MONDAY, OCTOBER 1
Screening and Discussion: Mario Garcia Torres, Tea, at MoMA
Mario Garcia Torres is an artist, but his process has also made him a great (and wonderfully peculiar) historian of postwar art. Rigorously investigating seminal exhibitions and events (a show of post-minimalist art organized by Robert Morris at Leo Castelli’s Upper West Side warehouse, Martin Kippenberger’s museum on a Greek island), he uncovers furtive details and narratives, and uses them to build beautiful, melancholy artworks. This evening’s screening of his 64-minute film Tea, which was commissioned for the just-closed Documenta exhibition in Kassel, Germany, concerns his hunt for the hotel that Italian artist Alighiero Boetti ran in Kabul, Afghanistan, in the 1970s. A conversation with MoMA’s associate director of drawings, Christian Rattemeyer, will follow. Here’s a trailer. —Andrew Russeth
Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, New York, 7 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3
Reading and Discussion: Jill Magid, Failed States, at Art in General
Artist Jill Magid, whose work masterfully addresses war-on-terror paranoia and the U.S. security state, will read from her new non-fiction novel, Failed States, which concerns her training with a former Associated Press correspondent to embed as a journalist with a military unit, after witnessing a shooting at the Texas State Capitol. After her reading, Daniel Kunitz, the executive editor of Modern Painters (to which this writer has contributed, it should be disclosed), will discuss the work. What could be a better prelude to the evening’s presidential debates? —A.R.
Art in General, 79 Walker Street, New York, doors at 6 p.m., reading at 6:30 p.m.
Opening: The Rickford Institute Fall Classic at the White Rabbit
The photographer and downtown fixture Ricky Powell, a k a the fourth Beastie Boy, curates a group show of 35 up-and-coming artists. There will be four DJs. —Dan Duray
The White Rabbit, 145 East Houston Street, New York, 7 p.m. to late
Opening: “Hearsay” at Half Gallery
How L.E.S. is this? The new group show at Half Gallery features downtowner Jeanette Hayes, recent Carnegie Mellon graduate Jay Miriam and Girls star Jemima Kirke, a RISD grad and painter who has always described herself as an accidental actor. This one’s going to be a cool kid mob scene. —D.D.
Half Gallery, 208 Forsyth Street, New York, 6 to 8 p.m.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4
Opening: Natalie Frank, “The Governed and the Governors,” at Fredericks & Freiser
The always awesome Natalie Frank has her first solo show with her new gallery Fredericks & Freiser. If you haven’t seen her work in a while you owe yourself a look. —D.D.
Fredericks & Freiser, 536 West 24th Street, New York, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Opening: “Hue & Cry,” Curated by Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld at Sotheby’s
Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld curates a “selling exhibition” at Sotheby’s S2 gallery in which he examines the evolution of contemporary abstraction from its roots to today. Artists include Albert Oehlen, Joan Mitchell, Cecily Brown, Francesca DiMattio, Rosy Keyser, Ali Banisadr, Ugo Rondinone, Allora & Calzadilla, Jacqueline Humphries, Jin Meyerson, Angel Otero, Wendy White, Kadar Brock, Daniel Hesidence, Robert Melee, Jackie Saccoccio, Nicolas Pol, Michel Francois and Rob Fischer. —Michael H. Miller
Sotheby’s S2, 1334 York Avenue, New York, private opening October 4 6:30-8:30 p.m., open to public Oct. 5–21.
Opening: Mark Flood “Bushwick Basement” at Grimm Schultz
Mark Flood follows up shows at Zach Feuer and Luxenbourg & Dayan with a show in a new gallery in Bushwick. For its inaugural show, Grimm Schultz, formerly the site of an illegal dog-fighting ring—all traces of the history of which have since been removed (to our disappointment!), is presenting a series of ultraviolet paintings in a blacklight exhibition. Come early to the reception that starts at six. A post-reception soiree, which is for ‘select beautiful guests,’ will follow. —Rozalia Jovanovic
Grimm Schultz, 313 Linden Street, Brooklyn, 6-10 p.m.
Book Signing and Exhibition: Laura Owens, “Clocks and Clock Paintings” at Karma
For one night only, the Karma bookstore, in collaboration with Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, will hold a book signing of Laura Owens’s Clocks and a corresponding exhibition of works by Laura Owens—canvases that, having been fitted with the moving hands of a clock, and are at once paintings and working clocks. Come pick up a copy of Clocks and stay for champagne and snacks. —R.J.
Karma, 21 Downing Street, New York, 6-8 p.m.
Opening: Ahmed Alsoudani at Haunch of Venison
At Ahmed Alsoudani’s first solo exhibition at Haunch of Venison, you’ll encounter a painting of body parts around a poker table. Another canvas shows the aftereffects of a landmine explosion. Mr. Alsoudani’s chaotic and colorful canvases offer a view on violence that is connected to his personal history—the Iraqi-American artist was raised in Baghdad during the Persian Gulf War—while also offering a shared interpretation of conflict. —R.J.
Haunch of Venison, 550 West 21st Street, New York, 6-8 p.m.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5
Opening: Jonas Mekas, “Images Out of Darkness,” at James Fuentes
The Lower East Side’s James Fuentes gallery presents a show of photography by the great Jonas Mekas. The full title kind of says it all: “Reminiscences of a Displaced Person Postwar Germany 1945–1949.” —M.H.M.
James Fuentes, 55 Delancey Street, New York, 6-8 p.m.
