12 Must-See Art Shows Opening This Week

 

There's a lot to see out at the Brooklyn Museum of Art (200 Eastern Parkway) including Swoon's "Submerged Motherlands," an exhibition of early works by Judy Chicago and the official opening of Ai Weiwei's "According to What?" The Weiwei show includes over 30 works by the Chinese artist, spanning more than 20 years.  The members preview is Thursday and then it opens to the public on Friday, April 18th.


Matthew Schreiber has his first New York solo show, "Sideshow," at Johannes Vogt (526 West 26th Street).  That address was once the location of a nightclub called The Fun House back in the 80s and Schreiber wants to bring back that "carnival-like" experience with lasers, black lights and holograms. It is on view until May 10th.


NYU's Grey Art Gallery (100 Washington Square East) opens a new exhibition called "Energy That Is All Around: The Mission School" featuring works by Chris Johanson, Margaret Kilgallen, Alicia McCarthy, Barry McGee and Ruby Neri with a reception on Thursday, April 17th, 7 to 9 p.m. These five artists lived and worked in San Francisco's Mission District in the early 90s and all "embraced street aesthetics and lowbrow visual culture."  The works are on view until July 12th.


Don't forget that La Mama's Full Moon Performance Festival honoring Tom Murrin starts April 17th and runs until the 27th with a crazy list of performances, readings, plays and more.  On the 17th at 10 p.m. there's a post-modern vaudeville revue called "Aunts" at The Club (74a East 4th Street) and the finale on the 27th is a cardboard parade followed by the presentation of "The Tommy" award and the closing party at Dixon Place (161a Chrystie Street).  The complete schedule of events is HERE.

Vanity Projects (99 Chrystie Street) -- the world's greatest nail salon -- is hosting a cool video/film program called "Tooth and Nail" curated by Darrin Martin.  The works will explore "real and virtual bodies disrupted by cultural noise or the artifacts of their own making."  Over 18 shorts will be screened at a reception on April 17th from 6 to 9 p.m. and will remain on view until May 8th.

During the last few weeks of the New Museum's (235 Bowery) exhibition of works by Pawel Althamer look for two special events. On Thursday, April 17th, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. there will be a one-day-only showing of sixteen new sculptures created during the Polish artist's residency. These collaborations with "friends and other artists" will be on view at the museum's storefront space at 231 Bowery. Also from Wednesday, April 23rd to Sunday, April 27th, the "collective painting" project on the museum's fourth floor will be disassembled, cut up and distributed to the museum's visitors for free.

Howard Greenberg Gallery (41 East 57th Street) opens two shows by the award-winning New York City photographer Joel Meyerowitz this week. The first, "My European Trip: Photographs From the Car" includes 40 images shot between 1966 and 1967 and the second, "The Effect of France" are new still lifes shot in 2012/13.  Both open on April 17th and will be up until the end of May.

On Friday, April 18th, 6 to 8 p.m., Martos Gallery (540 West 29th Street) opens a show called "Eighty Three" with new works by the New York-based artist Jory Rabinovitz.


Also on the 18th, 6 to 8 p.m., Jack Hanley Gallery (327 Broome Street) opens "The Valley of Dry Bones," their third solo show by Marie Lorenz featuring a video installation "based on a fictional narrative of exploration and revelation."  Check it out before May 18th.