This Week’s Must-See Art Events: Give Thanks That Anything Is Happening at All This Week

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on November 23, 2015 Events

Katya Grokhovsky: "Uproar". Grokhovsky has work in the Asia Society of Arts Annual Exhibition which closes tonight at the Tenri Cultural Institute.

Katya Grokhovsky: “Uproar”. Grokhovsky has work in the Asia Society of Arts Annual Exhibition which closes tonight at the Tenri Cultural Institute.

Let’s be honest: With Thanksgiving and Art Basel just around the corner, there’s dick all to do around here. Nobody is opening their show this week and if they are it’s something really weird. Naturally we found that for you: Art School Acid Dropout invites stand up comedians tell stories while art school drop-outs illustrate the stories. The rest are talks, screenings and closings: Adeola Enigbokan lectures on her Renters Archive project tonight, where she chronicles the personal histories of rents after the second World War. Saturday MoMA screens “Goodnight Mommy” a terrifying film about two children who believe their mother is an imposter after she returns home with a botched plastic surgery job. And if that doesn’t suit your fancy there’s always the NOoSPHERE closing. The nonprofit art space that focuses on international collaborations and exposure for artists from Norway will move from the LES to Greenpoint. This is their current space’s last hurrah.

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Mon

Tenri Cultural Institute

43A W 13th St.
New York, NY
6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.Website

Asian Society of Arts: 2015 Annual Exhibition Closing Reception

Tonight, the Asian Society of Arts Annual Exhibition closes with a reception (word on social media is there will be champagne and sushi!) focused around the very vague concept of Layering and Composition. The Asian Society of Arts provides support to international artists looking to pursue a career in the United States, and this year’s round-up is pretty international—featuring artists from Australia, China, Japan, Korea, and Mexico.

We’re looking forward to Katya Grokhovsky’s feminism-informed painterly installations (think Jessica Stockholder designing for a rough-around-the-edges children’s tv show) and Jaena Kwon’s delicate, colorful abstract paintings. There are also projects on display from architect Dichen Ding, digital artist Erica Hu, painter Hiromitsu Kuroo, a mystery artist/entity named BMT KOU, photographer Mari Maeda-Oboshi, and painter/performer/sculptor Alejandro Yoshii. We haven’t seen most of the work yet, but what we have seen looks great, and tonight is the last night to check it out, so it’s a must-see.

Unnameable Books

600 Vanderbilt Ave.
Brooklyn, NY
8:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.Website

Obscura Talk NY: The Renter's Archive: Imagining Equal Housing for All

Anyone who came to our Stay in New York conference at the Queens Museum will remember Adeola Enigbokan, an artist, renters activist and scholar. She spoke on the securing affordable workspace panel about how renting can be powerful and why it isn’t clear to communities that they need artists. (Conversations on paint about paint don’t register as relevant to the average person.) Today, she talks about her Renters Archive, a project in which she reconstructs personal histories of renters after WWII. You’ll hear about the mass entrance of white americans into the middle class and the institutionalization of racist practices.

Tue

NURTUREart

56 Bogart St
Brooklyn, NY
7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.Website

Deville Cohen: Zero // Underline

A screening party for Zero, an associative video partly inspired by X-Files. We’re not clear on what more there is to the video, but the event promises an artist’s talk followed by drinks and mental preparation for Thanksgiving. Sounds necessary.

Fri

Basilica Hudson

110 South Front St.
Hudson, NY
2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.Website

Basilica Farm & Flea on Thanksgiving Weekend

Escape the madness of Black Friday by seeking out a different shopping experience! Yes, really. That pitch comes from the Basilica Farm & Flea, which invites visitors to shop antiques and food this Friday, which I guess is a bit different than regular ol’ Christmas shopping? I dunno, but the event listings are slim this week and at least this event offers shoppers nondescript educational workshops and lectures at the same time.

Sat

MoMA

11 W. 53rd St.
New York, NY
3:00 p.m.Website

Screening of Goodnight Mommy

Just in time to get you in the mood for Art Basel Miami Beach, MoMA is screening a terrifying film about plastic surgery gone wrong. From directors Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz, this Austrian film has been consistently hailed as one of the scariest movies ever made. It follows two children who suspect their mother is not who she claims to be after she returns home from facial reconstructive surgery. The trailer alone is enough to give me nightmares.

NOoSPHERE Arts

251 E. Houston St
New York, NY
7 p.m.Website

OUR LAST BIG BANG

 

After five years on the Lower East Side, NOoSPHERE is shuttering and moving on. The quirky nonprofit art space focused on international collaborations and exposure for artists from the founders’ native Norway. Now, they’ll be launching an itinerant curatorial program and a new, larger space in an industrial zone of Greenpoint. Come help them bid farewell to Manhattan at their closing party, which will feature performances from Les Nubians, Lesley Kernochan, Mik Kuhlman, and Charles Davi.

Sun

The Creek and The Cave

10-93 Jackson Ave
Long Island City, NY
10 p.m.Website

Art School Acid Dropout

What the hell is this event? From what we can gather, art school drop-outs are handed crayons while stand up comedians tell stories and then the audience is supposed to illustrate them. There will be prizes such as an entire Thanksgiving dinner and maybe some taxidermy animals. The organizers are interviewing video artist Wang Xizhe, who will then become a host of the festivities. Also, the first 25 people who show up to the door get a silkscreened poster.

Okay, we have no idea what this is, but after a week of absolutely nothing happening except Thanksgiving and commercials for shopping, this is at least a chance to be in the same room with other artists. And it’s in a bar. So you can at least drink.

Performances: Ben Wasserman – Jay Lenos Garage, CNBC; Lizzy Mazzucchelli – Toy Story 3; Jared Dryden – The Boy from that Thing; Chris Daniels – Americas Dream Machine; David Lawson – That Guy Who Loved; Phil Philly – The Future of American Comedy

 

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