Pre Covid-19 we searched the internet everyday looking for the very best of What’s Happening, primarily on Manhattan’s WestSide, so that you didn’t have to.” We made it as easy as 1-2-3.

Covid-19 has required some changes. First of all, some very important information:

“There are multiple websites, disappearing slots and even attempts to game the system. Here’s our guide to what you have to do to get a dose in your arm.”

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Earlier today we covered the Nifty Nine NYC news sources and useful January NYC event info. Scroll down the site for a bit to find it. Now, how about some more useful NYC information.

New York magazine is biweekly these days and every issue has a wonderful section, “The Culture Pages,” which includes a “To Do” list – 25 things to see, hear, watch, and read. Here are my favorites from the current issue (Jan.20-Feb.3).

Art

Reggie Burrows Hodges He starts with a black canvas. Streams of glowing light wash over the accumulated tapestry of Black figures in the new canvases of Reggie Burrows Hodges. Here are post-Impressionist fields with soft edges and colors changing as if by iridescence, infusing these works with dignity and sparks of optical urgency. These almost visionary works give us an artist, in his mid-50s, at the height of his powers. —Jerry Saltz Karma, 188 and 172 East 2nd Street, through February 28.

Gordon Hookey: Sacred Nation, Scared Nation A Gary Simmons curation. Waanyi Aboriginal artist Gordon Hookey is a diamond in the visual rough, a political firebrand and the bringer of a cartoonish pictorial wisdom that makes his works ring with urgency and insight. His paintings connect “Black Aboriginal experience to that of African Americans.” His mural-scale paintings and colorful images light up space as much as the mind and show us that art is where we find it if we only keep looking and stay open to it. —J.S. fortgansevoort.com/online-exhibitions/gordon-hookey, through February 20.

Viewfinder Public-art watch. Even with gentrification, Old New York echoes in South Street Seaport. To smell the metaphysical sea air of the mind, catch this showcase of amazing images by 21 photographers who picture their worlds in ways that will set you a-tingle with optical excitement. It’s best viewed at night in the windows of the gallery, where, once again, the ghosts of New York will join you. —J.S. 19 Fulton Street, through January 31.

Theater

Fran & Kate’s Drama Club Up with the Woosters. Anyone who has seen Frances McDormand perform with the Wooster Group knows her grave unpredictability resonates with that ensemble’s poker-faced zaniness — whenever she escapes Hollywood for a turn at their scrappy Performing Garage, it’s as if a wolf has found its pack after being trapped with poodles. Now, McDormand and the experimental collective’s powerhouse performer Kate Valk host a live talk show, complete with special guests, films from the legendary Group’s archive, and their own banter about the future of the form. Imagine the Tonight Show, but hosted by two Shaker eldresses, either of whom could tear your throat out. —Helen Shaw thewoostergroup.org via Zoom, January 28 at 8 p.m. ET.

Silver Lining Streaming Series Still mint condition. The much-loved New York stalwart the Mint Theater is in the business of reviving forgotten classics, so it’s unsurprising that it took a serious look at its own archive, offering a full (and free) slate of digital releases, films of productions from past seasons — including Lillian Hellman’s superb labor drama Days to Come (through February 22) and Teresa Deevy’s earthy but eerie Katie Roche (February 1 to March 28). —H.S. minttheater.org, through June 13.

*This article appears in the January 18, 2021, issue of New York Magazine. Subscribe Now!

AND CONTINUING EVENTS

Art

JR: The Chronicles of New York City The self-described “photograffeur.” For a blast of fresh air and abstract love, enter the atrium at the Brooklyn Museum. There, you will be engulfed by and surrounded in about the largest wraparound mural you likely have ever seen. From the legendary anonymous French photographer, this wildly collaged panorama presents 1,128 individual New Yorkers. Each subject posed for JR inside a 53-foot trailer-truck the artist parked in numerous local spots. He offered to take pictures of anyone who came by. All of these were then put together into this masterpiece of ambition, love, life, celebration, and audacity. —Jerry Saltz Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, through February 14.

Countryside, The Future An urgent look. Organized by Rem Koolhaas and Samir Bantal — director of the think tank at Koolhaas’s firm, OMA — this extravaganza of art, design, models, photographs, installations, charts, and diagrams wraps its way up the famous Guggenheim ramps. The visual multiplex lets us consider the countryside that makes up 98 percent of the Earth’s land surface. Possibilities abound, proposals runneth over, and solutions are thrown into the air. Come away amazed and inspired. —J.S. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, through February 15.

“In Praise of Painting: Dutch Masterpieces at the Met” Ongoing. The ultimate balm to the soul in all of Western painting may be the Dutch works that include Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Hals. Thanks to the very deep pockets of the collectors and robber barons of New York, the Met has them and is now displaying 67 of these masterpieces. Get lost in some of the finest brushwork and deepest color in all of painting; glimpse infinity. —J.S. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue.

