ArtRx NYC

This week, solo shows by artists Robert Gober, Egon Schiele, and Gregory Sholette should be on your radar, while curator Michelle Grabner is doing a breakfast chat, the NY Public Library is hosting a talk on museum ethics, and Edgar Allan Poe’s dark side is in the spotlight.

 Writing Gothic: A Lively Discussion of the Macabre

When: Tuesday, October 7, 7pm (RSVP Required)
Where: The Community Bookstore (143 Seventh Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn)

To mark the anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe’s death, playwright and novelist Edward Carey and author Shelly Jackson discuss the “darker side of fiction and the relevance of the gothic in literature today.” Moderated by writer and bookseller A.N. Devers, the event will also include a reading from Poe’s work.

 Robert Gober: The Heart Is Not a Metaphor

When: Through Sunday, January 18
Where: The Museum of Modern Art (11 West 53rd Street, Midtown, Manhattan)

The Heart Is Not a Metaphor is the first large-scale survey of Robert Gober’s work in the United States. Arranged in a loose chronological order, the show consists of over 130 of Gober’s works. Known for his hand-made sculptures comprised of everyday objects and furniture, the artist’s surreal and absurd installations inspire a range of conflicted emotions. Gober’s work is rarely not compelling, even when you find yourself at a loss as to how to react.

 Michelle Grabner in Conversation with Jens Hoffmann

When: Wednesday, October 8, 8–9:30am
Where: Think Coffee (123 Fourth Avenue, Union Square, Manhattan)

Artist and co-curator of the 2014 Whitney Biennial Michelle Grabner joins curator Jens Hoffmann for a “breakfast salon” hosted by the Jewish Museum. There’s no information on what’s to be discussed, but the event should be a good opportunity for anyone looking to change their morning pace. Oh, and the coffee is free too.

 Egon Schiele: Portraits

When: Opens Thursday, October 9
Where: Neue Galerie (1048 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan)

The Neue Galerie’s new show, which includes a number of high-profile loans, focuses entirely on Egon Schiele’s portraiture. Comprised of over 125 paintings, drawings, and sculptures, the show will also include a display dedicated to the differences in style before and after Schiele’s brief imprisonment for “public immorality.” In his fall museum preview, our weekend editor Thomas Micchelli wrote:

The wildness of Schiele’s art — raw and unsparing in its fleshly decadence but rendered with a boldly elegant, even classical sense of abstraction — and the controversial aspects of his personal life seem tailor-made for today. His images, often splayed against a stark, blank backdrop, confront us with a hedonistic nihilism that feels oceans away from the luxe, perfumed Expressionism of his mentor, Gustav Klimt. Oblivion stalks us daily, and Schiele’s cadaverous bodies, drawn with pitiless, razor-like precision, don’t let us forget it.

 Is there a Future for Museum Ethics?

When: Thursday, October 9, 1:15pm (first come, first served)
Where: Steven A. Schwarzman Building, New York Public Library (455 Fifth Avenue, Midtown, Manhattan)

Sally Yerkovich, writer and director of the Institute of Museum Ethics at Seton Hall University, discusses the history of the American Association of Museums (AAM). Founded in 1925, the organization adopted a “Code of Ethics for Museum Workers,” which was last revised in the year 2000. Pointing to a number of high-profile controversies, including the Delaware Museum of Art’s recent deaccessioning of two major works, Yerkovich will examine the vigor of the AAM’s code, as well as how recent developments in the museum world have challenged it.

 Gregory Sholette: Our Barricades

When: Opens Friday, October 10, 6-9pm
Where: Station Independent Projects (164 Suffolk Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan)

Gregory Sholette’s second solo show at Station Independent Projects consists of drawing and sculpture from two separate bodies of work. Our Barricades, arranged like a classical frieze, is a series of black-and-white bas reliefs linking global politics and oil consumption to the war on terror. There are also pen-and-brush drawings from Double City, a graphic novel centered on the lives of three creative workers. The story charts “a growing underground mutiny organized by disgruntled artists, interns, exhibition installers and struggling MFA students.” The drawings will specifically focus on a character named Karl Lorac, a museum preparator whose paranoia of surveillance society leads him to barricade himself “behind a sculptural barrier made up of artworks, plywood, automobile tires and other assorted materials both real and imagined.”

 Open House New York

When: Saturday, October 11 & Sunday, October 12 (check site for details)
Where: Various

This weekend, the doors to a selection of New York’s historic and iconic locations are open for guided tours. Ticketed tours for some of the more sought-after destinations have already sold out, but numerous locations are open for the casual visitor. A glance at the list of participating sites hints at the diversity of Open House New York: the Institute of Classical Art & Architecture, Bullet Space, Apollo Theater, Mmuseumm, Grand Lodge of Masons, and the Jefferson Market Library. Our advice is to make your own itinerary, grab some curious friends, and make a weekend out of it.

 Jim Henson’s Labyrinth

When: Sunday, October 12, 2:30pm ($20)
Where: Museum of the Moving Image (36-01 35th Avenue, Astoria, Queens)

Panned by a number of prominent critics, Jim Henson’s Labyrinth (1986) has since become a cult classic. This Sunday, the Museum of the Moving Image is screening the film with an introduction by artists Brian and Wendy Froud, who together developed the concept art, costumes, and creatures for the movie. The film stars Jennifer Connelly in her first feature role as Sarah, whose infant brother is kidnapped by the Goblin King Jareth (played memorably by David Bowie). Sunday’s screening is a good excuse to revisit the fun, weird, and at times disturbing film.