A short list of the can’t-miss new exhibition openings (and closings) this week, by city. See last week’s list for other recent openings, and for a more comprehensive guide, see our Itinerary.
NEW YORK
Adam Silverman “Occupation”
Friedman Benda
515 W 26th Street
OPENS: September 6
At his largest gallery show to date, the Los Angeles sculptor displays his recent work in two site-specific configurations. Individually, these black-and-white ceramic pots, which have been fired multiple times to achieve textured surfaces, are things of depth and complexity; when arranged together, they assert a physical presence that dynamically occupies and holds the space.
Lygia Pape
Hauser & Wirth New York
32 E 69th Street
OPENS: September 6
This expansive solo exhibition of Brazilian artist Lygia Pape features works that span her multidisciplinary oeuvre, from her work in the Concrete and Neo-Concrete movements to her video installations and collages. Highlights from the exhibition include the earliest of her Ttéia series, “Ttéia 1A” (1978/1979/1991)—an installation of lighted silver threads that cast intricate shadows on the gallery wall—and “Roda dos Prazeres (Wheel of Pleasures)” (1967)—a circular composition of vessels filled with brightly colored liquids that, on September 15, adventurous participants can taste.
(Opening image: Lygia Pape, “Mineiro,” 1968. Color photograph. Courtesy Projeto Lygia Pape and Hauser & Wirth)
“MAD Collects: The Future of Craft Part 1”
Museum of Arts and Design
2 Columbus Circle
OPENS: September 6
In this showcase of the institute’s latest acquisitions, works by contemporary artists such as Cauleen Smith, Sanford Biggers, Giovanni Corvaja, and David Harper are framed alongside the MAD’s current collection, presenting a history of the museum’s collecting mission and its vision of the future of craft.
Toyin Ojih Odutola “When Legends Die”
Jack Shainman Gallery
513 W 20th Street and 524 W 24th Street
OPENS: September 6
Since 2016, the contemporary artist has been developing her fictional series, chronicling the fates of two Nigerian aristocratic families through highly detailed and opulent portraits. Following the first two installments, “A Matter of Fact” (2016) and “To Wander Determined” (2017), this final chapter presents a new clutch of multimedia canvases bearing Odutola’s intricate mark-making and nuanced view of space, color, and class.
Christopher Kurtz “Sculptures of Furniture: A Windsor Alphabet”
Patrick Parrish
50 Lispenard Street
OPENS: September 6
This collection of monumental sculptures marks the first solo exhibition of New York artist and designer Christopher Kurtz. Influenced by the historic Birdcage Windsor chair, which dates back to the eighteenth-century, Kurtz reconfigures the piece’s formal language and decorative woodwork by amplifying and magnifying its constituent parts into larger-than-life sculptures.
