Editors’ Picks: 7 Great Art and Design Events This Week

Here are Galerie’s picks of the must-see art and design events this week.

Robert Mapplethorpe, Candy Darling, 1973. Photo: Website of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

1. Implicit Tensions: Mapplethorpe Now
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

First opened on January 25, the exhibition “Implicit Tensions” explores polaroids, collages, and mixed-media constructions by provocative photographer Robert Mapplethorpe drawn from the Guggenheim’s permanent collection. Opening tomorrow, the second portion of “Implicit Tensions” will address Mapplethorpe’s legacy in the field of contemporary art, questioning the lasting effects of his classicized nudes, self-portraits, and graphic depictions of New York’s underground S&M scene. A selection of photographs will be juxtaposed with works by artists in the Guggenheim’s collection, including Lyle Ashton Harris, Zanele Muholi, Catherine Opie, and Paul Mpagi Sepuya.

When: July 24–January 5, 2020

Where: 1071 Fifth Avenue

Work by Dylan Hurwitz, RISD graduate student. Photo: Courtesy of the artist

2. RISD MFA Painting Show
Monya Rowe Gallery

What better place to spot emerging talent than an MFA show, and RISD’s painting program exhibition is a prime example. Held in New York at Monya Rowe Gallery, this show will feature artworks by 2019 graduate students, including Samuel Drake, Zuhal Feraidon, Evan Gilbert, Dylan Hurwitz, Zahra Jewanjee, Katelyn Ledford, Alex McAdoo, Nathan Prebonick, and Emilie Stark-Menneg. Get a head start and check out the graduate portfolios here.

When: Thursday, July 25, 6–8 p.m.

Where: 224 West 30th Street

Recommended: Meet the Jurors of the Inaugural Galerie Emerging Artist Award

Two or Three Things I Know About SLC: Genre Bending Gender Fxxxking. Photo: Courtesy of Red Bull Arts Center

3. Meet the Makers: Shu Lea Cheang
Red Bull Arts New York

In the final segment of Meet the Makers, a program of artists talks and performative lectures that aim to support visual arts literacy, artist and filmmaker Shu Lea Cheang brings together friends, collaborators, and curators to participate in her “memory reboot”: Two or Three Things I Know About SLC: Genre Bending Gender Fxxxking at the Red Bull Arts Center. Cheang aims to create a visual timeline of her artistic pursuits from her early years in the East Village to her series “Homestead Cyberspace” (begun in 1994) and “Enter the BioNet” (begun in 2009). Working in both film and traditional artistic mediums, Cheang employs installations, performances, and feature-length films to create groundbreaking sci-fi narratives coined eco-cybernoia, sci-fi cyberpunk, or sci-fi cypherpunk. Seating for this event is on a first-come, first-served basis.

When: Thursday, July 25, 7 p.m.

Where: 220 West 18th Street

“Serious Play: Translating Form, Subverting Meaning” puzzle by Damien Davis. Photo: Courtesy of BRIC

4. Serious Play—Lessons in Learning/Unlearning: Piecing Things Together
BRIC Arts Center 

As part of the ongoing series of public programs “Serious Play: Translating Form, Subverting Meaning,” artist Damien Davis will ask audiences to assemble a large table-top puzzle that presents iconography of people, places, and things commonly associated with “black” culture. Free with RSVP, the event creates a space where participants can freely discuss issues pertaining to the current political, social, and economic climate. Davis’s event includes a dialogue between himself and the audience about how his interactive piece recognizes and challenges systematic oppression.

When: Friday, July 26, 12:30–2 p.m.

Where: 647 Fulton Street

Recommended: Discover the Rainbow-Hued Gardens of Landscape Designer Frederico Azevedo

Phillips & Taylor, photograph of Walt Whitman, 1873. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Photo: Courtesy of The Morgan Library and Museum

5. Gallery Talk with Sal Robinson in Walt Whitman: Bard of Democracy
The Morgan Library and Museum

Chronicling Whitman’s work from his early years as a journalist through his prolific output as a poet, the show Walt Whitman: Bard of Democracy examines the writer’s experiences in developing 19th-century America and displays documents from a range of legendary writers, including Oscar Wilde, Hart Crane, Federico García Lorca, and Allen Ginsberg, who were all dramatically influenced by the poet. Free with museum admission, Sal Robinson, assistant curator for literary and historical manuscripts, will discuss Whitman’s extraordinary body of work Friday afternoon in the Morgan Library and Museum galleries.

When: Friday, July 26, 1 p.m.

Where: 225 Madison Avenue

Time Bomb by Christopher Knowles and Marchers by Cleon Peterson at The Watermill Center, 2018. Photo: Courtesy of The Watermill Center

6. The Watermill Center’s 26th Annual Summer Benefit & Auction: Tabula Rasa
The Watermill Center

Indulge in fabulous cocktails, delicious food, and colorful artworks at The Watermill Center’s 26th Annual Summer Benefit. Raising funds to support the center’s year-round artist residency and education programs, for the first time, the foundation will also provide a 20 percent commission fee from the winning bid to support the artists who make the auction possible. Presented by Van Cleef & Arpels, cocktail hour kicks off at 6 p.m. and is followed by a dinner at 8 p.m. with a live auction led by Simon de Pury along with a live DJ set to close. Tickets are on sale now.

When: Saturday, July 27, 6 p.m.–midnight

Where: 39 Watermill Towd Road, Water Mill

Recommended: Robert Wilson’s Summer Home Is Exactly How You Would Imagine It

Risa Puno, The Privilege of Escape, 2019. Photo: Courtesy of Creative Time

7. The Privilege of Escape 
Creative Time

Creative Time’s escape room with artist Risa Puno introduces several interactive experiences that encourage visitors to contemplate and discuss the concept of privilege in modern-day society. Inspired by the game of life, The Privilege of Escape intersects play with complex social thought, as Puno cleverly mixes visually compelling works of art with sophisticated subject matter.