9 Art Events to Attend in New York City This Week

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30

Exhibition: John Dunkley at American Folk Art Museum
The late John Dunkley is one of the most highly regarded Jamaican visual artists of the past century. Never before, however, had his work been the subject of a major show outside his home country until last year, when the Pérez Art Museum Miami opened a version of this retrospective. The New York edition of the show consists of 45 works, including a series of brooding landscape paintings made in the 1930s and ’40s, and rarely shown sculptures in carved wood and stone. Taken together, the exhibition reflects some of the larger political and cultural shifts that occurred in Jamaica during Dunkley’s lifetime.
American Folk Art Museum, 2 Lincoln Square, 11:30 a.m.–7 p.m.

Talk: Rachel Kushner at New Museum
For the 10th edition of the New Museum’s annual Stuart Regen Visionaries Series, Rachel Kushner will talk about her work with the poet and novelist Ben Lerner. Both writers are well-known to those involved with art. Kushner, who previously wrote 2013’s The Flamethrowers, a novel about an up-and-comer in New York’s art scene during the 1970s, sometimes contributes to Artforum; her latest book, The Mars Room, is shortlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize. Lerner is a former MacArthur fellow who this year has published two books in collaboration with artists—The Polish Rider, written with the painter Anna Ostoya (who now has a show at New York’s Bortolami gallery), and The Snows of Venice, with the writer and director Alexander Kluge.
New Museum, 235 Bowery, 7 p.m. Tickets $20/25

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1

Opening: Tomie Ohtake at Galeria Nara Roesler
This exhibition, the third in a series of Tomie Ohtake shows at different Galeria Nara Roesler spaces, includes paintings, photographs, engravings, and other objects by the late artist from the 1960s and 1970s. Included will be an installation of Ohtake’s archival materials showing how she mapped her paintings and engravings by first making colorful collages. “By paying attention to the nature of Tomie Ohtake’s process here we are granted access to the connections her painting has with chance, gesture and chromatic boldness,” Paulo Miyada, chief curator of the Instituo Tomie Ohtake in São Paulo, said in a statement.
Galeria Nara Roesler, 22 East 69th Street, 3R, 6–8 p.m.

Opening: Catherine Opie at Lehmann Maupin
Los Angeles has long served as a source of inspiration for the photographer Catherine Opie. In her early photos from the 1990s, she captured freeways and mini-malls in the city, and she later went on to produce a series about the actress Elizabeth Taylor, a longtime Angeleno. (Opie has called L.A. home since moving there in 1988.) The photographer’s latest exhibition showcases a new series as well as a connected film—Opie’s first cinematic work. Titled The Modernist, it focuses on the California countercultural legend Pig Pen and addresses major issues in contemporary politics and culture.
Lehmann Maupin, 501 West 24th Street, 6–8 p.m.

Talk: Jarrett Earnest, Peter Schjeldahl, and Paul Chaat Smith at the Strand
At this talk, writer and artist Jarrett Earnest will be discuss his new book, What it Means to Write About Art: Interviews with Art Critics, published by David Zwirner Books. He will be joined by two acclaimed art critics whose words are featured in the book: the New Yorker’s Peter Schjeldahl and Paul Chaat Smith, associate curator at the National Museum of the American Indian.
The Strand, 828 Broadway, 7:30–8:30 p.m. Tickets $5/$32.50

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2

Exhibition: Martha Rosler at Jewish Museum
Martha Rosler’s first major New York museum show surveys her career by way of installations, photographs, videos, and sculptures. Among the themes addressed are war and consumerism, with a special eye toward gender norms and oppression. Curator Darsie Alexander said of the exhibition, “Martha Rosler’s direct, unvarnished take on current social and political circumstances is rooted in her belief in the capacity of art to teach, provoke, and ultimately motivate action in the people it reaches.”
Jewish Museum, 1109 5th Avenue, 11 a.m.–5:45 p.m.

Exhibition: Betye Saar at New-York Historical Society
Titled “Keepin’ It Clean,” this show showcases work by Betye Saar, who is best known for her assemblage and collage works and has been a prominent figure in the Black Arts and feminist art movements since the 1960s. The exhibition’s title alludes to the works on view: washboards made between 1997 and 2017. Much of Saar’s output functions as a reclamation of racist caricatures from throughout American history, which she transforms into symbols of strength and power.
New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, 10 a.m.–9 p.m.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3

Opening: Hélio Oiticica at Galerie Lelong & Co.
This exhibition presents early gouache drawings and a yellow “Relevo Espacial” (“Spatial Relief”) wooden hanging sculpture by the Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica. Also featured are two large-format works from his 1957–58 “Metaesquemas” series that have never been shown in the United States. With his three-dimensional constructions, Oiticica, who played a pivotal role in the development of Brazil’s Neo-Concrete movement, created a participatory experience stemming from his long-term interest in the role color and space play in the ways we view art.
Galerie Lelong & Co., 528 West 26th Street, 6–8 p.m.

Opening: Stanley Whitney at Lisson Gallery
Stanley Whitney’s new show, “In the Color,” features four paintings from his transitional period in the 1990s along with drawings from made between 2013 and 2014 in both locations of Lisson Gallery in Chelsea. Drawing on African-American quilting traditions, the Abstract Expressionist movement, and other sources of inspiration, Whitney’s work has taken the form of a sustained exploration of space, rhythm, and color.
Lisson Gallery, 504 West 24th Street and 138 Tenth Avenue, 6–8 p.m.