MONDAY

Genieve Figgis: “Good Morning, Midnight” at Half Gallery
September 15 – October 25
43 East 78th Street
The figures populating Genieve Figgi’s paintings emanate from some luminescent netherworld, suspended between life and death, or living life and death or life through death in a land of the willingly lost, enchanted and mancing turns, where the cauldron of the Weird Sisters who prophesy to Macbeth is recast as the Jamesian Golden Bowl.

WEDNESDAY

“Broadway Morey Boogie” curated by Marlborough Chelsea
September 17 – February 2015
Broadway and 72nd Street
This exhibition aims to populate the backbone of Manhattan–surfing down Broadway from 166th Street to Columbus Circle–with a group exhibition of outdoor sculpture by American contemporary artists. “Broadway Morey Boogie” is curated by Marlborough Chelsea and produced in collaboration with the Broadway Mall Association and The New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. Artists include Sarah Braman, Dan Colen, Paul Druecke, Lars Fisk, Drew Heitzler, Matt Johnson, Joanna Malinowska, Tony Matelli, Davina Semo, and Devin Troy Strother.

Stephen Vitiello at American Contemporary
September 17 – October 19
Opening: September 17, 6-8pm
4 East 2nd Street
American Contemporary presents a two-part installation by renowned sound artist Stephen Vitiello. The exhibition will pair together a major early work, Frogs in Feedback (2002), and a new sculptural sound installation Gain and Lift (2014).

K8 Hardy: “Fashionfashion, 2002-2006” at Higher Pictures
September 17 – October 11
Opening: September 17, 6-8pm
980 Madison Avenue
Hardy released a series of zines called “Fashionfashion,” featuring mostly cut-and-paste images of herself, posed and styled (by herself) in grotesque, brutally collaged fashion/lifestyle editorials (by herself). For these riot grrrl-esque publications, Hardy exploited her own exploitation working as a stylist’s assistant, scavenging outfits at thrift stores (or making them herself), and wearing make-up more in the clown/horror vein than what mainstream women’s magazines call “beauty.”

THURSDAY

Dave Hardy: “The Hairy Hand” at Churner and Churner
September 18 – November 1
Opening: September 18, 6-8pm
205 Tenth Avenue
Hardy’s studies in balance and composition are composed of salvaged materials: thick sheets of glass, foam, metal, pencils, and the occasional pretzel. Layered, towered, and twinned, the objects hover at the edge of stability; yet the sculptures’ seemingly precarious poise is an intentionally engineered defiance of gravity.

“Thread Lines” at The Drawing Center
September 18 – December 14
Opening: September 18, 6-8pm
35 Wooster Street
“Thread Lines” is a group exhibition that disabuses the tradition of drawing as simply putting pen to paper, framing it instead as an open-ended act in which lines can be woven, stitched, even embodied. “Thread Lines” features 16 artists including Mónica Bengoa, Louise Bourgeois, Sheila Hicks, Ellen Lesperance, Kimsooja, Beryl Korot, Maria Lai, Sam Moyer, William J. O’Brien, Robert Otto Epstein, Jessica Rankin, Elaine Reichek, Drew Shiflett, Alan Shields, Lenore Tawney, and Anne Wilson.

Xanti Schawinksy: “Head Drawings and Faces of War” at The Drawing Center
September 19 – December 14
35 Wooster Street
First generation Bauhaus artist Alexander “Xanti” Schawinsky’s prolific oeuvre encompasses a range of social and political investigations. Schawinsky spent a lifetime relocating—from Switzerland to Germany to Italy to the United States—and, in the process, developed his central themes, which include the nature of identity, the responsibility of the individual, and the repercussions of machine warfare.

“Cast From Life” at Skarstedt
September 18 – October 25
Opening: September 18, 6-8pm
20 East 79th Street
A not-t0-miss, group show that focuses on the practice of “life-casting,” in materials that range from found objects to bronze. Artists in the show include George Condo, Peter Fischli & David Weiss, Isa Genzken, Robert Gober, Mark Grotjahn, Rachel Harrison, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Jeff Koons, Juan Muñoz, Cady Noland, Ugo Rondinone, Thomas Schütte, Rebecca Warren, and Franz West.

FRIDAY

“TWO TWO ONE” at Regina Rex
September 21 – October 26
Opening: September 21, 6-9pm
221 Madison Street
Regina Rex announces their inaugural exhibition “TWO TWO ONE” in a new location in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. This show presents new projects by Corey Escoto, Dave Hardy, EJ Hauser, and David Stein —four artists with whom Regina Rex has worked with very closely with over the past four years. Founded in 2010 on the border of Ridgewood and Bushwick, it is an artist-run gallery where all activity is generated through direct engagement with and dialogue between artists.

Orly Genger and James Siena: “New works on paper” at Sargent’s Daughters
September 19 – October 26
Opening: Saturday 19, 6-8pm
179 East Broadway
James Siena is known for his rigorous, rule-based linear abstractions in painting, drawing, etchings and prints. His “visual algorithms” are composed of freehand patterns with self-imposed limitations and restrictions. Order and constraint are also present in Orly Genger’s meticulous drawings of abstracted superhero limbs that jumble and pile together to form a universal whole.

Anne Wilson

Top Exhibitions Opening This Week in New York (Sep. 15–21)