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NYC-Arts Top Five Picks: January 22-28

They Will Take My Island

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Manhattan / Tue, Jan 26, 2021, 7:00 pm

On Tuesday, January 26 at 7 p.m. the MetLiveArts commission presents the world premiere of “They Will Take My Island,” which features unreleased scenes and highly personal short films by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter) set to original musical scores by Armenian American composer Mary Kouyoumdjian, will stream on The Met’s website, YouTube channel and Facebook. “They Will Take My Island” includes footage from Egoyan’s films “Ararat and A Portrait of Arshile,” and Kouyoumdjian’s new score is performed by JACK …

Joanna Beall Westermann

Venus Over Manhattan

Manhattan / Tue, Jan 26, 2021, 10:00 am

Venus Over Manhattan is pleased to announce an exhibition of work by Joanna Beall Westermann, organized in collaboration with the late artist’s estate. It will be the first solo presentation for the artist in over two decades. A student of Josef Albers and Diego Rivera, Joanna Beall Westermann’s contributions were significant, yet somewhat obscured in her lifetime by her marriage to famed sculptor and printmaker H.C. Westermann. Venus Over Manhattan’s exhibition comprises a group of …

 

National YoungArts Week+

National YoungArts Foundation

Mon, Jan 25, 2021 – Sat, Jan 30, 2021

“National YoungArts Week” is YoungArts’ signature program that offers YoungArts award winners at the Finalist level the guidance needed to prepare for the next stage of their artistic development. Typically held in-person in Miami, the 2021 program, “National YoungArts Week+,” will take place virtually. During the intensive program, Finalists across 10 disciplines participate in online classes and interdisciplinary workshops with internationally recognized leaders in their field, including acclaimed visual artist Zoe Buckman; Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence …

PLUS ONGOING EVENTS

Magazines and the American Experience

Grolier Club

Manhattan / Wed, Jan 20, 2021 – Sat, Apr 24, 2021

This exhibition is a study of how magazines have both driven and reflected the American experience. Unlike regional newspapers, that report local current events, or non-fiction books, which focus on major historical moments and personalities, national magazines have the unique ability to connect trans-local communities of like-minded individuals. In the colonial era, magazines were the harbingers of American thought and identity; the first successful magazine from the 18th century proudly proclaimed itself as “The American …

“From a Passing Shape”: Modernist Works on Paper

Rosenberg & Co.

Manhattan / Mon, Jan 11, 2021 – Sat, Feb 27, 2021

Artists have long relied on paper as a fundamental support material. Paper is easily accessible and arguably the most familiar and humble medium. These qualities have led artists to use paper in a variety of ways, from the rough translation of ideas to the exploration of nontraditional processes. Artists have continued, and will continue, to reinvestigate and redeploy this everyday medium. The exhibition takes its title from the words of Pablo Picasso. He wrote, “The artist …

MasterVoices’ 79th Season

MasterVoices

Manhattan / Wed, Jan 13, 2021 – Wed, May 26, 2021

Ted Sperling, Artistic Director of MasterVoices, announced details of the 79th season of the acclaimed ensemble, which celebrates the power of the human voice to unite, inspire, and connect. The central project of MasterVoices’ 2020-2021 season will be a virtual rollout of award-winning composer Adam Guettel’s theatrical song cycle, “Myths and Hymns,” in an online staging conceived by Ted Sperling. Inspired by Greek myths and a 19th-Century Presbyterian hymnal, the 1998 cycle is a kaleidoscopic collection of …

Sea Chanteys and Maritime Music Sing-Along Broadcast

South Street Seaport Museum

Manhattan / Ongoing

South Street Seaport Museum’s monthly sea-music event, “Sea Chanteys and Maritime Music,” continues virtually on Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 2pm ET. From our living rooms and kitchens join a round-robin of shared songs featuring members of The New York Packet and friends. Listen in, lead a song, and belt out the choruses for your neighbors to hear on the first Sunday of every month. The event is FREE. Sign up here to receive the …

Dreaming Together

New-York Historical Society

Manhattan / Thu, Oct 29, 2020 – Sun, Jul 25, 2021

As part of the Asia Society Triennial: We Do Not Dream Alone—a multi-venue festival of art, ideas, and innovation—the New-York Historical Society and Asia Society Museum opens their first ever collaborative exhibition, “Dreaming Together.” More than 35 interwoven works drawn from both art collections generate dialogue about the urban and natural environments, protest and rebellion, individuals and identities, borders and crossings. Highlights include the Canal Street diptych (1992) from Martin Wong’s Chinatown series, 98-foot hanging scrolls by …

The Pleasure Pavilion: A Series of Installations

Luhring Augustine Gallery

Brooklyn / Thu, Sep 17, 2020 – Sat, Mar 13, 2021

Luhring Augustine is pleased to announce “The Pleasure Pavilion,” a series of installations that bring together artists from the gallery program in dialogue with the façade of a late 18th or early 19th century Indian pleasure pavilion. The arcaded portico pavilion, most likely part of an Indian palace or resort, was believed to have been originally used for recreational activities, such as enjoying musical and dance performances, entertaining guests, or admiring the surrounding gardens. The sandstone and …

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Stay home a bit longer. Mask up, stay safe and stay smart