What to See Uptown This Week During Frieze New York

DIANE ARBUS at Levy Gorvy
May 2–June 24
“Diane Arbus: In the Park” is the first show of its kind, looking at the artist’s images of Washington Square and Central Park in New York. Both well-known and rarely seen photographs will be on view, capturing the rich life of public spaces. New York’s parks were a subject Arbus returned to throughout her career.

ED RUSCHA at Gagosian
May 6–June 30
Gagosian Gallery at 980 Madison Avenue in New York will open “Custom-Built Intrigue: Drawings 1974—1984,” an exhibition of key text drawings by Ed Ruscha, on May 6. Open through June 30, the exhibition includes drawings dating from that period that incorporate text like, “THERMOMETERS SHOULD LAST FOREVER,” “HE ENJOYS THE CO. OF WOMEN,” and “SHE SURE KNEW HER DEVOTIONALS.” Also on view is one work on paper from 1986 that is exemplary of a shift in his practice by reintroducing the element of illusionary space. Many of the works in the show have been brought together thanks to various loans from private and public collections.

IMAGINARY ANCESTORS at Almine Rech
May 2–June 14
This two-part group show looks at Primitivism in modern and contemporary art. The first part features Fang sculptures alongside work by André Derain and Max Pechstein, in a restaging of Durand-Ruel Gallery’s 1933 exhibition “Early African Heads and Statues from the Gabon Pahouin Tribes.” The second will showcase work from artists including Mark Grotjahn, Ana Mendieta, and James Turrell, with primitive pieces from the personal collections of Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder, and David Smith.

PORTABLE ART: A Project by Celia Forner at Hauser & Wirth
20 April–17 June
“Portable Art Project” presents wearable artworks commissioned by 15 artists, organized by Celia Forner. On view is a range of unique and editioned items in a variety of materials that exist somewhere between jewelry and sculpture. The initiative started with Louise Bourgeois in 2008 creating metal cuffs, and has gone on to include John Baldessari, Phyllida Barlow, Stefan Brüggemann, Subodh Gupta, Mary Heilmann, Andy Hope 1930, Cristina Iglesias, Matthew Day Jackson, Bharti Kher, Nate Lowman, Paul McCarthy, Caro Niederer, Michele Oka Doner, and Pipilotti Rist.