Top Exhibitions Opening this Week in New York (November 3—9)

Haas Brothers: “Cool World” at R & Company
November 4–January 10
82 Franklin Street
The concept of freedom provides the nexus for the body of work exhibited in “Cool World,” in particular the ideal of California freedom. As Simon Haas writes, “California has been the catalyst for our development as artists—its alien-ness and variety of culture and landscape have taught us by example that fantasy and reality can be merged by choice. Our newest pieces offer a taste of the Californian utopia that we developed for ourselves.”

WEDNESDAY

Jessica Rankin: “Dear Another” at Salon 94 Freemans
November 5–December 21
Opening: November 5, 6-8pm
1 Freeman Alley
As in her previous large-scale text based embroideries, this series continues Rankin’s exploration of the mental map, stitching together a myriad of thoughts, feelings, fleeting moments, big events, and random asides. In this new body of work, the artist trades her favored materials of thread and fabric for printed text and images, graphite, glue and cerulean blue and black ink, which she uses to map celestial constellations on large swaths of creamy paper.

Takeshi Murata: “OM Rider” at Salon 94 Bowery
November 5–December 21
Opening: November 5, 6-8pm
243 Bowery
OM Rider (2013-14, 11 minutes 39 seconds) is the latest video by Murata, with soundtrack by Robert Beatty. The video tells a suspenseful story of a murderous encounter between a punk werewolf and a dapper old man. Set in a cavernous digital environment, the space of the action is dark and mysterious. The soundtrack pulses and accelerates with hypnotic, electronic rhythms. Suspense drives the narrative forward.

THURSDAY

Mario Schifano: “The 60s” at Luxembourg & Dayan
November 6–January 10
Opening: November 6, 6-8pm
64 East 77th Street
Luxembourg & Dayan presents an exhibition of seminal works by Mario Schifano (1934-1998), one of Italy’s most significant postwar artists. Schifano was a radical figure who considered painting to be the frontier of the avant garde, an intrinsically human art form capable of capturing the beating pulse of contemporary culture.

Christopher Williams at David Zwirner
November 6–December 20
Opening: November 6, 6-8pm
525 West 19th Street
The history of photography as art in the 20th century has largely been the history of the book and the illustrated magazine. An exemplary figure here would be Walker Evans, whose magazine work from the 1920s through the 1970s serves as a useful catalyst for thinking about the new exhibition of Christopher Williams. In this, his seventh exhibition with David Zwirner, Christopher Williams presents an essay in wallas and pictures, a display of five or six observational or descriptive models.

Neo Rauch: “At the Well” at David Zwirner
November 6–December 20
Opening: November 6, 6-8pm
533 West 19th Street
“At the Well” brings together small and large format paintings that expand the artist’s unique iconography of eccentric figures, animals, and hybrids within vaguely familiar but imaginary setttings.

Valentin Carron: “Music is a s-s-serious thing” at 303 Gallery
November 6–December 20
Opening: November 6, 6-8pm
507 West 24th Street
In a series of paintings, Carron mines the vernacular of modernist banality and its psychic, emotional, and behavioral implications. Details of found motifs selected from the covers and spines of industrially produced cloth and leather-bound books of the western postwar period are projected onto PVC tarpaulin and painted with vinyl ink.

Darren Waterston: “Split the Lark” at DC Moore Gallery
November 6–December 20
Opening: November 6, 6-8pm
535 West 22nd Street
The work on view looks to the improbably images and the charged warning of an Emily Dickinson poem to explore the mystery of interiority and the boundaries we violate to satisfy our desire to know.

Lorenzo Vitturi: “Dalston Anatomy” at Yossi Milo Gallery
November 6–December 13
Opening: November 6, 6-8pm
245 Tenth Avenue
“Dalston Anatomy” is an exhibition of color photographs and sculptures by Italian artist Lorenzo Vitturi. “Dalston Anatomy” is a visual document and investigation of Dalston’s Ridley Road Market, located in East London.

Independent Projects at at Center548
November 6–15
Opening: November 6, 6-8pm
548 West 22nd Street
Organized to coincide with the New York contemporary art and modern auction sales, Independent Projects takes a curated exhibition approach to the typical art fair. Exhibitors include Gavin Brown’s enterprise, Elizabeth Dee, Gagosian, Gladstone, Kavi Gupta, Hannah Hoffman, The Journal, Andrew Kreps, Dominique Levy, Maccarone, Mitchell-Innes & Nash, Metro Pictures, Lisson, Peres Projects, Skarstedt, White Columns, and David Zwirner, among others.

FRIDAY

Martin Puryear at Matthew Marks Gallery
November 8–December 20
Opening: November 7, 6-8pm
522 West 22nd Street
Puryear’s abstract organic forms are rich with psychological and intellectual references that explore issues of race, culture, and history. His new sculptures incorporate a diverse range of materials, from mirrored stainless steel and cast iron to a variety of woods, including red cedar, poplar, holly, ash, and pine.

Albert York at Matthew Marks Gallery
November 8–December 20
Opening: November 7, 6-8pm
523 West 24th Street
These 40 paintings, on loan from public and private collections, represent the entire range of York’s 30-year career, making this the most comprehensive exhibition of his work ever organized.

Maurizo Cattelan: “Cosa Nostra” at Venus Over Manhattan
November 8–26
Opening: November 7, 6-8pm
980 Madison Avenue, 3rd Floor
“Cosa Nostra” is the first major show of Cattelan’s work since his 2011 Guggenheim retrospective and retirement announcement. Curated by Adam Lindemann, the exhibition have two venues: Venus Over Manhattan and S|2 at 72nd Street and York Avenue.

SATURDAY

Richard Serra: “Vertical and Horizontal Reversals” at David Zwirner
November 8–December 20
537 West 20th Street
Serra began creating drawings in 1971, and they continue to constitute an autonomous part of his practice. Often large in scale, the artist’s drawings are typically made with a thick impasto of black painstick (or, more recently, lithographic crayons melted and formed into a brick), which is applied to a surface in broad, dense passages.

“Freezer Burn” at Hauser & Wirth
November 8–December 20
Opening: November 8, 6-8pm
32 East 69th Street
“Freezer Burn” is a group exhibition organized by Rita Ackermann. The premise of the exhibition is that artists are able to live through the most intense forms of life, and to transform them into subtle and strong sensorial realities; at the same time they can expand the most limited feeling or event and turn it into a world of its own. Participating artists include: Hans Bellmer, Lizzi Bougatsos, Antoine Catala, Bernadette Corporation, Martin Eder, Mark Gonzales, Dan Graham, Mike Kelley, Lee Lozano, Lily Ludlow, Paul McCarthy, Jason Rhoades, Colin Snapp, Daniel Turner, Ian Wallace and a performance by Emily Sundblad and Matt Sweeney.