This week belongs to the Whitney Biennial, which opens Thursday–and the beloved Brucennial, which opens Feb. 29–but there are plenty more events on offer. Ten suggestions are listed below.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28
Opening: Lan Tuazon, “Ingredients of Reality,” at Storefront for Art and Architecture
Artist Lan Tuazon, who has in the past created a casket as a self-portrait designed for upside-down burial, presents sculptures, drawings, and prints that explore how spaces are constructed products of political and capital values. In this new show, “Ingredients of Reality: the Dismantling of New York City,” Mr. Tuazon creates a new reality from existing structures, including buildings, lots and monuments in order to comment on how law and class structures give shape to the physical environment. Also here: a new work called Architectures of Defense–a foreboding cascading arrangement of wrought-iron fences. —Rozalia Jovanovic
Storefront for Art and Architecture, 97 Kenmare Street, New York, 7-9 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 29
Screening: Kenneth Anger, Michelle Handelman, Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome and Dorian, a cinematic perfume at Judson Memorial
As part of its “Dirty Looks” film series, Judson Memorial Church will offer the U.S. video premiere of Michaelle Handelman’s Dorian, a cinematic perfume, alongside Kenneth Anger’s classic, crazy, 38-minute film Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, which takes its name from Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” poem. Ms. Handelman will be in attendance. –Michael H. Miller
Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South, New York, 8:30-10:30 p.m., $7 suggested donation
THURSDAY, MARCH 1
Opening: Lauren Luloff, “Recent Small Works,” at Horton
Using bits of castoff fabric, glue and string, the Brooklyn-based artist Lauren Luloff has, in recent years, produced large paintings and the occasional installation that suggest Pattern and Decoration gone gloriously awry or messy, productive brawls between Sergej Jensen and Helen Frankenthaler. It’s exuberant abstraction that, every once in a while, ventures into disquieting or elegiac territory. Ms. Luloff is working small for her sophomore outing at Horton, and, in the news release, painter Wallace Whitney writes that her new pieces “bring to mind the sky, the worn floor of a textile mill, tea in an old porcelain cup and laundry drying in the sun.” —Andrew Russeth
Horton Gallery, 504 West 22nd Street, New York, 6–8 p.m.
Opening: Anthony Caro, “New Small Bronze,” at MIN
This show features ten new works by the legendary British sculptor related to his recent project at the Chapel of Light in the Eglise Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Bourbourg, France, which he recently restored—the church having been damaged in World War II by a damaged, crash-landing English aircraft. These smaller works preserve that WWII vibe by incorporating shell casings. —Dan Duray
Mitchell-Innes & Nash, 1018 Madison Avenue, New York 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Opening: Jenny Holzer, “Endgame,” at Skarstedt
A contrast to her usual text works, this series features “U.S. Government Documents” that balance blocks of censoring color. Ominous words peek out of the redaction—”Top Secret” or “Water Board.” Catch it soon before it heads to Berlin! —D.D.
Skarstedt Gallery, 20 East 79th Street, New York, 6-8 p.m.
Opening: “Fad Gadget/Frank Tovey,” at Envoy Enterprises
Terence Koh, Olaf Breuning, Casey Spooner and Desi Santiago (aka Desi Monster) are among the 27 artists brought together in this group show and celebration, in homage to Frank Tovey, the founder of 1970s-’80s British electronic group Fad Gadget on the 10th anniversary of Tovey’s death. The show, a collaboration with Mute Records and NP Contemporary Art, is the first part of this three-part exhibition, which continues Friday, March 3, with a concert by Xeno & Oaklander and a screening on March 10 at Anthology Film Archives of the documentary Fad Gadget/Frank Tovey by Tovey’s daughter. Read more about it here. —R.J.
Envoy Enterprises, 131 Chrystie Street, New York, 6-8 p.m.
Opening: SUPERFLEX, “Bankrupt Banks,” at Peter Blum
Danish artist collective SUPERFLEX (Bjørnstjerne Christiansen, Jakob Fenger and Rasmus Nielsen) continues its navigation of the multifarious causes of the international financial crisis with “Bankrupt Banks.” This exhibition features 23 banners painted with the logos of once-powerful entities that declared bankruptcy and were acquired by other banks, governments or private entities. Though designed to communicate strength and authority, these banners now serve as ironic emblems of downed power structures. –R.J.
Peter Blum, 526 West 29th Street, New York, 6-8 p.m.
FRIDAY, MARCH 2
Opening: Chakaia Booker, “Print Me,” at David Krut
David Krut presents the first exhibition dedicated to Chakaia Booker’s prints, which were made with the help of Phil Sanders. The show’s title “refers to the collaborative dialogue between Booker and Sanders, in which Booker would leave hand written notes for Sanders once her compositions were finished and ready to print.” –M.H.M.
David Krut Projects, 526 West 26th Street, 8th floor, New York, 6-8 p.m.
SATURDAY, MARCH 3
Opening: Richard Artschwager / Gaylen Gerber / John Henderson at Golden
“I approach the history of abstract painting as a grab bag of tricks and gestures to pull from, deconstruct, and reconfigure,” John Henderson said in an interview in Mousse. Here he’s taken an abstract painting, cast it in metal and let it be repainted by Gaylen Gerber, whose contribution to the show is an all-white painting of the entire gallery. A Richard Artschwager piece was a recommendation from Mr. Gerber. It’s an exhibition as relay race or tag-team wrestling match. —A.R.
Golden Gallery, 120 Elizabeth Street, New York, 6–9 p.m.
Opening: A.K. Burns, “pregnant patron penny pot,” at Callicoon
Famed for Community Action Center, the “steamy, full-on queer skin flick” (to quote Artnet) that she made with A.L. Steiner and that MoMA recently purchased, A.K. Burns will present new Formica-wrapped sculptures and fabric pieces printed with photos from the New York Public Library, including “a chair constructed from a figure in bondage” and “laborers on strike.” Those looking for more of Ms. Burns’s work show can visit SculptureCenter’s “In Practice” show, up through March 19, which includes her installation of bizarre, gorgeous “crush” videos. —A.R.
Callicoon Fine Arts, 124 Forsyth Street, New York, 6–8 p.m.
