolf With Isaac
Mizrahi” at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 

Fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi’s version of Sergei Prokofiev’s
children’s classic Peter and the Wolf has become
an annual holiday tradition at the Guggenheim. In addition to
providing the costumes, Mizrahi narrates the 1936 symphony,
reimagined here to take place across the street in Central
Park.

Location: The Guggenheim Museum, 1071 5th
Avenue
Price: General admission $45
Time: Friday, 6:30 p.m.–7 p.m.; Saturday, 1
p.m.–1:30 p.m.; 2:30 p.m.–3 p.m.; 4 p.m.–4:30 p.m.;
Sunday, 2:30 p.m.–3 p.m.; 4 p.m.–4:30 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Saturday, December
7–Saturday, January 25, 2020

6. “By/Buy Me” at Susan Inglett Gallery

In a new group show at Susan Inglett Gallery, curator David
Platzker has brought together editioned artworks that have been
self-published by artists. The show, which explores themes of
commodification and the role of an artist in a commercial art
world, includes works by Fiona Banner, Tauba Auerbach, Dan Graham,
Hannah Wilke, Richard Prince, and Lynda Benglis, among others.

Location: Susan Inglett Gallery, 522 West
24th Street
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Caroline Goldstein

Through Sunday, December
8

7. “Elias Sime: Tightrope”
at Hamilton College’s Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of
Art 

Repurposing electronic waste such as old computer keyboards,
motherboards, and electrical wires, Ethiopian artist Elias
Sime creates densely detailed, layered colorful sculptures. He
imbues these unexpected materials with a sense of beauty, drawing
comparisons between the workings of such manmade machinery and the
pathways that spring up organically in the natural world.

Location: Hamilton College, Ruth and Elmer
Wellin Museum of Art, 198 College Hill Road, Clinton, New York
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Sunday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Through Thursday, December
12

8. 63 Up at Film
Forum

In 1964, Michael Apted was tapped to work as a researcher on
7 Up, a British documentary that followed the lives of 14
children from around the country, examining the differences across
social classes. Every seven years since, Apted has followed up with
his subjects, directing one of cinema’s most enduring
documentaries. The ninth and latest edition, likely the last—Apted
is 78 and in failing health—debuted on the UK’s ITV in June, and
you can catch it this month at Film Forum.

Location: Film Forum, 209 West Houston
Street, west of 6th Avenue
Price: General admission $15
Time: 12:30 p.m., 3:20 p.m., 6:20
p.m., 9:15 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Through Saturday, December
14

9. “John Chamberlain & Donald
Judd” at Paula Cooper

Paula Cooper pairs the giants of John Chamberlain and Donald
Judd in this two-person exhibition that highlights their friendship
in the 1960s. The two influenced each other’s work, with Judd
experimenting with motorcycle lacquers after encountering them
in Chamberlain’s work, and even supplying the raw materials for a
series of his friend’s crushed metal sculptures.

Location: Paula Cooper, 524 West 26th
Street
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Nan Stewert

Through Sunday, December
15

10. “Gilles: Barbier: Laughing
at clouds” at the Chimney

A native of the Oceanic island republic of Vanuatu, Gilles
Barbier presents his first solo show, channelling Rene Magritte
with a surreal installation of floating umbrellas that transform
the gallery into an otherworldly landscape. The piece was inspired
by a photograph of President Donald Trump abandoning his wife
Melania to stand in the rain as he engaged with reporters from
underneath an umbrella.

Location: The Chimney, 200 Morgan Avenue,
Brooklyn
Price: Free
Time: Saturday and Sunday, 2 p.m.–6 p.m.

—Tanner West

11. “Tianyi Zhang: 99 Agreements” at
Elijah Wheat Showroom

China-born, New York-based
Tianyi Zhang’s new gallery exhibition explores gender identity and
power dynamics through media-informed role playing. In the titular
multichannel video work, Zhang inhabits 99 different “high-femme”
personas, all vocalizing the word “yes” in a different situation.
Viewers are left to intuit each character’s emotional state and
broader narrative based only on minimal visual context and the tone
of their respective acquiescence. Together, the 99 simultaneous
vignettes nod toward the overwhelming number of women who feel
pressured to comply in a whole range of personal and professional
scenarios every day—and how much would change if they instead
decided to bear the (sometimes significant) risks of
refusing.

Location: Elijah Wheat Showroom, 1196 Myrtle Avenue, Brooklyn

Price: Free

Time: Friday–Sunday, 12
p.m.–6 p.m.

—Tim Schneider

12. “Lucien Samaha: A History of Digital
Photography” at Pioneer Works

Red Hook-based Pioneer Works is showing three decades worth of
works by New York-based photographer Lucien Samaha, whose career
coincides with the inception and rise of digital photography. In
1990, Samaha won the inaugural Kodak Professional Photography
Division scholarship, which allowed him to use the company’s
newfangled digital camera system before anyone else. In the
intervening years, Samaha has documented just about every place
he’s been, and the fruits of his labors are the focus of this
show.

Location: Pioneer Works, 159 Pioneer
Street
Price: Free
Time: Wednesday-Sunday, 12 p.m.–7 p.m.

—Caroline Goldstein

Through Saturday, December
21

13.
“Vanessa German: Trampoline, Resilience & Black Body &
Soul” at Fort Gansevoort

Vanessa German’s works are like Mickalene Thomas’s
photo-tableaux in three dimensions, crossed with Niki de Saint
Phalle’s colorful sculptures. In the press release accompanying the
exhibition, German says: “I am in love with the deep survival,
elastic resilience, and ordinary creative genius of Black
people.”

Location: Fort Gansevoort, 5 9th
Avenue
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.;
Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Caroline Goldstein

Through Monday, December
30

14. “Travis Boyer:
Amongus” at False Flag

Though Travis Boyer’s work is grounded in performance, the range
of his practice is diverse, and includes painting, sculpture,
cyanotype, videos, and textiles. Inspired by familiar scenes, such
as drinking games and group fitness classes, his performative works
meld the private with the public. As the artist himself
explains: “it is about the activity being really legible in
such a way that you, as a participant, can take it or leave it,
project onto it or ignore it.”

Location: False Flag, 11–22 44th Road,
Long Island City, Queens
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.;
Tuesday–Sunday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.

—Eileen Kinsella

Through Sunday, March 1,
2020

15. “Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 1991–2011” at
MoMA PS1

This ambitious exhibition—which examines the impact on visual
culture and art of American-led wars in Iraq over the past 30
years—is not really the kind you can spin through on your lunch
hour. Instead, come back two or three times, taking in a floor or
two during each visit. The show features more than 30 works by more
than 80 artists based in Iraq and its diasporas, as well as artists
considering the war—the first to be televised during the rise of
24-hour cable news—from the West. It’s a slow burn that will stay
with you for a long time.

Location: MoMA PS1, 22–25 Jackson Avenue,
Long Island City, Queens
Price: $25 general admission
Time: Monday–Thursday, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.;
Friday, 10 a.m.–9 p.m.; Saturday & Sunday, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

—Julia Halperin

The post Editors’ Picks: 15 Things Not to Miss in New York’s
Art World This Week appeared first on artnet News.