Each week, we search New York City for the most exciting and thought-provoking shows, screenings, and events. See them below.

Monday, July 9–July 2019

Rebecca Manson’s “Come Closer and the View Gets Wider.” Image courtesy of the artist.

1. “Come Closer and the View Gets Wider” in Tribeca Park

Brooklyn-based artist Rebecca Manson is debuting her first public sculpture in Manhattan’s Tribeca Park. The work is a gargantuan eight-foot sphere made of thousands of tiny porcelain fragments. The work will be on display through this time next year.

Location: Tribeca Park, 8 Beach Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.

—Caroline Goldstein

Tuesday, July 10–Friday, August 17

Installation view of Fred Wilson’s Afro Kismet (2017) at the Istanbul Biennial. Courtesy of Pace Gallery and Fred Wilson.

2. “Fred Wilson: Afro Kismet” at Pace

Fred Wilson’s body of work, “Afro Kismet,” was conceived and first presented for the Istanbul Biennial in 2017 and is now coming to Pace’s Chelsea gallery outpost. The exhibition is a study on the blending of cultures, highlighted by Wilson’s unique juxtaposition of otherwise disparate elements; the chandeliers on display are made of black Murano glass with the traditional metalwork of Ottoman lighting fixtures, a comment on the complex relationship between the Venetian and Ottoman Empires.

Location: Pace Gallery, 510 West 25th Street
Price: Free
Time: Monday–Thursday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

—Caroline Goldstein

Thursday, July 12 and Friday, July 13

Tourists clogging West 42nd Street to document Manhattanhenge in 2016. Photo courtesy of Fred Hsu via Wikimedia Commons.

3. Manhattanhenge

It was astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History’s Rose Center for Earth and Space, who first popularized the phenomena known as Manhattanhenge, the four days each year when the setting of the sun aligns perfectly with the Manhattan street grid. It’s since become a major occasion for photographers looking to capture this striking event, with shutterbugs lining up hours beforehand in Tudor City on the East Side, and even blocking traffic at the exact moment of sunset. If you missed the first two days in May, this is your second chance to snap some gorgeous photos in the glow of the golden hour.

Location: Anywhere on the street grid in Manhattan
Price: Free
Time: Thursday, 8:20 p.m.; Friday, 8:21 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Thursday, July 12–Friday, August 31

Courtesy of Anton Kern Gallery, New York

4. “The Party” curated by Ali Subotnick at Anton Kern Gallery

This summer group show, curated by Ali Subotnick, takes its inspiration from Blake Edwards’ 1968 film The Party and explores the comedic impulse in contemporary art. The show reflects the absurdities of the film, in which Peter Sellers plays a disaster-prone Indian actor who is mistakenly invited to a cocktail party at the home of a studio executive after being blacklisted for accidentally triggering an expensive explosion on a movie set. It features work by Maurizio Cattelan, Martin Creed, Catharine Czudej, Jamie Isenstein, Peter Land, Sean Landers, Marepe, Jason Meadows, Pentti Monkkonen, Ruby Neri, David Robbins, Jennifer Rochlin, Frances Stark, Jeffrey Vallance with Dan Ciesielski.

Location: Anton Kern Gallery, 16 East 55th Street
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Eileen Kinsella 

Friday, July 13–Sunday, September 30

David Wojnarowicz with Tom Warren, Self-Portrait of David Wojnarowicz, 1983–84. Collection of Brooke Garber Neidich and Daniel Neidich. Photograph by Ron Amstutz, courtesy of the Whitney Museum of American Art.

5. “David Wojnarowicz: History Keeps Me Awake at Night” at the Whitney 

We haven’t seen a significant survey of the late David Wojnarowicz‘s searing, protean practice since the New Museum’s “Fever: The Art of David Wojnarowicz” in 1999, just seven years after his death from AIDS-related complications. Now, nearly two decades later, the Whitney’s retrospective will incorporate over 100 works—30 of them from the museum’s own holdings—framed by engagements with the artist’s prose, poetry, and activism. The end result? A visceral three-dimensional portrait of a man whose struggles, fears, and fury in a politically divided culture are all too relevant today.

Location: The Whitney, 99 Gansevoort Street
Price: Included with general admission ($25 adults; $18 seniors and students; free for ages 17 and under.)
Time: Sunday–Thursday, 10:30 a.m.–6 p.m; Friday–Saturday, 10:30 a.m.–10 p.m.

—Tim Schneider

Friday, July 13–Sunday, July 15

The Upstairs Art Fair is taking place in a barn. Photo courtesy of the Upstairs Art Fair.

6. Upstairs Art Fair in the Hamptons

The Hamptons art fair scene has undergone a dramatic shift over the last two years, with the cancellation of Art Hamptons and Art Southampton. In their place, smaller, boutique fairs have sprung up, including the Upstairs Art Fair, organized by Bill Powers of Half Gallery, returning this weekend for its second outing. Featuring a baker’s dozen exhibitors including New York’s Rachel Uffner and Eric Firestone galleries, the fair will take place in a three-story red barn that was once an art school. (The September Art Fair at the Bridge will also welcome 12 dealers when it unveils its second edition in September.)

