This Week’s Must See Art Events: The Creative Time Summit and a Painting Fiesta

While you’re in Chelsea, you have one more chance to see the futuristic garments of AFC roommate and Eyebeam resident Carrie Mae Rose. Her illuminated wearable sculptures show how the body interacts with unseen energies and environmental forces. The latest series imagines a future in which humanity emigrates to outer space.

Will the art world be able to keep up its jetsetting lifestlye? There are a couple of arguments against it, but the scariest is the environmental one. In an attempt to get artists talking about climate change, Marfa Dialogues leads a panel on the subject, where four leading climate change experts will lay out a “roadmap for survival.” WNYC’s Brian Lehrer moderates.

As Sarah Mceneaney fans may have found, there’s something really appealing about obsessive, all-over mark making used to depict intimate moments in nature– so I have a good feeling about Benjamin Degen’s show.

It’s hard to forget the strong, funky sensibilities from last year’s group painting show “Aggro Crag” at BOSI Contemporary (curated by Jason Stopa), so I’m excited to see what looks like a follow-up exhibition at Denny Gallery. Three of that show’s artists Jason Stopa, Trudy Benson, and Russell Tyler are joined by Michael Dotson, Jeremy Couillard, Mariah Dekkenga, and Christopher Leary.

Israeli artist Ofri Cnaani calls back to the Meatpacking District’s recent history as a vibrant neighborhood, by projecting silent footage of ex-residents onto buildings they presumably can’t afford to live in anymore. These will be projected on walls in Gansevoort Plaza nightly for one month.

If you like “Windows” at Denny Gallery on Thursday, then definitely go see “The Double Down,” curated by longtime pals Trudy Benson and Jason Stopa. The show takes its name from the Kentucky Fried Chicken sandwich (a bacon and cheese sandwich, with chicken fillets for buns); “sandwiching mimics the act of co-curating, as both parties create a composite of images and ideas,” they write. That particular sandwich also looks a lot like inspiration for some of their paintings. Artists include Tomer Aluf, Rachel Malin and Peter Shear.

Another Lower East Side Gallery expands! The collective gallery and online art store Con Artist celebrates its new two-floor street level space with a giant party and zine swap. Maybe the online art market is doing better than we’d realized?

Gaultier gets a big show at the Brooklyn Museum. There’s no doubt that this is inspired by the Met’s blockbuster McQueen show, and if it’s half as good as that was, then we’ll be satisfied.

The Ryan Michael Ford image that goes with this show (the lead image for this post) was enough to get me to want to go. For better or worse, it seems like you’ll get a show of Surrealist tropes: long shadows, extreme scale, and lots of things flapping in the wind. Plus it’s been a while since the blog last saw a show by David Humphrey, and the staff left wanting to see what he does next.

Usually, neighborhood gallery crawls include any gallery that will participate. Not this one: Beat Nite changes up its form, and invites 10 art spaces in Bushwick to stay open late for their Brooklyn gallery crawl. Curator and New Criterion Critic James Panero chose the spaces which include Centotto, English Kills, Lorimoto, Outpost, Schema, Signal, Silver Projects, Storefront Ten Eyck, Theodore Arts and Valentine. The event also promises an enormous after party at English Kills from 10 to midnight. Don’t expect to leave sober.

If you’re following the art and selfies debate spearheaded by Marina Galperina, then you’ll most likely be a fan of Jessica Ciocci’s art, made through a collection of selfies and screenshots.

As we mentioned a few weeks ago, Cleopatra’s having a big gym-inspired show called “Gymnasia,” and this week’s workout sesh features Lucas Geronimas, Peter Brock, and Jared Buckheister. Some clues as to what that might look like can be found on their Facebook page. The last one happened at 4 AM. Be afraid.

As usual, we expect Creative Time’s Summit to be the major event of the year for art and social change. We like what they’ve been doing lately with Creative Time Reports and addressing labor issues, so we think we’ll be much happier than we were last year. We’re particularly looking forward to a keynote by Lucy Lippard and talks by Vito Acconci and Rent Is Too Damn High party candidate Jimmy McMillan.