There’s not much competition for best week of 2024 so far, but this one is kind of showing off.
The art shows opening this week are numerous, and Jack Shainman Gallery is delivering in the best way possible—Richard Mosse’s Broken Spectre makes its New York debut on Friday (we saw it in San Francisco over the summer, it’s an Important Piece of Art), and Echoes of Circumstance featuring our beloved El Anatsui opens Thursday.
Read to the end for a Special Tiny Report: BACK 2 SCHOOL, your guide to local institutions and courses kicking off soon that will make you a smarter, better version of yourself.
This week’s Most Likely to Succeed events
🆓 = costs $0, 🎨 = art, 🎼 = music, 🎬 = film, 📚= books, 🌳 = nature, 🎭 = performance, 🧠= thinking topics, 🍸 = drinks available, 🦩 = party/friendly vibe
🔑 Click the venue link under each listing for full event details.
Monday, January 8
Nota Bene Friends of the Pod group show opening reception at Broadway Gallery
Nota Bene, the art world podcast by art adviser Benjamin Godsill and Vanity Fair art columnist Nate Freeman, has slowly burrowed its way into our hearts. Tonight, Godsill and Freeman launch their first ever joint art show featuring work from some of their friends, artists like Jonas Wood, Lily Stockman, Al Freeman, and many more.
Broadway Gallery, Tribeca
Mon from 6-8p 🆓 🎨
National Arts Club presents Thor Rinden’s Retrospective opening reception
Tonight, catch a retrospective from the late Brooklyn artist, Thor Rinden, who worked in three distinct styles, making “slab” paintings, “woven” paintings, and classic figurative paintings. Work will be in the National Arts Club’s beautiful East Gallery. All proceeds from the sale of Rinden’s artwork will support Pioneer Works’ youth education programs.
The National Arts Club, Gramercy
Mon 6-8p 🆓 🎨
Jonathan Santlofer presents The Lost Van Gogh at McNally Jackson
The Lost Van Gogh is a fun historical novel about art world intrigue, thievery, and scandal, which is every piece of candy we like in a big, fat novel. The author chats with Joyce Carol Oates about the book tonight. To reserve your spot, buy a ticket here for $5, which you can use toward any purchase at the store (including the bar).
McNally Jackson, South Street Seaport
Mon at 7p 📚 🍸
Tuesday, January 9
Reality Reimagined: Vision as Process talk presented by the Whitney
Sorry, have we been talking too much about the Whitney lately? If you’re planning a night in, sign up for this free virtual talk on the work of Ruth Asawa and Harry Smith, which would be nice to watch while cooking dinner and avoiding rain.
the Whitney, virtual
Tues at 6p 🆓 🎨 🧠
Lecture on Going Dark at the the Guggenheim
Dr. Simone Browne delivers the 34th annual Hilla Rebay Lecture on the Guggenheim’s big current exhibit, Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility. This lecture is IRL, and it affords an opportunity to live the New York life that perhaps you, too, dreamed of as a kid: how impossibly chic to start your evening with a lecture at the Guggenheim.
Guggenheim, Upper East Side
Tues from 6:30-8p 🆓 🎨 🧠
Odd Man Out show opens at HERE
If you’re a brave theatergoer, Odd Man Out is absolutely for you. This is “an immersive experience in complete darkness in which the audience hears, smells, tastes, and feels the story of Alberto, a blind jazz musician traveling home from New York to Buenos Aires after decades of self-exile.”
HERE, Soho
Tues at 6:30p, show runs through Jan 17 🎭
Wednesday, January 10
Jewish Film Festival kicks off at Lincoln Center
The Jewish Museum and Film at Lincoln Center kick off the 33rd annual Jewish Film Festival today. Here’s the full film lineup. The programming is wide-ranging, but we’re most interested in this documentary on Spinoza (screening at 5:30p on Wed 1/17 at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center).
Lincoln Center, Upper West Side
Various times, runs through Jan 24 🎬
J Jan Groeneboer's Selected Views opens at The Kitchen
Since 1971, The Kitchen has been supporting avant garde and experimental artists across disciplines with a kunsthalle model approach, bringing together “live performances, exhibition-making, and public programming under one roof.” It’s one of New York’s finest gems, in our estimation, and we’re excited to check out every new project they feature.
Today, J Jan Groeneboer's new site-specific, multi-channel video installation Selected Views opens, “mark[ing] the culmination of the artist’s durational process of witnessing fluctuations in the local and global landscape, captured through footage of the singular view from the window of his Brooklyn studio.new multi-channel video installation.”
The Kitchen, Chelsea
Wed from 4:30-8:30p 🆓 🎨 (free panel discussion with the artist on Sat at 3p)
Opening reception for Kaur Alia Ahmed’s sky, harp at Entrance
We love a debut. This is the artist and writer Kaur Alia Ahmed’s first solo show, presented by the good people of Entrance in the lower level gallery. We’re not quite sure what to expect, but Ahmed’s work tends to dabble in mixed media pieces.
