MONDAY, MARCH 4
Opening: Jon Kessler, “The Web,” at Swiss Institute
Love Jon Kessler, love Swiss Institute, hate the Internet. Is there anything else to it? —Dan Duray
Swiss Institute, 18 Wooster Street, New York, 6–8 p.m.
TUESDAY, MARCH 5
Opening: “Sergei Tcherepnin: Ear Tone Box” at Murray Guy
Sound artist Sergei Tcherepnin, whose recent show of strange sound-producing sculptures at Audio Visual Arts was one of last year’s highlights, will present “three boxes clothed in fabric and metal, embedded with transducers and placed in different positions within the gallery.” A bench from the New York City subway will allow visitors to take in the exhibition. —Andrew Russeth
Murray Guy, 453 West 17th Street, New York, 6–8 p.m.
Opening: “Ed Ruscha: Books & Co.” at Gagosian
Ed Ruscha’s great deadpan artist books will be the centerpiece of this show, which brings together work by more than 100 artists who have been inspired by those little treasures. —A.R.
Gagosian Gallery, 980 Madison Avenue, New York, 6–8 p.m.
Opening: Rita Ackermann at Hauser & Wirth
Rita Ackermann rules. Plus, aren’t you tired of the new Hauser & Wirth? Why not kick it old school with the old Hauser & Wirth? —D.D.
Hauser & Wirth, 32 East 69th Street, New York, 6–8 p.m
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6
Screening & Panel: “In Search Of…Zombies” (2011) by Matthew Day Jackson at the Armory Show
Matthew Day Jackson plays a zombie in the third and final installment of his In Search of… video series, named for a 1970s TV show hosted by Leonard Nimoy. A discussion of zombies will follow the screening. —Zoë Lescaze
The Armory Show, Pier 94, Media Lounge, New York, 5–6:30 p.m., however much the Armory costs for you
Party: MoMA’s Armory Party 2013
Solange plays this annual party. And all the Bulleit Bourbon you can drink, friends! I knew we’d get something out of this week. —D.D.
MoMA, 11 West 53 Street, 9 p.m.– midnight, ticket prices vary
THURSDAY, MARCH 7
Talk: “The Psychology of Consumerism” at the Armory Show
A talk among Alvin Hall, Liz Magic Laser and Eric Shiner, moderated by Felix Salmon? Sign me up! Don’t literally sign me up, though, because I have tons to do this week and can’t commit to anything; it’s awful. —D.D.
The Armory Show, Pier 94, Media Lounge, New York, 1 p.m., however much the Armory costs for you
Panel: “On Abstraction” featuring Regina Scully, Christine Frerichs, Kadar Brock, William Bradley and Brian Fee at Volta NY
Catch four young artists, including New York’s Kadar Brock, discuss their practices and contemporary abstraction. All four are exhibiting in this year’s edition of VOLTA NY. —Z.L.
Volta NY, 76 Mercer Street, New York, 4:30-5:30 p.m.
FRIDAY, MARCH 8
Panel: “Posterity Will Have a Word to Say” at the Armory Show
Talk about a star-studded cast of speakers! Artist Paul Chan, art historian Molly Nesbit, Moderna Museet Director Daniel Birnbaum and Philadelphia Museum of Art Curator of Contemporary Art Carlos Basualdo discuss the legacy of the one and only Marcel Duchamp. Curator Jan Åman moderates. —A.R.
The Armory Show, Pier 94, Media Lounge, New York, 5 p.m., however much the Armory costs for you
Panel: Commissioning Work in an Art Fair Context
The New York Observer‘s culture editor, Sarah Douglas, moderates this panel on the proliferation of art commissions for art fairs. Taking up the discussion are Gianni Jetzer, the director of Swiss Institute who organizes the Art Unlimited section of Art Basel; Sarah McCrory, the director of the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Arts who organizes the Frieze Projects in London; and New York–based artist Fatima Al Qadiri. —A.R.
The Armory Show, Pier 94, Media Lounge, New York, 2 p.m., however much the Armory costs for you
SUNDAY, MARCH 10
Talk: “Contemporary Art: 1989 to the Present: A Roundtable Discussion” at the New Museum
It’s a big topic to tackle, but editors Alexander Dumbadze and Suzanne Hudson took on the past 24 years of contemporary art in their recent collection of essays from 50 contributors. Their conversation with artist Liam Gillick, curator João Ribas and professors Katy Siegel and Irene V. Small promises to investigate the merits—and dangers—of “historicizing the art and theory of the recent past.” —Z.L.
The New Museum, 235 Bowery, New York, 3 p.m., $8
Panel: “The ‘Alternative’ in American Culture?” at the Armory Show
Eric Shiner, director of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and curator of this year’s “Armory Focus: USA” portion of the fair, will lead a panel on the subversive and mainstream in contemporary art. Participants include writer John Bowe, PARTICIPANT INC founder Lia Fanfitano and photographer Alec Soth. —Z.L.
The Armory Show, Pier 94, Media Lounge, New York, 3 p.m.
VARIOUS
Performance: Michael Portnoy at the Kitchen
Michael Portnoy’s 27 Gnosis premiered at Documenta 13 in Kassel, Germany last summer. “The language system of the game borrows structurally from the ontologies of 17th-century taxonomic languages as well as elements of modern constructed languages such as Ithkuil, aUi, and Ygede.” Sounds like the perfect break from the Armory, no? —D.D.
The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, New York, Wednesday-Friday, March 6-8, 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., Saturday-Sunday, March 9-10, 5 p.m., 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., Monday, March 11, 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.
