Must See: New York November Shows

Benoît Marie’s “Cloud Paintings” at Arsenal Contemporary
November 15, 2017—January 14, 2018
This is a new series of paintings by Benoît Marie, completed during a residency with the gallery in Montréal. The artist, who lives and works in Paris, turned to the sky for this latest series of cloud-based work. Process and subject collide, with flat-bottom cumulous clouds sometimes giving way to dripping brushstrokes. References to artificial intelligence and cloud-computing processes stand alongside sky-gazing as a way of contemplating the heavens.

Lee Krasner’s “Umber Paintings” at Paul Kasmin Gallery
November 9, 2017—January 13, 2018
This exhibition of work by Lee Krasner focuses on the artist’s “Umber Paintings,” made from 1959 to 1962 in her barn on Long Island’s East End and in her New York studio. Krasner painted these works at night under electric lights, as a result of her chronic insomnia after the death of her husband, Jackson Pollock. The series helped establish the artist in the art world, finally giving her the credit she was due outside the shadow of the late Pollock.

“Skip Zone: Tiril Hasselknippe, Sandra Mujinga, and Kah Bee Chow” at Magenta Plains
November 5—December 15
The group exhibition includes the work of three international, emerging artists: Tiril Hasselknippe (b. 1984, Arendal, Norway), Sandra Mujinga (b.1989, Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Kah Bee Chow (b. 1980, Penang, Malaysia). They met at Malmö Art Academy, forming a dialogue that has continued past school. Hasselknippe created a site-specific short-wave radio tower and program. Mujinga’s Catching Up is a video installation that deals with self-representation. And Chow explores the everyday and afterlife in a site-specific installation on the lower floor.

McArthur Binion’s “Route One: Box Two” at Galerie Lelong & Co.
October 26—December 9
“Route One: Box Two” presents new works by Chicago-based artist McArthur Binion. Binion uses fragments from his personal history—his birth certificate, pages from his address book, pictures of his childhood home—as the base for his paintings. The title of the new series references his self-described “birth house” in Mississippi and its rural address, Route One: Box Two.

“Talon Rouge: Six Mexican Artists Revisit José Juan Tablada and His New York Circle” at PROXYCO
November 16, 2017—January 18, 2018
A new gallery on the Lower Eastside, PROXYCO opens its doors with a group show curated by Daniel Garza Usabiaga. The gallery is founded by Enrique Norten, Alexandra Morris, and Laura Saenz, and will specialize in emerging and mid-career artists from Latin America, with a focus on Colombia and Mexico. “Talon Rouge” features new work by six Mexican artists—Verónica Gerber Bicecci, Javier Hinojosa, Ivan Krassoievitch, Edgar Orlaineta, Marco Rountree, and Fabiola Torres-Alzaga—who were asked to engage with the 20^th-century artist, poet, and diplomat, José Juan Tablada.

Toyin Ojih Odutola’s “To Wander Determined” at The Whitney
October 20, 2017—February 25, 2018
“Toyin Ojih Odutola: To Wander Determined” is Toyin Ojih Odutola’s first solo museum show in New York. The exhibition features a series of portraits based on the fictional narrative of two aristocratic Nigerian families. Ojih Odutola alludes to wealth, race, status, and private life through life-size works created from pencil, pastel, and charcoal, in her signature intricate style.

“Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon” at the New Museum
September 27, 2017—January 21, 2018
“Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon” investigates gender’s place in contemporary art and culture. This major exhibition brings together work by artists presenting more fluid and inclusive visions of identity. More than 40 artists will present film, video, performance, painting, photography, and sculpture, including Mickalene Thomas, Candice Lin, Nancy Brooks Brody, Vaginal Davis, Sable Elyse Smith, and Chris Vargas.

Yayoi Kusama’s “Festival of Life” at David Zwirner
November 2—December 22, 2017
David Zwirner is presenting two concurrent shows of Yayoi Kusama across three gallery locations. On view are 66 paintings from her “My Eternal Soul” series, new large-scale flower sculptures, two “Infinity Mirror Rooms,” and a polka-dotted environment, and new “Infinity Net” paintings.