10 NYC Art Exhibitions, Events & Performances Not To Miss This September
By Something CuratedLooking ahead at September in New York, Something Curated highlights a selection of the most promising exhibitions, performances and events not to be missed in the city.
Lee Ufan at PACE Gallery || Lee Ufan (14 Sep – 13 Oct)
Drawing together fourteen paintings from 2016–18, this exhibition debuts new works by Lee Ufan. While the brushstrokes in earlier works from the Dialogue series are the result of several applications of a monochromatic mineral pigment built up into a substantial single mark, these new works encompass a broad range of saturated hues. Painted in a highly controlled method, with brushstrokes that relate to the artist’s breath, the works take up to a month or more to complete, and focus on the resonance of space, colour, light and tension.
PLAY || Urs Fischer & Madeline Hollander at Gagosian, West 21st Street (6 Sep – 13 Oct)
PLAY is a project conceived by Urs Fischer, with choreography by Madeline Hollander it is an autonomous collective of chairs engaging with humans and our expectations. Swiss-born Fischer’s practice traverses the fields of painting, sculpture and installation, as well as photography and drawing, in a multifaceted body of work that eludes formal or generic categorisation. Hollander is a New York-based artist whose work explores the evolution of corporeal vocabularies and the intersection between choreography and visual art.
DMing From Purgatory at Queer Thoughts || Chelsea Culprit (7 Sep – 28 Oct)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BeIqG3WhJYX/?hl=en&taken-by=chelseaculprit
The work of Chelsea Culprit entangles representations of the body’s capacity for work, play, display, expression, the performed authenticity of identity, and the intractability of freedom and personal bondage. The Mexico City-based artist is one of many young women artists who are consciously choosing painting as the right arena to think over the iconography of the “female.” In her previous work, Culprit also uses sculptural elements, camp, and references to reified art historical tropes as tools to begin to dismantle oppressive visual histories.
Marvellous Boys at Shin Gallery || Wilhelm von Gloeden (Until 30 Sep)
This retrospective looks at Von Gloeden’s classicised boys in Sicily from the perspective of Irish writer Oscar Wilde. Wilde was one of Von Gloeden’s most fervent supporters, visiting him in 1898 out of admiration for his work’s aesthetically-driven, unapologetic, homoerotic display of Sicily’s “marvellous boys”. Wilde sought a queer safe haven in Taormina during the summer of 1898 to escape his tumultuous relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas and the persecution it had brought him in England. In Taormina, Wilde frequently visited Von Gloeden’s studio, cultivating a fond relationship with the photographer, finally leaving Sicily with a suitcase full of Von Gloeden’s shots of Taormina’s boys.
Popcorn Falls at The Davenport Theater || Christian Borle, James Hindman & More (14 Sep 2018 – 6 Jan 2019)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BmEdaJJgKOx/?hl=en&tagged=popcornfalls
Two-time Tony-winning actor Christian Borle dons his directorial hat for the first time in New York as he directs James Hindman’s brand new play, Popcorn Falls. Popcorn Falls’ claim to fame, their namesake waterfall, has dried up, now completely bankrupt the towns-people must rely on a large grant to keep them afloat, but the only way to get it is to make a play in a week. With no theatre and no play the towns-people battle against the odds and rise to the challenge, proving how the arts can really change the world.
Vince Staples & The Flaming Lips at Governors Island, Colonel’s Row || Vince Staples & The Flaming Lips (8 Sep)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BlGntlznUDM/?hl=en&taken-by=vincestaples
American rapper and member of the Cutthroat Boyz crew, Vince Staples surfaced in the early 2010s with a spate of promising appearances on Odd Future-related recordings, including Earl Sweatshirt’s “epaR.”Since Staples’s debut mixtape in 2011, he has used his songs to indict police brutality, civic apathy, gentrification, racial profiling, and the failed educational system. The Flaming Lips join Staples at Governors Island for a live show on 8 September.
Let the Corpses Tan at Quad Cinema || Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani (3–6 Sep)
Selected for the Toronto International Film Festival, Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s Let the Corpses Tan entails a criminal gang fresh from an armoured car heist holing up in an abandoned Mediterranean clifftop village, where they encounter enigmatic artist Elina Löwensohn and alcoholic writer Marc Barbé. Soon all are drawn into a death dance of double and triple crosses, as the standoff dissolves into hallucinatory, semi-mystical delirium.
Sarah Lucas: Au Naturel at The New Museum || Sarah Lucas (26 Sep 2018 – 20 Jan 2019)
The New Museum will present the first American survey of the work of British artist Sarah Lucas. Over the past thirty years, Lucas has created a distinctive and provocative body of work that subverts traditional notions of gender, sexuality, and identity. Since the late 1980s, Lucas has transformed found objects and everyday materials such as cigarettes, vegetables, and stockings into absurd and confrontational tableaux that boldly challenge social norms. This exhibition is curated by Massimiliano Gioni and Margot Norton.
Rodarte Sample Sale at Location upon RSVP || Kate & Laura Mulleavy (15 Sep)
Sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy came from Pasadena, California, to New York back in 2005 to launch their label Rodarte, now an industry staple. With an eye for dramatic creations that blur the line between fashion and art, they have created costumes for Oscar Academy Award-winning film Black Swan and various opera productions. As Rodarte returns to New York Fashion Week this season, the brand is also hosting a sample sale in the city this month. Drop an email to info@rodarte.net to RSVP and get the full details.
The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative: Final Show at The Guggenheim Museum || Alexandra Munroe, Hou Hanru, Xiaoyu Weng & More (Until 21 Oct)
The third and final exhibition of The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative will present new commissions by artists born in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao. Launched in 2013, the initiative engages artists, scholars, and curators from around the world to bring intersecting regional and global conversations and contemporary practices to the fore.
Feature image: Sarah Lucas, Au Naturel (via Whitechapel Gallery)