this week in art

CELEBRATING THE PEARL OF AFRICA: BAM DANCEAFRICA BRINGS UGANDA TO BROOKLYN

Who: Abdel R. Salaam, Ndere Troupe, Asase Yaa African American Dance Theater, the Billie’s Youth Arts Academy Dance Ensemble, DanceAfrica Spirit Walkers, DJ YB, more
What: DanceAfrica Festival 2026
Where: BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAM Rose Cinemas, 30 Lafayette Ave.
When: May 22-28, many events free, Gilman dances $21-$86, film screenings $17
Why: The coming of the summer season means the arrival of one of the best festivals of every year, BAM’s DanceAfrica. The forty-ninth annual iteration focuses on Uganda, with four companies performing “Umoja/Mirembe/Obulungi (Unity/Peace/Beauty)!” in BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House: DanceAfrica Spirit Walkers, Asase Yaa African American Dance Theater, the Billie’s Youth Arts Academy Dance Ensemble, and Ndere Troupe, highlighting movement and music from the Pearl of Africa. Curated by artistic director Abdel R. Salaam, the festival also includes the DanceAfrica Bazaar with more than 150 vendors, dance workshops and master classes at the Mark Morris Dance Center, Sanaa Gateja’s “Voices of Peace” art installation, the Council of Elders Roundtable: Legacy & Preservation moderated by Dyane Harvey-Salaam, the Memorial Room, which offers a place to honor festival ancestors, and a late night dance party with DJ YB.

This year’s FilmAfrica screenings and cinema conversations, held in conjunction with the New York African Film Festival, are highlighted by Mohamed Ahmed’s A Tribe Called Love (2025), Maia Lekow and Chris King’s How to Build a Library (2025), Ossie Davis’s Black Girl (1972), Olive Nwosu’s Lady (2026), and Awam Amkpa’s The Man Died (2024) all followed by Q&As with the directors and/or others.

“Thousands of years of African cultural development were interrupted by centuries of colonialism, which gave rise to a sociopolitical movement that led to Uganda’s independence on October 9, 1962, and its formal nationhood in 1963. In the decades since, a powerful artistic movement has emerged to reclaim and celebrate Ugandan identity and intelligence through cultural expression, a force that continues to this day,” Salaam said in his mission statement. “Today, ancient Uganda is considered a cradle of human evolution and early civilization in the East African region of Lake Nalu Baale, the traditional name of what became Lake Victoria. In Luganda, a Bantu language, ‘Nalu Baale,’ translates to ‘Mother of the Ancestral/ Guardian Spirits.’ I am honored to share more of these ancient dances and songs, mixed with shades of contemporary visions of East Africa.”

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]

FEMINIST ART ROCK-STAR ROUNDTABLE: JUDITH BERNSTEIN, JOYCE KOZLOFF, AND JOAN SEMMEL AT THE JEWISH MUSEUM

Judith Bernstein, Joan Semmel, and Joyce Kozloff will take part in a Feminist Art Roundtable at the Jewish Museum

Who: Joan Semmel, Joyce Kozloff, Judith Bernstein, Rachel Corbett
What: Feminist Art Roundtable
Where: The Jewish Museum, Scheuer Auditorium, 1109 Fifth Ave. at 92nd St.
When: Thursday, March 26, $14-$24, 6:30
Why: On New Year’s Eve, I attended a small dinner party in the West Village, where among the other invitees was painter extraordinaire Joan Semmel, whose brilliant exhibition “In the Flesh” is on view at the Jewish Museum through May 31, and the marvelous Joyce Kozloff, whose stunning cartographic works have been on display in such gallery shows as “Collateral Damage,” “Uncivil Wars,” and “Girlhood.” At the last minute, artist Judith Bernstein, whose provocative solo exhibitions include “Truth and Chaos,” “We Don’t Owe You a Tomorrow,” and “Money Shot,” was unable to make the gathering. But now everyone is invited to be in the presence of all three remarkable women — and longtime friends — when they convene at the Jewish Museum on March 26 for a “Feminist Art Roundtable” moderated by Rachel Corbett, author of You Must Change Your Life: The Story of Rainer Maria Rilke and Auguste Rodin and The Monsters We Make.