Location: 11 Indian Wells, Amagansett
Price: Free
Time: VIP opening reception, 4 p.m.–6 p.m.; public opening, 6 p.m.–9 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Friday, July 13–Tuesday, July 31

Neil Leifer, Muhammad Ali vs Sonny Liston (1965). Photo courtesy of Soho Contemporary Art.

7. “50 of the Greatest Moments in Sports” at Soho Contemporary

Soho Contemporary has teamed up with Sports Illustrated to present a collection of sports photography from 1958 to 2008, featuring such athletic greats as Muhammad Ali, Michael Phelps, Mickey Mantle, Larry Bird, and Kerri Strug. The artists behind these unforgettable images are Robert Beck, James Drake, Walter Iooss, Jr., Mark Kauffman, Heinz Kluetmeier, David Klutho, Neil Leifer, John McDonough, Richard Mackson, Hy Peskin, Damian Strohmeyer, Al Tielmans, Tony Triolo, Fred Vuich, and John Zimmerman.

Location: Soho Contemporary Art, 259 Bowery
Price: Free
Time: VIP opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Monday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.; Sunday by appointment

—Sarah Cascone

Saturday, July 14

Guests at dinner at the Parrish’s Midsummer Party. Photo courtesy of Owen Hoffmann/PatrickMcMullan.com.

8. Midsummer Party at the Parrish Art Museum 

If your weekend plans include time in the Hamptons, consider splurging on a ticket to the Parrish’s annual outdoor fete, with cocktails and dinner on the museum’s scenic terrace. The evening honors artist Keith Sonnier, whose first major museum retrospective opened at the Parrish earlier this month and museum trustee Chad Leat. (If you’re on a budget, the after party, with DJ Alice Longyu Gao, starts at 10 p.m. and only costs $200.)

Location: 35 Wooster Street
Price: Dinner tickets start at $1,500
Time: Opening reception, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Saturday, July 14–Sunday, August 25

Devin N. Morris, Nate 5pm June 15, 2018 (2018). Photo courtesy of Jenkins Johnson Gallery.

9. “Block Party” at Jenkins Johnson Projects

Jenkins Johnson’s summer group show is inspired by the way summer block parties become important community gatherings, and can function as venues to discuss controversial issues such as immigration, violence, race and sexuality. Works on view include Kahlil Robert Irving’s “Street Prints” made from cigarette butts and other trash collected off the city streets and Lizania Cruz’s participatory newsstand project, We the News. The exhibition’s opening party will feature BBQ by chef Omar Tate, with art world PR maven April Hunt to DJ.

Location: Jenkins Johnson Projects, 207 Ocean Avenue, Brooklyn
Price: Free
Time: Opening reception 5 p.m.–8 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Sunday, July 15

Miodrag Živković and Đorđe Zloković, Monument to the Battle of the Sutjeska (1965–71), Tjentište, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Photo by Valentin Jeck, commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2016).

10. “Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980” at the Museum of Modern Art

You may have seen posts circulating online about the otherworldly looking Brutalist monuments of Yugoslavia. MoMA takes a deep dive on the form in the first international exhibition dedicated to this little-understood architectural movement, with over 400 drawings, models, photographs, and film reels from architects Bogdan Bogdanović, Juraj Neidhardt, Svetlana Kana Radević, Edvard Ravnikar, Vjenceslav Richter, and Milica Šterić.

Location: Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street
Price: General admission $25
Time: Saturday–Thursday, 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.; Friday, 10:30 a.m.–8 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Through Saturday, July 28

Khatia Esartia, Descend (2018). Photo courtesy of Marisa Newman.

11. “Khatia Esartia Ich habe meinen Regenschirm vergessen (I have forgotten my umbrella)” at Marisa Newman

Inspired by a quote from an unpublished Friedrich Nietzsche manuscript, Khatia Esartia presents watercolors on vellum, gouache works on panel, and a monumental wallpaper painting.

Location: Marisa Newman, 38 West 32nd Street, Suite 1602
Price: Free
Time: Wednesday–Friday, 1 p.m.–6 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

Through Sunday, August 26

RAMMΣLLZΣΣ as ‘Crux the Monk’, July 2002. Photo by Keetja Allard.

12. “RAMMΣLLZΣΣ: Racing for Thunder” at Red Bull Arts New York

This ambitious survey dives into the life and career of the complicated figure RAMMΣLLZΣΣ (1960–2010), a graffiti artist, hip-hop musician, and performance artist described by the gallery as a “manic genius, prolific polymath, irascible overlord, charming hustler, quantum hobbyist, and incoherent madman.”

Location: Red Bull Arts New York, 220 West 18th Street
Price: Free
Time: Wednesday–Sunday, 12 p.m.–7 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

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