APRIL 7–28
“Gresham’s Ghost at Jack Hanley Gallery. Prolegomena, w/ the launch of Shifter Magazine’s 18th issue: Intention. Lindsay Benedict & Roberto Fassone, David Brooks, David Cordero, Buster Graybill, Corin Hewitt, Josh Tonsfeldt, Judy Natal.”

APRIL 12
From Atria Books: “What happens when you take four authors from three countries and put them on a bus to visit 12 cities in 8 days? Sounds almost like a literary reality show.” Or like the driver is going to die under suspicious circumstances…. “Atria’s Great Mystery Bus Tour will kick off on Thursday, April 12 at the Mysterious Bookshop on Warren Street in Tribeca at 6:30pm. Stop by and say hello to John Connolly, William Kent Krueger, Liza Marklund, and M.J Rose who will be talking about their books and signing copies.” Want to win a complete set of books by the authors appearing? Be one of the first five people to DM @paulieolsewski on Twitter.

APRIL 12–MAY 14
“Kevin McDermott: Portraits and Landscapes” at Steven Amedee Gallery. Left: Chad.

APRIL 13–JUNE 23
At Art in General: “In Rob Carter’s solo exhibition ‘Faith in A Seed,’ miniature replicas of three 19th Century estates—Charles Darwin’s Down House, Henry David Thoreau’s cabin at Walden, and Sir John Bennet Lawes’ Rothamsted Manor—will slowly disappear, overtaken by the gardens in which they reside. The transformation will occur over the course of the five-week exhibition.”

OPENING APRIL 19
At Frontrunner Gallery: “The ChiBeCa Project [by Leah Overstreet] is a portrait series documenting twenty residents, predominantly artists and small business owners, living and working on the edge of lower Manhattan. Framed by Chinatown to the east and Tribeca to the west, the neighborhood deserves its own name: ChiBeCa. For decades participants in the arts community have inhabited ChiBeCa, one of the few areas where one can still afford a studio. This unique pocket in Manhattan reflects intermingling cultures, dedicated artistic practice, and diverse definitions of ‘making it’ in New York City.”

APRIL 20–MAY 12
“Canal Park Playhouse is thrilled to present the New York premiere of Help! Help! I Know This Title Is Long But Somebody Is Trying to Kill Me, created by and featuring Drew Richardson, with direction by Avner the Eccentric: The performers of a vaudeville variety show have been murdered–except for Drew the Dramatic Fool! Unfortunately for him, the show must go on, or he’s next. Drew attempts every act in the show, from juggling 36 balls to sawing a woman in half, in this comical examination of fears–fear of performing, fear of failure, and fear of death.” There’s a related show on at the same time called Drew the Dramatic Fool.

MAY 1–JUNE 22
Two exhibits at RH Gallery. One is “‘On Air,’ the first New York solo exhibition by Soledad Arias. Arias’ text-based work explores the slippage of meanings in the aesthetic and literary reading of texts.” The other is a group show called “Text in Progress” and it includes Stephen Andrews, Joanne Cheung, Anne-Lise Coste, Jeff Elrod, León Ferrari, Joe Hardesty, Robert Kinmont, Stephanie Lempert, Micah Lexier, Ken Nicol and Qui Zhijie. This exhibition aims to explore text-based art practices which employ language to visually consider the process of conceptualizing ideas while also presenting a pictorial investigation of language itself.”

THROUGH MAY 5
At Pablo’s Birthday: “Artists Gero & Rees have developed a Tactical Play Exchange strategy to co-create a series of artworks over the past year. These works are forms that generally begin with contextual architectural elements derived from the site of exhibition, for example, the floor plan of the gallery, or other localized features. These become the core structures or null objects that will be added to, morphed and modified in multiple iterations using 3D modeling software and physical intervention. The digital files are passed back and forth between Gero & Rees creating a networked ‘ground of play’ that will extend itself, as adaptive potentiation, finally resulting in objects that are extensive transitive structures.”

MAY 8
Pen Parentis presents three authors who have won coveted prizes in short fiction: Josh Rolnick, whose collection Pulp and Paper won the John Simmons Short Fiction Award, Christine Schutt, whose short fiction won the O. Henry, Pushcart and Mississippi Review prizes, and whose novels have been shortlisted for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer, and a return appearance by Pen Parentis favorite Anna Solomon, whose short fiction has won the Pushcart Prize twice.

MAY 9
“Chutzpah Fest” (comedy) at the Museum of Jewish Heritage.

MAY 13
Food personalities Gail Simmons, Melissa Clark (love her writing in the NYT!), and Alan Richman will be at the Museum of Jewish Heritage to discuss “Jewish foods, home cooking, and the influence of their own mothers in forming their culinary memories.”

MAY 15–19
“Seats of Fancy” at RH Gallery: “The exhibition will feature unique and limited edition stools and chairs by Fredrik Färg, Harry and Camila Studio and Katrina Vonnegut, each made by the designers with unique processes. Färg’s stools from his ‘Succession’ series are constructed with leather, wrapped in rope and baked in the oven; Vonnegut hand-knits her unique chairs and ottomans while Harry and Camila Studio’s Dr. Bubbles on the Rocks is a sculptural chair cast in aluminum inspired by volcanoes.”

THROUGH MAY 22
“Canal Park Playhouse is thrilled to announce the extension of ‘House of Ghostly Haunts,’ the weekly Spook Show created and performed by Cardone the Magician. Ghostly, ghastly fun is haunting Canal Park Playhouse as vaudeville magician Cardone takes the stage on Tuesday nights. Guillotines are dropped, razors are swallowed, and spirits are conjured in a spellbinding celebration of the strange, macabre and the fantastical. While ‘House of Ghostly Haunts’ is family-friendly, no one under age 7 is permitted. The show ends in 10 minutes of complete darkness.”

MAY 24–NOVEMBER 30
“Common Ground,” an exhibit from the Public Art Fund at City Hall Park: “Traditional public monuments and statues had a clear civic purpose, many having been commissioned to commemorate an important event, notable individual, or significant group. The artists featured in this show—Elmgreen & Dragset, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Roger Hiorns, Jenny Holzer, Matthew Day Jackson, Justin Matherly, Paul McCarthy, Amalia Pica, and Thomas Schütte—have taken this tradition of civic sculpture and expanded upon it. Developing a new civic dialogue, the show explores the reappropriation of iconography from classical sculpture; engagement with themes of the individual and society; incorporation of language, symbolism, and metaphor; and the use of non-traditional materials and performance, among other themes.”

MAY 25
92YTribeca is screening Cabin Boy, including a Q&A with Chris Elliott and Adam Resnick.

JUNE 27–JULY 25
The Museum of Jewish Heritage is screening Mel Brooks films on Wednesday nights: Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie, High Anxiety, History of the World Part I, and To Be or Not to Be.

JULY 17
Sam Moore is at City Winery.

JULY 26
Marshall Crenshaw is at City Winery.