Semmel’s “In the Flesh” comprises sixteen lush, tender, and potent depictions of naked contorted figures and bodies in motion, dating from 1971 to 2023. “Their reflections are hidden, as is my face in most of my paintings,” Semmel has noted of her subjects. “For women who are always a sight to be seen, not being seen can be an act of defiance.” The show also features “Eye on the Collection,” consisting of forty-two museum works selected by Semmel, among them Bernstein’s 1966 Invest Your Sons (War Is Good Business) and Kozloff’s 2004 American History: 21st Century Crusades.

Don’t miss this rock-star lineup of extraordinary artists who have helped define and expand the concept of feminist art for six decades, demanding to be seen and heard.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]

TAKING ACTION TO SAVE DEMOCRACY: ART AT A TIME LIKE THIS SIXTH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

Who: Janet Biggs, Mary Lucier, Shaun Leonardo, Marka27, Pablo Helguera
What: Public art campaign benefit for Art at a Time Like This
Where: Cristin Tierney Gallery, 49 Walker St.
When: Thursday, March 27, minimum donation $150 ($75 for artists), 6:00 – 9:00
Why: Only a few days into the pandemic lockdown in March 2020, independent curator and author Barbara Pollack and artist agent Anne Verhallen took action, starting the nonprofit Art at a Time Like This (ATLT), dedicated to the idea that “art can make a difference and that artists and curators can be thought-leaders, envisioning alternative futures for humanity.” Art at a Time Like This has presented two dozen online and in-person exhibitions and programs since then, including “Dangerous Art, Endangered Artists,” “Rupture: Interventions of Possibility,” and “Don’t Look Now: A Defense of Free Expression.”

On March 27, ATLT will be celebrating its sixth anniversary, at the Cristin Tierney Gallery on Walker St., with a three-hour evening of cocktails, conversation, and a call to action, featuring four impressive speakers: artists Janet Biggs, Mary Lucier, Shaun Leonardo, and Marka27, with Pablo Helguera serving as moderator. The event is hosted by Leonardo Bravo, Andy Cushman, Helina Metaferia, Marilyn Minter, Gina Nanni, Megan Noh, Eric Shiner, and Cristin Tierney.

“At the very beginning of a worldwide pandemic, we asked a simple question: How can you think of art at a time like this?” Pollack tells twi-ny. “The question is now more relevant than ever, which presents both a tragedy and an opportunity for creative solutions.”

The next creative solution for ATLT is the exhibition “Take One Action,” which the organization considers “an antidote” for what is happening around the globe today. All artists are invited to submit one artwork, along with a suggested action to help protect and preserve our democracy — with an eye toward the midterm elections. Select contributions will be printed and wheatpasted across the city and/or appear in an ever-growing digital exhibit.

“Barbara and Anne responded to the pandemic with amazing speed, care, and inclusiveness by asking a question: ‘How can you think of art at a time like this?’ The overwhelming response was: ‘How can you not?’” explains Biggs, a research-based interdisciplinary artist known for her immersive work in video, film, and performance. “They have continued to ask that question in the face of ongoing trauma, injustice, and upheaval, and artists have continued to answer with work that is engaged, compassionate, and necessary. That is why Art at a Time Like This — and its programming — is so essential.”

Admission is a minimum donation of $150 ($75 for artists) for what should be a fascinating gathering of thought-leaders who will not just be honoring the success of ATLT but continuing the fight to use art to make a difference.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]

STOP THAT PIGEON: BIDDING A FOND ADIEU TO DINOSAUR ON THE HIGH LINE

Iván Argote’s Dinosaur will be flying off from the High Line soon (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

FAREWELL, DINOSAUR
High Line Plinth on the High Line Spur
Thirtieth St. at Tenth Ave.
Friday, March 21, free, noon – 4:00
www.thehighline.org

It promises to be the biggest send-off for a New York City pigeon ever.

