Week of April 28
Approaching peak bloom in the art world 🌸
Like the cherry blossoms, we’re approaching peak bloom in the art world. The season’s blockbuster art shows begin opening this week, featuring solo presentations from Salman Toor, Francis Picabia, Robin F. Williams, Robert Rauschenberg and so many more A-listers dead and alive, plus bonkers good group shows.
But first: Laura Lima’s Balé Literal at Tanya Bonakdar is one of the greatest spectacles we’ve ever seen (and Dana Powell’s The Moon is Still Free upstairs at the gallery is as good as we hoped). Don’t miss those shows.
🆓 = costs $0, 🎨 = art, 🎼 = music, 🎬 = film, 📚= books, 🌳 = nature, 🎭 = performance, 🧠 = extra smart people, 🍸 = drinks available, 🦩 = party/friendly vibe, 🗽= extra New Yorky
🔑 Click the venue link under each listing for full event details.
Monday, April 28
In conjunction with the exhibition, “Neue Sachlichkeit / New Objectivity,” Neue Galerie presents Everyday Echoes: Iconic Films of the Neue Sachlichkeit, a series of films from the period. Tonight’s Filmbar screening: Menschen am Sonntag / People on Sunday at Neue Galerie’s Café Fledermaus (Upper East Side), 6:30p 🎬 🍸
Singers Monday Movies Series: Period Films presents Orlando (one of Tilda Swinton’s very best performances if you ask us) at Singers (Bed Stuy), 9p 🆓 🎬 🍸
Tuesday, April 29
Mingus Big Band at Birdland
Sometimes you need a really big band (14 players) to play really big music from a really big personality (Charles Mingus). The Mingus Big Band plays all week at Birdland, one of our favorite jazz clubs in the world. Try to arrive just after the doors open to make sure you get the best table in your respective zone.
Birdland, Hell’s Kitchen
Mon from 5:30p doors, 7p show (performances through May 3) 🎼 🍸
Other Tuesday events, briefly noted:
222 Tuesdays at Giorno Poetry Systems (Bowery), 4-7p 🎨 📚 🦩
A Conversation with artist Elizabeth Colomba and her famous friend Lucy Liu at Venus Over Manhattan (NoHo), 5:30p 🆓 🎨
The Odyssey translated by Daniel Mendelsohn in conversation with Fareed Zakaria at Rizzoli Bookstore (Flatiron), 6-8p 🆓 📚🧠
At Play: A Life in the Theatre by David Mamet performed by Santino Fontana and BD Wong at Symphony Space (Upper West Side), 7p 🎭
Brooklyn College MFA Poet Thesis Reading at Unnameable Books (Prospect Heights), 7p 🆓 📚
Why We Die: Venki Ramakrishnan and Janna Levin in Conversation at Pioneer Works (Red Hook), 7p doors, 7:30p talk 📚 🧠
Wednesday, April 30
Opening reception for Olivia Jia’s Mirror stage at Margot Samel (Tribeca), 6-8p 🆓 🎨
Artists on Artists Lecture Series: Steffani Jemison with Leslie Cuyjet on Maren Hassinger and Senga Nengudi at Dia Chelsea (Chelsea), 6p 🆓 🎨
Cabaret night: Theo Bleckmann at the Neue Galerie’s Café Sabarsky (Upper East Side), 7p 🎼 🎭 🍸
The School of Life presents Let’s Talk About Money at Lifeshop (Williamsburg), 8-10p
Thursday, May 1
Salman Toor’s Wish Maker opens across Luhring Augustine
We can’t wait to get our eyes all over this new work from the great painter Salman Toor. Taking place across Luhring Augustine’s Chelsea and Tribeca galleries, Wish Maker includes paintings (Chelsea) and Toor’s first show of works on paper (Tribeca). Both shows open today, but the opening reception is at the Chelsea location (531 W. 24th).
Luhring Augustine, Chelsea
Thurs from 6-8p 🆓 🎨
Other shows opening in Chelsea tonight to see after Wish Maker (6-8p) 🆓 🎨
Robert Rauschenberg: Sympathy for Abandoned Objects opens at Gladstone on 21st Street
Sam Moyer’s curated exhibition Woman with Holes opens at Hill Art Foundation (239 10th Ave)
William Kentridge’s A Natural History of the Studio at at Hauser & Wirth on 22nd St and 18th St (Chelsea), 5-7p at 18th St, 6-8p on 22nd St
Francis Picabia’s Eternal Beginning at Hauser & Wirth at 542 W 22nd St
Robin F. Williams’s Night Shift at Pace Prints (536 W 22nd St)
Tomma Abts at David Zwirner at 525 W 19th St
Miguel Calderón’s neurotics anonymous at kurimanzutto (516 W 20th)
Other Thursday events, briefly noted:
Lunchtime Exhibition Tours: After Words: Visual and Experimental Poetry in Little Magazines and Small Presses, 1960-2025 at the Grolier Club (Upper East Side), 1-2p 🆓 📚 🎨
Casual Encounterz May Day Reading Series at Canada’s 61 Lispenard St. Gallery (Tribeca), 5p 🆓 📚 🎨
Opening reception for Randy Wray’s Prehistory across Karma’s galleries on East 2nd St (East Village), 6-8p 🆓 🎨
🎨
Opening reception for Ilana Savdie’s Glottal Stop at White Cube (Upper East Side), 6-8p 🆓 🎨
Panel Discussion on the late Mary Ann Unger featuring Eve Biddle (Artist, Co-founder of the Wassaic Project, Daughter of Mary Ann Unger), Seph Rodney (PhD, Writer, Editor, and Curator) and Stephanie Sparling Williams (PhD, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of American Art, Brooklyn Museum) at Berry Campbell (Chelsea), 6:30p 🆓 🎨 🧠
Consulting the Index: Readings from e-flux Index #5 at e-flux (Clinton Hill), 6:30p doors, 7p event 🆓 📚 🎨
Viet Thanh Nguyen on To Save and to Destroy: Writing as an Other with Hua Hsu at the Center for Fiction (Fort Greene and Online), 7-8:15p 📚 🧠
Friday, May 2
Bang on a Can’s Long Play Festival
It’s the 4th year of the Long Play Festival from the visionary classical music organization Bang on a Can. This year’s programming includes over 50 concerts featuring performances from luminaries like Kim Gordon, a big tribute to Terry Riley, and an afternoon of John Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes.
