9 Art Events to Attend in New York City This Week

TUESDAY, JUNE 6

Panel: “Panel Discussion on CCA Lagos” at International Studio & Curatorial Program
For its annual institution-in-residence program, the International Studio & Curatorial Program invited the Center for Contemporary Art, Lagos in Nigeria to show work in Brooklyn. On view there now is “CCA Lagos at ISCP,” a show based on an exhibition held last year at the Nigerian nonprofit called “Orí méta odún méta ibìkan.” With that show in mind, artists ruby onyinyechi amanze, Simone Leigh, and Pinar Yolacan will convene to discuss their past projects for CCA Lagos and what the space has done for the Nigerian art scene. Artist and curator Jude Anogwih will moderate the panel.
International Studio & Curatorial Program, 1040 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn, 6:30–8 p.m.

Opening: Satoshi Kojima at Bridget Donahue
Not to be confused with the Japanese professional wrestler of the same name, Satoshi Kojima paints scenes that feel cloistered, as if they took place in rooms set off from the real world. They’re typically rendered in light pastels and often involve surreal combinations of people and objects. In one of Kojima’s paintings, a stiletto-wearing foot pokes out of a tub while a man reclines nearby, all of which happens in striped room. With this show, organized with Tramps gallery, the Düsseldorf-based artist will debut new and recent paintings.
Bridget Donahue, 99 Bowery, 2nd Floor, 6–8 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7

Talk: Colm Tóibín at Paula Cooper Gallery
At this talk, organized by 192 Books, Colm Tóibín will discuss his recent book House of Names, a retelling of the story of Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon. In Tóibín’s book, Clytemnestra’s story is expanded to include the perspectives of three other characters from Greek mythology: Orestes, Aegisthus, and Electra. By the end of the book, Agamemnon will be murdered by Aegisthus, Clytemnestra’s lover. In response, Orestes, her son, and Electra, her daughter, will plot their own form of revenge for Clytemnestra’s deception and rage. Tóibín, who hails from Ireland, will be on hand to talk about the novel.
Paula Cooper Gallery, 534 West 21st Street, 7 p.m.

THURSDAY, JUNE 8

Opening: Trudy Benson and Yann Gerstberger at Lyles & King
This two-person show, titled “TT52,” brings together work by a pair of painters whose densely layered abstractions recall either computer-based abstraction or vernacular imagery. Trudy Benson, the better-known of the two, creates handmade canvases that look as if they were made by a computer. With forms that resemble images cut up and edited in Photoshop, and with imperfect lines that are clearly the work of a human, Benson’s work ponders the transition from analog to digital. Yann Gerstberger, who is based in Mexico City, crafts textiles that rely on a combination of ready-made and original materials, and typically incorporate stylized images of humans and animals that allude to Mexican modernism.
Lyles & King, 106 Forsyth Street, 6–8 p.m.

Opening: Ceal Floyer at 303 Gallery
Much of Ceal Floyer’s plainspoken work makes the familiar unfamiliar—everyday items suddenly appear strange in the Berlin-based artist’s hands. Off-putting and typically devoid of color, Floyer’s videos and assisted readymades ponder when an object becomes dysfunctional. With her latest show at 303 Gallery, Floyer will continue exploring the contradictions in the most quotidian of things, among them drains. Her 2017 video Plughole features a single shot of a sink drain with water pouring into it until it fills and simply fails to do what it’s meant to do. Also on view will be new sculptures, one of which features little black blocks that feel as if they could collapse at any moment.
303 Gallery, 555 West 21st Street, 6–8 p.m.

Opening: Susan Weil at Sundaram Tagore Gallery
Currently on view in the Museum of Modern Art’s Robert Rauschenberg retrospective are a series of blue monoprints featuring various ghostly objects that appear as if they were burned into paper. Any Rauschenberg completist knows that the Neo-Dadaist wasn’t working alone when he made these—he was collaborating with his then-wife, Susan Weil, who is a significant artist in her own right. With this exhibition, Weil will show new works that mess with viewers’ sense of perspective. Among the new pieces will be Spiral History of Art with Hand: Cave Painting to Now (2016), a circular print that arranges details from works depicting hands by Sandro Botticelli, Roy Lichtenstein, and more.
Sundaram Tagore Gallery, 547 West 27th Street, 6–8 p.m.

FRIDAY, JUNE 9

Opening: “Calder: Hypermobility” at Whitney Museum
Alexander Calder’s mobile sculptures were never meant to sit still. “Just as one can compose colors, or forms, so one can compose motions,” Calder once said. Pushing modernist painting’s form beyond the canvas, Calder’s spare mobiles anticipated a generation of performance artists who would turn their attention to bodily movement. This show surveys Calder’s fascination with kinetic objects, with a focus on sounds and the passage of time. Contemporary artists will contribute new works in response to Calder’s pieces, and the works will be activated frequently over the course of the show’s run. The exhibition is the final show at the Whitney for curator Jay Sanders, who has already begun a new term as executive director and chief curator at Artists Space.
Whitney Museum, 99 Gansevoort Street, 10:30 a.m.–10 p.m.

Screening: Crooklyn at Metrograph
Crooklyn surprised critics in 1994 because it was, ironically, less shocking than past efforts by Spike Lee, whose movies include Do the Right Thing (1989) and She’s Gotta Have It (1986). An semi-autobiographical story about a girl living in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, Crooklyn is Lee at his most tender and most restrained, though it’s not without a sense for the sociopolitical factors that guide his characters’ lives. Shown here as part of a series about films set in Bed-Stuy, this screening will be introduced by Brandon Harris, who, after the screening, will sign copies of his new book, Making Rent in Bed-Stuy.
Metrograph, 7 Ludlow Street, 7 p.m. Tickets $15

SATURDAY, JUNE 10

Talk: Tomashi Jackson and Jennifer Packer at Brooklyn Museum
This talk brings together two painters whose work explores what art history leaves out, specifically when it comes to identity. Tomashi Jackson’s painterly collages meditate on how color theory was ironically color-blind—it was created by white men, for white men. Jackson then combines process-based abstraction with references to past historical events that involved racism. Jennifer Packer, on the other hand, is a figurative painter whose portraits depict black sitters, usually in positions that look intentionally somewhat awkward. Here, the two painters will address the Brooklyn Museum’s current exhibition “We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85.”
Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, 2–3 p.m.