On June 14, 2025, the High Line welcomed Iván Argote’s High Line Plinth commission, Dinosaur, with “Pigeon Fest,” a festival celebrating pigeons, urban ecology, and public art on National Pigeon Appreciation Day. The High Line is now saying goodbye to the seventeen-foot-tall, one-ton aluminum pigeon sculpture on March 21 with another party, “Farewell, Dinosaur,” consisting of games, photo ops, and more, with Argote, DJ Tommy Sparks, and Miriam Abrahams, the British multidisciplinary artist who won the Pigeon Impersonation Pageant at the opening. Visitors are encouraged to again come in feather-brained costumes as they play bingo and have Argote sign limited-edition posters.

“The name Dinosaur makes reference to the sculpture’s scale and to the pigeon’s ancestors who millions of years ago dominated the globe, as we humans do today,” the Colombia-born, Paris-based Argote said in a statement. “The name also serves as a reference to the dinosaur’s extinction. Like them, one day we won’t be around anymore, but perhaps a remnant of humanity will live on — as pigeons do — in the dark corners and gaps of future worlds. I feel this sculpture could generate an uncanny feeling of attraction, seduction, and fear among the inhabitants of New York.”

The attraction, seduction, and fear will continue through early April, when Dinosaur will go extinct on the High Line, replaced by Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s The Light That Shines Through the Universe.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]

CELEBRATING WIFREDO LAM AT MoMA WITH DANCE, MUSIC, AND POETRY

Wifredo Lam with the unfinished Bélial, empereur des mouches in his garden, Havana, 1947 (courtesy Archives SDO Wifredo Lam, Paris / photo by Ylla © Pryor Dodge)

Who: Ballet Hispánico New York, Aruán Ortiz, Yaissa Jimenez
What: A Special Evening Celebrating “Wifredo Lam: When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream”
Where: Museum of Modern Art, 11 West Fifty-Third St. Between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
When: Thursday, March 19, free with advance RSVP, 6:30
Why: “I knew I was running the risk of not being understood either by the man in the street or by the others,” Cuban-born artist Wifredo Óscar de la Concepción Lam y Castilla said, “but a true picture has the power to set the imagination to work, even if it takes time.” The wide-ranging MoMA retrospective “Wifredo Lam: When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream” paints a fascinating portrait of Lam, the son of a Chinese immigrant and the grandson of a Congolese former slave mother. It’s a marvelous collection of paintings, drawings, archival photographs, sketches, books, and ephemera tracing Lam’s career, which took him from Cuba, Spain, and France to Martinique, Haiti, and New York as his imagination turned to Spanish modernism, Surrealism, and Afro-Cuban tradition. Among the highlights of the exhibition, which runs through April 11, are the 1943 gouache on paper masterpiece The Jungle, a trio of dazzling abstracts, and a collection of plates.

On March 19 at 6:30, MoMA will be hosting “A Celebration of ‘Wifredo Lam: When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream,’” as Ballet Hispánico New York, Cuban-born, Brooklyn-based pianist, violist, and composer Aruán Ortiz, and Dominican writer and poet Yaissa Jimenez will perform specially commissioned new works in the exhibition galleries, paying tribute to Lam and his legacy. Admission is free with advance RSVP.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]

TRAGEDY CAN FALL OUT OF THE SKY: ROB PRUITT AT 303

Latest Rob Pruitt show at 303 Gallery is a deeply personal one (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

SKYSCAPES . . .
303 Gallery
555 West 21st. St. between 10th & 11th Aves.
Through March 7
www.303gallery.com
www.robpruitt.com

In the fall of 2023, Rob Pruitt presented “The Golden Hour” at 303 Gallery in Chelsea, a show in which the DC-born artist faced his approaching sixtieth birthday with one of his “Flea Markets,” in this case a collection of personal objects that visitors could pore over and take one home; as I write this, one of Pruitt’s cigar boxes is right next to me.

His latest exhibition at 303, today titled “Watching the Sun Set and Drinking Beer with Friends Is the Highest Form of Art” — the name changes every day; it began on January 15 as “Skyscapes” — is another deeply personal show, focusing on the loss of his sister, Gina, who died on December 7, 2025, following a stroke. The works on view include his monthly 2025 “Sunrises” watercolor and silkscreen ink calendar series, ceramic fruit bowls, selections from his “Bright Light” acrylic on linen series, two of his “Suicide Paintings,” and the concrete sculpture Karen, a cat on the floor looking up at Bright Light — Purple.