Entrance, Lower East Side
Wed from 6-9p 🆓 🎨
Terce: A Practical Breviary opens tonight at Irondale
As part of the PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now festival, Terce sounds like a wild experience. Listen to this: “Terce: A Practical Breviary is a radical rethinking of a monastic 9:00 AM mass and an adaptation that reimagines the face of the ‘Holy Spirit’ through the lens of the Divine Feminine. Sung by a community choir of 30-plus caregivers and makers, it is a wild meditation/celebration of the sacred mothers alive in all of us and how that manifests in regard to the Earth, each other, and ourselves.” Having recently started carrying crystals in our bag and jacket pockets, this is right up our alley.
Irondale, Fort Greene
Wed at 7p 🎭 🎨 🎼 (performances run through February 4)
Thursday, January 11
Thursday’s top art openings
Chelsea
Dominic Chambers’ Leave Room for the Wind opening reception with the artist at Lehmann Maupin (Chelsea), 6-8p 🆓 🎨
Carey Young’s Appearance opens at Paula Cooper Gallery (Chelsea), 6-8p 🆓🎨
Mark Yang’s Birth opens at Kasmin Gallery (Chelsea), 6-8p 🆓 🎨
George Rickey’s Wall Reliefs opens at Kasmin Gallery (Chelsea), 6-8p 🆓 🎨
BOOKS opening reception at Paula Cooper Gallery (Chelsea), 6-8p 🆓 🎨 (whoooops we got the date wrong in last week’s report for the opening reception. It’s THURSDAY.)
Echoes of Circumstance featuring El Anatsui, Lyne Lapointe, and Garnett Puett, opens at Jack Shainman Gallery on 20th Street (Chelsea), 10a-6p 🆓 🎨
Two Bridges
Maggie Dunlap’s Gilded Splinters opens at No Gallery (Two Bridges), 6-9p 🆓🎨 🦩
New York on Film: Do the Right Thing at the Museum of the City of New York
New York on Film is a 12-month series exploring a film for each decade from the 1920’s through 2020’s. Tonight, they cover the 1980’s in the only way you can: with Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing.
Museum of the City of New York, Harlem
Thurs at 6:30p 🎬
Religion, Westward Expansion, and American Destiny presented at the New York Historical Society
The mid-19th century was an absolutely bonkers time in America. Tonight, professors and writers Catherine Brekus of Harvard and Jonathan H. Ebel of University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, talk about American religious culture between the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 and the Homestead Act of 1862 and the extremely batty Second Great Awakening that took place in between. If you’re into this lens on history, plug for Kurt Anderson’s Fantasyland, a history book about how delusion has always shaped our cute lil country.
New York Historical Society, Upper West Side and virtual
Thurs from 6:30-7:30p 🧠
A night of poetry and performance at Giorno Poetry Systems
The official title of this event shouts at you: “YUKO OTOMO asks MATTHEW SHIPP to perform and invites ELAINE EQUI & BRENDA COULTAS to join.” It’ll be a fun performance with longtime friends and collaborators, featuring poets and the wildly creative jazz pianist and composer, Matthew Shipp. We’re always talking about how we’re obsessed with John Giorno, and his legacy is thriving through the A++ programming at Giorno Poetry Systems.
Giorno Poetry Systems, Bowery
Thurs 6:30p door, 7p show 🎨 📚 🎼 🎭
Poetry is Famous: readings at Topos Too
Topos Too (the 2nd location of Topos Bookstore) is opening its doors for a night of poetry, hosted by cool person Ben Fama. The vibe will be good.
Topos Too at 5922 Myrtle Ave, Ridgewood
Thurs at 8p 🆓 📚 🎭
Friday, January 12
Friday’s top art openings
Tribeca
Joan Snyder's ComeClose opens at Canada Gallery (Tribeca), 6-8p 🆓 🎨
Anke Weyer's Nocturnes opens at Canada Gallery (Tribeca), 6-8p 🆓 🎨
Constanza Schaffner’s Leones, Flores, Constanzas opens at Luhring Augustine Tribeca (Tribeca), 6-8p 🆓 🎨
PPOW presents a conversation between painters Katharine Kuharic and Kurt Kauper opens at 390 Broadway, 2nd Floor (Tribeca), 6-8p 🆓 🎨
The New York premiere of Richard Mosse’s Broken Spectre opens at Jack Shainman Gallery on Lafayette Street (Tribeca), 6-8p 🆓 🎨
Andrew Kreps and Bortolami Gallery present Objects on the New Landscape, an exhibition of works by Sonia Gechtoff opens at 394 Broadway and The Upstairs at 39 Walker St (Tribeca), 6-8p 🆓 🎨
A big show for the late Eileen Agar (pioneer of Surrealist art) opens at Andrew Kreps (Tribeca), timing TBD 🆓 🎨
Chelsea
Florian Maier-Aichen (A+ photographer) solo show opens at 303 Gallery (Chelsea), 6-8p 🆓 🎨
Midtown
Three new shows open at Marian Goodman Gallery (Midtown), 6-8p 🆓 🎨
Jazz Cafe at the Society for Ethical Culture
We love the Society for Ethical Culture, a beautiful organization headquartered right on Central Park West. Tonight, they host a jazz trio for a 2-hour performance where they’ll invite guests up to play while you get to just hang out and have a drink. Doors open at 6:30p.