Various locations across Brooklyn
Runs through Sunday, May 4 🎼
The Annual Jono Pandolfi Warehouse Sale
Get the biggest discounts of the year on the best, most sturdy ceramics you’ve ever meet at the annual Jono Pandolfi Warehouse Sale. It’s worth a trip to the lovely studio in Union City. Make a reservation to skip the line—the $5 reservation cost goes toward your purchase.
Warehouse sale runs on Friday, Saturday, and Monday—with bigger discounts each day.
Jono Pandolfi Studio, Union City, NJ
Fri from 10a-5p 🆓 (also May 3 and 5)
IN DREAMS: a drag tribute to David Lynch
Ten queens assemble tonight at Bed Stuy’s best queer bar to honor the life and work of cinema’s best auteur. We expect the event to be as singular and bizarre as David Lynch himself.
C’Mon Everybody, Bed Stuy
Fri at 8p 🎭 🍸 🦩
Other Friday events, briefly noted:
The Margaret Mead Film Festival kicks off at the Museum of Natural History (Upper East Side), runs through May 4 🎬
Opening reception for an exhibition of work from the late Harold Stevenson at Andrew Kreps (Tribeca), 6-8p 🆓 🎨
Delcy Morelos Book Launch featuring the incredible artist Delcy Morelos in conversation with curators Alexis Lowry and Zuna Maza at Dia Chelsea (Chelsea), 6:30p 🆓 📚 🎨
NYU MFA presents: Emerging Writers Reading with Peter Orner at KGB Bar (East Village), 7:30-9:30p 📚 🎭
Ilana Savdie solo show opens at White Cube (Upper East Side), 10a-6p 🆓 🎨
Long Play Festival presents: Kim Gordon at Pioneer Works (Red Hook), doors 7p, show 8p 🎼
VARIETOPIA with Paul F. Tompkins at Town Hall (Theater District), 8p 🎭
Petting Zoo: Live Comedy with Animals at Cloud City (Williamsburg), 7:45p doors, 8p show 🎭
Saturday, May 3
Opening reception for Carnival at Jeffrey Deitch
Curated by Joe Coleman, this show brings together work from a huge range of artists who “engage with themes of spectacle, rebellion, and free expression in unexpected and thought-provoking ways.” You’ll get work from Anne Imhof, fresh off her Doom success; Jamian Juliano-Villani, the O’Flaherty’s founder and painter who keeps the art world chaotic and interesting; Walton Ford, who we just love…and so many others we lost count. Openings at this gallery are a beautiful scene you won’t want to miss.
Jeffrey Deitch at 18 Wooster Street, SoHo
Sat from 6-8p 🆓 🎨
Other Saturday events, briefly noted:
Rosa Barba’s The Ocean of One’s Pause opens at the MoMA (Midtown), 🎨
The Second annual Conference on Artist-Curated Exhibitions, featuring lectures, panels, and conversations with artists, curators, and art historians from all over the world at Giorno Poetry Systems (Bowery), 10a-3p 🎨 🧠 (also Sunday from 1-6p)
Black Zine Fair: Discursive Circus at Powerhouse Arts (Gowanus), 11a-6p 🆓 🎨
Opening reception for a solo show of work from the late Anna Zemánková at Gladstone 64 (Upper East Side), 3-6p 🆓 🎨
Opening for The Theatre—installations from Anna Ting Möller, Luca Rekosh, Marianna Rothen, and Miles Scharff at LUmkA (Lower East Side), 6-8p 🆓 🎨
One Thing Follows Another: Experiments in Dance, Art, and Life through the Lens of Simone Forti and Yvonne Rainer book launch with authors Sarah Rosenthal and Valerie Witte plus a ‘live choreography’ performance at Performance Space New York (East Village), 5p 📚 🎨 🎭
Opening reception for Zoé Blue M.’s Hard Boiled at Jeffrey Deitch at 76 Grand Street (SoHo), 6-8p 🆓 🎨
Last call for these art shows closing on Saturday:
Kennedy Yanko’s Retro Future and group show at Salon 94 (Upper East Side), 10a-6p 🆓 🎨
Amanda Mehl’s Amehlica Part III: Divinity at Picture Theory (Chelsea), 10a-6p 🆓 🎨
Dreamers with Cary Hulbert, Dingyue Fan, Eleonora Rinaldi at IRL Gallery (Tribeca), 11a-6p 🆓 🎨
Sunday, May 4
Sunday in the Cemetery: a gathering as part of the Death Education series at Green-Wood Cemetery (Green-wood Heights), 10a-5p 🆓 🌳
Metropolis screens at The Paris (Midtown), 11a 🎬
The Debt Gala: a Met Gala alternative fundraiser for good charities [theme and detail TBD as of this publication] at The Bell House (Gowanus), 6p 🍸 🦩
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