In the back room are two works by his partner, Jonathan Horowitz: the video Father land: Wilhelm Reich, Jacques Morali, et al., about gay culture and authoritarian political ideology, and the gold-plated bronze Crucifix for Two.

There is a warm radiance to the gallery as Pruitt explores time. The show is accompanied by a heart-wrenching artist statement that places everything in context and is worth adding here in full:

Tragedy, like joy, can fall out of the sky.

When I was working on this show, my sister Gina suffered multiple strokes and was rendered paralyzed from the neck down, unable to speak. She made the decision to stop treatment and end her life on her own terms. This changed the show for me and I changed the show.

As I sat with Gina and recounted memories from our childhood, I thought about what she might be experiencing. She liked the room filled with light and liked to face the sun, even with her eyes closed. I imagined that she might be seeing bright, vivid colors.

The suicide paintings started for me as an expression of my own social anxiety. They were about punching a hole through a wall to make an escape, leaving one space and entering another space. With the paintings I made for Gina, the metaphor became literal. But not suicide from a place of darkness and depression. Just a choice.

Also, while the show was coming together, I could hear my partner Jonathan Horowitz from the room next door, working day after day on a video project. He never told me what the video was about, but I would occasionally hear familiar fragments – a Village People song, clips from the movies Cruising with Al Pacino and Saturday Night Fever, chanting political rioters. When Jonathan was finished and showed me the work, I was blown away. It’s called Father land: Wilhelm Reich, Jacques Morali, et al. and it’s about hyper masculinity and gay history and the political nightmare that we’re all living through today. Somehow, the particularity of his work seemed like a perfect counterpoint to the generality of mine. I asked him if I could put his video in the project room of the gallery, coming through the wall like at our house.

These were my days when I made the show. They are embedded within the work.

Rob Pruitt

HIGH LINE COWBOYS AND WOMAN WARRIORS: RAVEN HALFMOON IN CONVERSATION WITH CECILIA ALEMANI

Raven Halfmoon will discuss High Line commission West Side Warrior on March 3 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Who: Raven Halfmoon, Cecilia Alemani
What: Artist talk about West Side Warrior
Where: Friends of the High Line Headquarters, 820 Washington St., fourth floor
When: Tuesday, March 3, free with RSVP, 12:30
Why: In a July 2023 interview with Forbes, artist Raven Halfmoon (Caddo Nation) explained, “When I was in those anthropology classes [at the University of Arkansas], not only was I learning about my own tribe and our histories, but also about the Olmec heads in Mexico and the Easter Island heads and then not only that, but the earthworks that are in America: Spiro Mounds in Oklahoma, Moundville in Alabama, Serpent Mound in Ohio. A lot of those earthworks my ancestors made, Caddo ancestors, especially in the Mississippi region, so I was always interested in large scale works and being a part of that, the idea of community being in those works.”

That description fits well with her latest piece, the High Line commission West Side Warrior, in which Halfmoon employs the ancient coiling method as she honors tradition and her heritage while exploring gender and personal experience. Located on the old railway at Little West Twelfth St., the bust, sitting on a plinth, depicts a Native American female horse rider in a cowboy hat, her left side white, her right side black; there are four vertical tattoos on her face and three stars on the back of her head, representing the Red River. In addition, the hand of the artist is present in the clay, which is not smooth. The piece refers not only to the American West, where she is from, but also to the West Side Cowboys, who protected pedestrians and carriages on Death Avenue by guiding New York Central freight trains down the street beginning in the 1850s.

Raven Halfmoon’s West Side Warrior explores indigenous culture, the Old West, gender, and High Line history (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

On March 3 at 12:30, Halfmoon, who is based in her hometown of Norman, Oklahoma, will discuss West Side Warrior with High Line Art chief curator Cecilia Alemani inside the Friends of the High Line Headquarters on Washington St.; admission is free with advance RSVP. The next scheduled talk takes place March 12 at 6:30, when Saba Khan will discuss her three videos, Leaking Ocean, Water Lords, and The Dolphin, with High Line associate curator Taylor Zakarin.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]