New York
January 11, 2023
A new year is here, and I don’t know about you, but I’m trying to ride high on that fresh-page-of-the-calendar feeling for as long as I can. And what better way to appreciate the blank canvas of 2023 than spending a day visiting new (and new-ish) art spaces in Brooklyn? In our roundup below, we highlight galleries, nonprofits, and project rooms in the borough. Many of these opened their doors to the public in the last year or two; others have been around for longer but recently moved to the neighborhood or debuted additional locations. They all have something different to offer and are living proof of Brooklyn’s thriving, ever-changing art community. Happy gallery-hopping!
— Valentina Di Liscia
SPONSORED
Performance of Bethany Collins’s America: A Hymnal on January 19, 7pm
Print Center New York presents a new performance of America: A Hymnal, which offers a chronological retelling of American history, politics, and culture through the song, “My Country ’Tis of Thee.” The Unsung Collective will sing the version, “War” (1862), in myriad musical forms.
Learn more
FROM OUR CRITICS
Doses of Relief in Ibrahim El-Salahi’s Drawings of Pain
His “Pain Relief Drawings” demonstrate how art serves as a way for the artist to cope with strife. | Rebecca Schiffman
Ibrahim El-Salahi: Pain Relief Drawings
Oct. 7–Jan. 15, 2023
The Drawing Center, 35 Wooster Street, Soho (drawingcenter.org)
SPONSORED
Hahn Rowe’s World Premiere Coming Soon at Columbia University
Something about the Weather is a new and original work by New York-based composer, producer, and performer Hahn Rowe. Learn more.
Yun-Fei Ji’s Great Leap Forward
The Chinese painter learned the state-sanctioned style of Socialist Realism and then elected to unlearn it in order to reinvent himself. | John Yau
Yun-Fei Ji: The Sunflower Turned Its Back
Nov. 17–Jan. 7, 2023
James Cohan Gallery, 52 Walker Street, Tribeca (jamescohan.com)
Siobhan McBride Unsettles the Familiar
What makes Siobhan McBride’s work as a whole interesting is her interest in the ambiguity, suggestibility, and elusiveness of everyday life. | John Yau
Siobhan McBride: Never Means Always Not
Dec. 16–Jan. 8, 2023
Long Story Short NYC, 52 Henry Street, Two Bridges (instagram.com)
SPONSORED
New York City Ballet Art Series Presents DRIFT’s Shylight
The dancing sculpture will be on view at three special performances in January and February. Tickets are on sale now. Learn more.
HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK
Samira Abbassy, Oona Brangam-Snell, and Jia Sung: Carrying the Effigy
Jan. 12–Mar. 4
Candice Madey, 1 Rivington Street, Second Floor, Lower East Side (candicemadey.com)
Three women working in painting, textile, and embroidery create a shared study of generational consciousness. Named after a painting by Abbassy, Carrying the Effigy elides any simplistic understanding of femininity and spirituality.
Sara Flores: Kené
Nov. 10–Jan. 22, 2023
C L E A R I N G, 396 Johnson Avenue, Bushwick (c-l-e-a-r-i-n-g.com)
Peruvian artist Sara Flores is a master of kené design, which transforms local flora and fruit into complex geometric patterns seen across pottery and textiles. Equally hallucinatory and meticulous, Flores’s earth-toned paintings reveal connections between the natural world and Indigenous design, which the fashion and art industries continue to appropriate today.
Morris Hirshfield Rediscovered
Sept. 23–Jan. 29, 2023
American Folk Art Museum, 2 Lincoln Square, Upper West Side (folkartmuseum.org)
A retrospective dedicated to self-taught painter Morris Hirshfield feels long overdue. The first comprehensive display of his work since Peggy Guggenheim’s 1947 review, the Folk Art Museum’s latest exhibition portrays how Hirshfield worked his way from garment factory worker to market darling, becoming known as the “master of two left feet” for his flattened perspective.
SPONSORED
Powerhouse Arts Welcomes Applications for Community Ceramic Studio Program
The Brooklyn arts organization offers discounted pre-launch membership for experienced ceramic artists beginning January 15, with reduced hours of operation. Learn more.
CLOSING SOON
Bill Miller
Oct. 20–Jan. 14, 2023
dieFirma, 32A Cooper Square, Noho, Manhattan (diefirmanyc.com)
Bill Miller creates his landscapes and domestic scenes using linoleum lifted from long-abandoned households. In a collage style akin to Romare Bearden or Hannah Höch, Miller weaves together gentle scenes of blue-collar life.
Kwame Brathwaite: Black Is Beautiful
Aug. 19–Jan. 15, 2023
New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, Upper West Side, Manhattan (nyhistory.org)
The latest Brathwaite retrospective takes a closer look at the New York photographer’s contributions to the Black Is Beautiful movement in the mid-1960s. In 40 photos taken around Harlem, the exhibition highlights the artist’s own involvement in pageants and concerts, when his focus was directed toward the neighborhood’s burgeoning jazz scene.
Life Between Buildings
Jun. 2–Jan. 16, 2023
MoMA PS1, 22-25 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, Queens (momaps1.org)
This exhibition at MoMA PS1 details how artists and collectives have historically used New York City’s public spaces to build community organizations. Works from the 1970s to today detail efforts to occupy what dwindling spaces remain in the real estate capital of the world, from gardens and greenhouses to sidewalks and empty lots.
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