![Still from Coco Fusco's 2015 digital film, The Confession. COURTESY ALEXANDER GRAY ASSOCIATES](gif/lazyload-fallback.gif)
COURTESY ALEXANDER GRAY ASSOCIATES
COURTESY ALEXANDER GRAY ASSOCIATES
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6
Opening: Lizzi Bougatsos at James Fuentes
For her third show at the gallery, artist and musician (of Gang Gang Dance fame) Lizzi Bougatsos will present “Work Habits.” Here’s an excerpt of a description, written by Bougatsos, from the gallery’s website:
1st: A human b works hard to teach love his enemy. To help unite all mankind free, or that being yet human; so go the second mile, hold the other cheek brave, not meek! For we’re All-One! Exceptions eternally none! ABSOLUTE NONE!
Blue denium overalls
Go Bernie.
Ya Deadheads were always the superior race
Need none, GIMME SOME.
Thy kingdom come.
James Fuentes Gallery, 55 Delancey Street, 6—8 p.m.
PHOTO BY ANNIK WETTER/ COURTESY THE ARTIST AND CENTRE D’ART CONTEMPORAIN GENEVE
THURSDAY, JANUARY 7
Opening: Giorgio Griffa at Casey Kaplan
Like many avant-garde Italian artists who came up during the 1960s and ’70s, Giorgio Griffa is hardly a household name in America—he has had one solo show in the United States in the past 25 years. (Meanwhile, in Europe, Griffa has a traveling retrospective.) Now, Casey Kaplan Gallery makes another case for why Griffa should be better known to Americans. Focusing on work made during the ’70s, this show looks at Griffa’s work after he decided to paint onto raw canvas laid on the floor. Made up mostly of parallel lines, the resulting work recalls Minimalism, but with a decidedly human touch—Griffa’s hand is always present.
Casey Kaplan, 121 West 27th Street, 6–8 p.m.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 8
Performance: Sarah Meyohas at 303 Gallery
Many artists have explored the sticky relationship between art and money, but few have done it like Sarah Meyohas, who made her own cryptocurrency, BitchCoin, last year. In her biggest show to date, the New York–based artist’s 303 Gallery project kicks off with a performance. She’ll be discussing the financial markets in an art-gallery setting, and then, the following week, she’ll trade stocks and track their ups and downs in oil stick on canvas. The paintings themselves are the result of traded money—and they’ll likely continue to be traded as investments by collectors.
303 Gallery, 507 West 24th Street, 7 p.m.
COURTESY MUSIC BOX FILMS
Premiere: Francofonia at the Museum of the Moving Image
Here we have the U.S. premiere of the 2015 French drama Francofonia, which has previously screened at the 2015 Venice and Toronto Film Festivals. Directed by the same Alexander Sokurov of Russian Ark (2002) fame, the film is essentially about the condition of the Louvre during World War II. Most importantly, the museum describes it as a “freewheeling, speculative essay film with documentary and fiction elements as it considers the essential relationship between art, culture, and history.”
Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Avenue, Astoria, Queens, 7 p.m. Tickets $15/9
Opening: Guido van der Werve at Luhring Augustine
For the Dutch artist’s third solo show at the gallery, he will present Nummer zestien (the present moment), an hour-long, three-channel work that “investigates hyper-individuality as it shapes the ethos of the present,” according to a press release. The film is van der Werve’s 16th installment in his series of numbered videos begun in 2003, of which the latest, Nummer veertien (home), was completed in 2012. Nummer zestien evokes the present as a series of intuitive reactions and impulses, accompanied by a soundtrack composed by van der Werve.
Luhring Augustine, 531 West 24th Street, 6—8 p.m.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 9
Opening: Coco Fusco at Alexander Gray Associates
For the past three decades, Coco Fusco has been exploring the Cuban political scene in her multimedia work, and now, with President Obama starting to ease relations with Cuba, Fusco’s work feels more relevant than ever. Her newest show at Alexander Gray Associates is a survey of her recent videos, one of which appeared in last year’s Venice Biennale. Fusco continues to look at how art gets censored in Cuba, and how, despite the country’s seemingly less tense political climate, oppression still abounds.
Alexander Gray Associates, 510 West 26th Street, 6–8 p.m.
COURTESY P.P.O.W.
Opening: Martin Wong at P.P.O.W.
In 1975, the Chinese American painter Martin Wong deemed himself a “Human Instamatic,” after the Kodak camera. (His current retrospective, at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, is titled after this self-given nickname.) Wong, who died in 1999, may have been referring to his ability to visually re-create his surroundings—he was particularly adept at naturalistically painting brickwork and decaying New York buildings. But Wong was equally good at representing the way people around him communicated, be it through sign language or the written word. This show at P.P.O.W., titled “Voices” and curated by Anneliis Beadnell and Dino Dincer Sirin, brings together more than 100 works that show the importance of writing to Wong’s practice, specifically in his rarely seen poetry scrolls.
P.P.O.W., 535 West 22nd Street, 3rd floor, 6–8 p.m.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 10
Opening: Em Rooney at Bodega
The particulars of this show remain mysterious, but a show by the intriguing multimedia artist, writer, and curator Em Rooney is surely worth the surprise. This show marks the second time Rooney’s homage to the everyday (labradors, fan vents, and keychains) has appeared in a solo exhibition at Bodega.
Bodega Gallery, 167 Rivington Street, 6—8 p.m.
Screening and Performance: Phantom Limb at Artists Space Books & Talks
As part of Artists Space first survey of Union Gaucha Productions, the experimental film company founded by Karin Schneider and Nicolás Guagnini in 1997, the gallery’s Books & Talks location will show a performative screening of Phantom Limb. Austrian composer and percussionist Lukas Ligeti will be present to provide the performance component.
Artists Space Books & Talks, 55 Walker Street, 3—5 p.m.