Society for Ethical Culture, Upper West Side
Fri from 7-9p 🎼🍸
Shakespeare’s As You Like It at Skirball Center
This is “a radical retelling by Cliff Cardinal,” and honestly? We’re here for it. This is presented as part of the Under the Radar fest, which takes place in venues across downtown.
NYU’s Skirball Center, Greenwich Village
Fri at 7:30p 🎭 (also Sat at 3p and 7:30p)
Saturday, January 13
Last day to see Pipilotti Rist’s Prickling Goosebumps & A Humming Horizon at Hauser & Wirth
This two-part show by Rist, the Swiss visual artist, is one of the best things we saw in 2023. Cozy up on the couches, lie down in a bed, and watch as Rist’s psychedelic lightshow lures you away to somewhere else. You have until February 3 to see the other part of the installation at Luhring Augustine on 24th Street.
Hauser & Wirth on 22nd, Chelsea
Sat from 10a-6p 🆓 🎨
Opening receptions for two shows at The Hole
The Hole is one of the great galleries spicing up the Bowery area today. Tonight marks the opening of two shows: Horripilation, a group show that reflects on “the mysterious interplay between our emotional states and the physical sensations they elicit,” and winter flowers, a two-person show from Caroline Larsen and Vanessa Prager featuring thick, thick paintings.
The Hole, Bowery
Sat from 6-8p 🆓 🎨
Wild Style closing party with MC Grand Master Caz at Deitch Gallery
This exhibit is an homage to the 1983 film, Wild Style, whose impact on art and culture was significantly larger than its budget or reach at the time. We’ve said it before, but we forgive this show their KAWS because there’s a sculpture on display by RAMM:ΣLL:ZΣΣ, who was just so otherworldly genius.
Deitch Gallery, Soho
Sat from 6-8p 🆓 🎨 🎼 🦩
Sunday, January 14
Free Second Sundays at the Whitney
The Whitney just announced two opportunities to visit for free: Friday nights from 5-9p, and the second Sunday of each month. This is the inaugural Second Sunday at the Whitney, and it comes at a good time—Ruth Asawa Through Line is on view for one more day (closing 1/15).
The Whitney, Meatpacking District
Sun from 10:30a-6p 🆓 🎨
SPECIAL TINY REPORT: BACK 2 SCHOOL
In addition to your resolutions for fun, perhaps you also want to learn more this year? Institutions like the Center for Fiction, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research are just some of the places where you can sign up for IRL or virtual classes.
Some good ones are kicking off soon:
The first installment of Under the Influence: Reading and Journaling Teju Cole
Taught by Elizabeth Howard at the Center for Fiction. This five-session, in-person course runs from January 9 through March 12, and you’ll read Teju Cole’s A+ novel, Open City, plus other works. The Center for Fiction has tons of courses kicking off this month—the full lineup of Reading Groups is here, and upcoming Writing Workshops are here.
Center for Fiction, Fort Greene
Starting Tues, January 9 from 6:30-8p 📚
The Science of Tree Communication at the New York Botanical Garden
Trees are the best role models: they work together, they’re beautiful, they have absolutely nailed longevity. In this course, “discover how trees communicate via chemical signals in the air (to warn of insect attacks) and transfer nutrients to one another through complex underground fungal networks (sometimes to assist sick trees).” Taught by
New York Botanical Garden, online
Starting Thurs, January 11 from 6-8p 🌳 🧠
Tolstoy's Master and Man and a Cocktail
Any George Saunders heads out there are perhaps familiar with this short story, which is perfectly studied in A Swim in the Pond in the Rain. This is one of those powerful short stories that you could read and talk about forever, or for at least an hour and a half over a cocktail with Yale writing professor Pam Newton.
Center for Fiction, Fort Greene
One night only: Thursday, January 11 from 6:30-8p 📚🍸
A selection of bangers from The Brooklyn Institute for Social Research
The BISR is “an interdisciplinary teaching and research institute that offers critical, community-based education in the humanities and social sciences. Working in partnership with local businesses and cultural organizations, we integrate rigorous but accessible scholarly study with the everyday lives of working adults and re-imagine scholarship for the 21st century.”
A few great courses coming up:
Architectural Experiments: Revolutions in Design starting February 1
Simone de Beauvoir: Existentialism, Phenomenology, Feminism starting February 4
The Death Drive: Psychoanalysis and Self-Destruction kicking off February 6
Meet the BIG LIST
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THAT’S ALL, FOLKS
Have tips? Feedback? Requests? Want to say hi? Just reply to this email or drop us a line at daysnightslist@gmail.com. Catch you next week.