Must See New York: Nick Cave, Justine Kurland, Paolo Arao, and More

We can’t think of a better way to beat the heat than visiting must-see shows and exhibitions in New York. Here you’ll find a list of everything you need to check out this month in the city.

Nick Cave at Park Avenue Armory
Now–July 1
Nick Cave’s “The Let Go” is an immersive performance of sight, sound, and movement focused on creating a collective act of catharsis amongst its audience members. Working in collaboration with artists across several disciplines (like choreographer Francesca Harper and vocalist Jorell Williams), Cave transformed The Armory’s Drill Hall into a dance-based town hall setting. In addition to two 40-foot-tall Mylar sculptures created by Cave, the exhibition features a soundtrack by some of New York’s top DJs and wearable sculptures called “soundsuits,” which are meant to conceal the wearer’s gender, race, and class.

 

Grimanesa Amorós at Prospect Park Bandshell
Now–August 11
Grimanesa Amorós’s HEDERA is a large-scale light sculpture commissioned as apart of BRIC’s 40^th anniversary celebration. HEDERA (the Latin word for “ivy”) was inspired by the park’s natural plant life. As part of her creative practice, before creating a piece of art, Amorós first researches the histories and communities of the installation site, ensuring that each work reflects and amplifies its surroundings, opposed disrupting the natural flow of the environment.

Justine Kurland at Mitchell-Innes & Nash
Now–June 29
Mitchell-Innes & Nash has presented a debut exhibition of the first prints of Justine Kurland’s “Girl Pictures.” Coinciding with the gallery’s 20^th anniversary, the show is a series of 69 photographs taken between 1997–2002 while Kurland traveled across the United States. The works on display depict a variety of scenes featuring adolescent girls in dreamlike and dystopian settings. The intimate nature of the photographs paired with the constructed composition creates an unexpected world, which shines a light on perfection and reality.

Ursula von Rydingsvard at Galerie Lelong
Now–June 23
Ursula von Rydingsvard’s “Torn” is an exhibition of new and recent works experimenting with bronze, resin, cedar, and paper. Intense, fierce, and vulnerable, the latest sculptures were fueled by the desire to move outside of her own psychological arena, taking risks she had yet to explore. Works on view include Book with no words (von Rydingsvard’s exploration of bookbinding through sculpture) and Z BOKU (a 10-foot-tall technical masterpiece cast in bronze).

Jenny Saville at Gagosian
Now–July 20
Gagosian Gallery is showing Jenny Saville’s “Ancestors”—a collection of new paintings. Saville’s depiction of the human form imparts an awareness of how the body has been represented over time and across cultures, furthering her style that transcends both modern abstraction and classical figuration. “Ancestors” brings to mind archetypes from religion and mythology like Fates and the pietà, while the human forms featured in the works reflect the mutability of human behavior itself.

Matthew Stone at The Hole
Now–June 24
“NEOPHYTE,” a collection of over 20 new works by Matthew Stone, is the artist’s fourth solo show at The Hole. Figures that Stone created were made by using various 3-D software, wherein the artist photographs brushstrokes and then pieces them together, sculpting bodies in three dimensions. Feeding the spiritual component of the exhibition, “NEOPHYTE” (named for the “newly planted” season) features 500 hand painted liquid dropper bottles placed throughout the gallery by the artist. The dropper bottles, which contain plant-medicine, are free to visitors and are meant to promote emotional healing.

 

Paolo Arao at Barney Savage
Now–July 8
“52 Weeks” at Barney Savage is an exploration of queer imagery in which Paolo Arao created one painting every week for a year—a structural challenge that gave Arao a heightened sense of freedom, allowing him to push the boundaries of his visual language. The result resembles a calendar that depicts the evolution of the queer narrative. While each piece of work is unique, all play an important part in the yearlong progression.