The announcement for Chris Martin's exhibition. (Courtesy Shoot the Lobster)

As far as gallery names go, it's hard to think of any as wonderfully bizarre as the one debuting in Chelsea tonight: Shoot the Lobster.

"It's from a Clash song," curator Mary Grace Wright, who's heading the project, explained. (Sure enough, the band's 1981 single "Magnificent Seven" contains these lines: "Italian mobster shoots a lobster / Seafood restaurant gets out of hand.")

Shoot the Lobster will occupy the back room of the Martos Gallery at 540 West 29th Street. "We've decided to completely transform it and just have it be a project space," Ms. Wright said. "It's going to be a whole separate entity with its own programming."

First up, tonight, is Brooklyn artist Chris Martin, who's best known as a painter and recently had a superb one-person show at Mitchell-Innes & Nash, down on 26th Street. Here he's showing an installation, which is not for sale. (In the front room, Martos is opening a four-person show called "New Traditionalists.")

"He was just flipping through a National Geographic, and he found the reference material that [Martin] Kippenberger used for Return of the Dead Mother with New Problems," Ms. Wright said, referring to a 1984 painting that the German artist painted from a photograph. The original magazine page has found a place in Mr. Martin's installation.

Going forward, Ms. Wright said, Shoot the Lobster will hosts shows of both young and established artists, as well as performances and larger, curated group shows. (A show by the young painter Joshua Smith is scheduled for April 26.) Some projects may only last a night, others perhaps just two weeks—a welcome antidote to the glacial pacing of many programs at large galleries in the neighborhood, where two-month-long shows have become increasingly common.

"I think it's important because it gives us more flexibility to work with artists," Ms. Wright said, when asked about the space's model, which is somewhat unusual for Chelsea. She added that Martos has also stopped representing artists, instead working on a project-by-project basis. "It just stems from us wanting to produce what we want to produce, instead of worrying about rules."

TUESDAY, MARCH 20

Opening: Dustin Yellin at Half Gallery
The weather's warming up so why not brave Half Gallery this Tuesday for an the opening of a new show by Dustin Yellin? Even if you have to wait on the street, which is likely, the weather's fine and you can casually chat with famous people. --Dan Duray
Half Gallery, 208 Forsyth Street, New York, 6–8 p.m.

Opening: Emergency Index at The Kitchen
The Chelsea performance space launches a new annual book series called Emergency Index, which documents performances in the words of their creators. The first volume was published by Ugly Duckling Presse, who will be hosting  a party with performances by Marilyn Arsem, Joyce Cho & Machiqq, Lindsey Drury, Allie Avital Tsypin and Gabrielle Herbst, and Ariel Goldberg. --Michael H. Miller
The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, New York, 7 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21

Opening: Virginia Overton at the Kitchen
Ms. Overton has the rare ability to build grand objects, tinged with a bit of drama, out of quotidian materials. Some examples: three long sheets of plywood propped carefully between columns to form a triangle, an orange ladder wedged between two walls (in SculptureCenter's basement in 2009) and an old Chevy pickup truck sitting in a gallery. She'll have a show at Mitchell-Innes & Nash later this year. Join the fan club now. —Andrew Russeth
The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, New York, 6–8 p.m.

THURSDAY, MARCH 22

Opening: "New Traditionalists" at Martos Gallery
This group show unites pieces by three emerging painters—Justin Adian, Jess Fuller and Leif Ritchey—with the evergreen work of veteran B. Wurtz. Ms. Fuller and Mr. Richey make inventive, messy abstractions that sometimes involve fusing or tearing apart fabric, while Mr. Adian wraps bulging slices of foam with canvas and sprays them to a sheen, to make what could be pillows for a pleasure-seeking alien race. Mr. Wurtz uses objects like plastic bags, cans and the like to create what critic Bruce Hainley has termed "winsome and utterly particular things." —A.R.
Martos Gallery, 540 West 29th Street, New York, 6–8 p.m.

Opening: Vibha Galhotra, "Utopia of Difference" at Jack Shainman Gallery
For this solo exhibition, Vibha Galhotra's New York debut, the artist presents sewn metal ghungroos (the bells used to make musical anklets tied to the feet of classical Indian dancers) as well as new sculptures through which Ms. Galhotra continues to explore gender and the environment in contemporary society by using domestic, industrial and natural materials. —R.J.
Jack Shainman Gallery, 513 West 20th Street, New York, 6-8 p.m.

Artist Talk: Georgia Sagri, Whitney Biennial Artist Talk at Columbia University
Georgia Sagri’s piece for the press preview for the Whitney Biennial included her recording and looping this statement: “I’m not doing a performance for the press.” Ms. Sagri uses projections, spotlights, cameras and sound equipment to construct an atmosphere of loops, beats and visuals to explore the way technology informs the way we interact. She returns to her alma mater (’06) to speak about her work. —R.J.
Prentis Hall, Columbia University, 632 West 125th Street, New York, 7:30 p.m.

FRIDAY, MARCH 23

Opening: Grimes at AVA
Claire Boucher, a.k.a. Grimes, is a 23-year old synth pop singer who your little sister probably likes. Stop by Audio Visual Arts this Friday to check out her visual art! "Mob scene" doesn't begin to describe what this will be. --D.D.
Audio Visual Arts, 34 East 1st Street, New York, 6–9 p.m.

Opening: Every Exit is an Entrance: 30 Years of Exit Art
The final exhibition at Exit Art, which was opened in 1982 by Jeanette Ingberman and Papo Colo, culls the alternative space's archives and will include work by a long list of artists. The show is up until May 19, the last day that the space is open to the public before closing permanently. --M.H.M.
Exit Art, 475 Tenth Avenue, New York, 7-9 p.m.