This Week’s Must-See Art Events: Use Your Sick Days Wisely

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how prescient FGT’s work feels to our current political discourse. Maybe that’s because it’s always been about change? Curator Elena Filipovic will be discussing her own groundbreaking work on the late artist’s posthumous exhibitions, which each adapted to new contexts and the work of other artists and curators. The book features loads of installation shots, and is likely beautiful.

Carla Gannis’s new publication represents a year’s worth of digital selfies. Each has been enhanced with an augmented reality experience, so come prepared with Blippar on your phone. Hovering over one or another illustration, the viewer will be treated to a multimedia surprise…my curiosity is piqued.

Zurich-born artist Christina Forrer’s politically-charged tapestries are chock full of references to 20th Century European textile art history, and the artists and craftspeople who responded to fascism. The chaotic, sometimes violent, acid-hued works also bring to mind punk illustrations. They’re weird and wonderful.

One of the most urgent and timely sections of the ICP’s epic exhibition Perpetual Revolution: The Image and Social Change is The Flood: Refugees and Representation, which looks at how social media and the ease of sharing images affects the global conversation about the European refugee crises. Curator Joanna Lehan will discuss the tricky topic with Carne Ross (founder and executive director of the Independent Diplomat), and featured artist Tomas van Houtryve.

Michael Williams is one of the few artists who has managed to make digital paintings that one can appreciate like paintings. Somewhat ironically, they feel more like good David Hockney paintings than Hockney’s own forays into digital art. They have a lovely balance of impulsivity and a sense of design—a quality that’s hard to achieve with physical paint, but oddly elusive in digital processes as well. This is William’s first East Coast show with Gladstone, and here the prints will be bigger than ever. I’ve never seen these works in person, so it should be interesting to see how they translate to a larger, physical scale.

Jason Lahr’s technicolor paintings feel a bit like guilty pleasures. That might be because their content is sourced from some of pop culture’s most base vices—video games, action films, and just a bit of the internet’s endless churn of pulp critical theory. His graphic, shaped canvasses are inspired by the intersection of class and toxic masculinity. A timely topic indeed.

Why this is a “Must-See” needs little explanation.

The legend himself, Raymond Pettibon will join Massimiliano Gioni, Artistic Director of the New Museum, to discuss Pettibon’s epic retrospective “A Pen of All Work.”

The event is $10 for members, or $15 for the general public. I’d highly recommend booking your tickets now!

“Exhausted” has become on the most common responses to “how are you?”, especially since the election. There’s been a lot (but probably not enough) discussion about the effect of recent stress on productivity and mental health. But beyond the news cycle, that perpetual state of fatigue probably lies in the failures of our societal structures.

Curator Taraneh Fazeli posits that “rest” is an act of resistance to late capitalism. What’s one sick day when you’re sick of it all? The event description claims “we are all united by the fact that we will experience fluctuating states of debility throughout the course of our lives. Furthermore, so many of us are exhausted from living and working in a capitalist system while insufficient infrastructures for care have further deteriorated. “

The artists here, including AFC fav Sondra Perry, comment on this shortcoming, or propose alternate models for recuperation. These include satellite programs in Texas, where the social net is even more frayed than in neoliberal states. This looks to be one of the week’s most promising shows for discourse-sparking.

Artists: Fia Backström, Jesse Cohen and Carolyn Lazard with Canaries, Danilo Correale, Jen Liu, Zavé Martohardjono, Sondra Perry, Carrie Schneider, Cassie Thornton, and Constantina Zavitsanos

Curators Nicole Siegenthaler and Alvaro Luis Lima (winners of the 2016 NARS Emerging Curator Program Open Call) have turned their attention to the spatial politics of the web. Namely, what do artist-made online spaces look like in the age of corporate sanitization and intersectional identity politics?

The show includes work from  Dan Halter, Faith Holland, Devin Kenny, Paula Nacif, Tabita Rezaire and Nicolas Sasson. We’re expecting a little conceptual overlap with our own online exhibition Geographically Indeterminate Fantasies: The Animated GIF as Place. Here, though, Siegenthaler and Lima are focusing on works with a nostalgia for web 2.0 aesthetics.

Rebecca Leveille’s handling of paint is gorgeous. In this series, she applies those skills to the topic of a “crush”. According to the show’s description, that can manifest as both attraction and a feeling of being overwhelmed.

I write this recommendation in the middle of a day spent scanning untold events listings: every artist (and curator, gallerist, etc…) should attend this writing and editing workshop. Mastering the ability to write about art in a clear and accessible manner is just as important as the ideas themselves. It’s impossible to get people to come to an exhibition without this skill.

The event is free, and led by Shama Rahman, Senior Marketing Coordinator at the Whitney. Professional advice doesn’t get much more “pro” than that.

RSVP: info@nyartistsequity.org

Susan Carr’s clunky impasto paintings undeniably charm viewers. They give an impression of speed that’s counterintuitive to their obviously built-up surfaces, and that tension satisfies. Here, it looks like this new body of work incorporates more 3-D sculptural forms inserted in the paint. One gets the impression these should definitely be seen IRL. They’re worth a trip far uptown.

One of our favorite things about all of our weirdo friends is the breadth of stuff they do. At this event, for example, we’re looking forward to listening to music by visual artists and watching performance art by musicians. We assume there will be more stretching of the disciplines over the evening.

This event is the release party for artist FIN’s new album ICE PIX, and undoubtedly the most fun thing happening Sunday night.

Artists: Diamond Stingily with Adele Thibodeaux, Negashi Armada, Eartheater (Alexandra Drewchin), Sable Elyse Smith, Rebecca Fin Simonetti, FlucT (Monica Mirabile and Sigrid Lauren), HARIBO (Raul de Nieves, Jessie Stead, Nathan Whipple)