Wednesday, March 22, 7pm: Unlocking the Creative Self with Marshall Arisman

Tonight, at the SVA Theater, the school’s MFA Illustration as Visual Essay program presents a master-class style documentary directed by faculty member Nada Ray following the work of late artist and MFA program chair Marshall Arisman. Above” Marshall Arisman in his studio circa 2018

Master storyteller and native New Yorker Marshall Arisman (1938-2022) was a prolific artist, painter, illustrator, writer, filmmaker, educator and also a deeply spiritual man. Marshall was widely recognized as an artist with an authentic voice whose works were included in the Museum of Modern Art, The Brooklyn Museum of Art and The Smithsonian American Art Museum as well as public and private collections. A long-time chair and founder of the MFA Illustration as Visual Essay Department, a beloved mentor and teacher, Arisman was a formidable figure to generations of School of Visual Arts students from 1964 until his passing in 2022. 

Marshall Arisman and Nada Ray began working on this film during the Covid-19 pandemic in October of 2021. In the documentary, Arisman leads the viewer through his 2017 solo exhibition at the SVA Chelsea Gallery. He tells the stories behind the artwork and shares his philosophy of life and the sources of inspiration for his art practice. Above: Marshall Arisman and artworks, 1987

Nada Ray is a filmmaker, BFA Design faculty member at the School of Visual Arts and interdisciplinary producer. Her director’s forte is documentaries, portrait interviews and vivid process videos in which she depicts the joy and challenge of artists’ and visual communicators' practices. Ray made her director’s debut with documentaries featuring Milton Glaser and Paula Scher.

A Q&A with Steven Heller and Nada Ray will follow the screening.

SVA Theatre, 333 West 23^rd Street, New York, NY Info

Thursday, March 23, 6-8pm: Over the Sofa at Carter Burden Gallery

We have all heard stories of people who buy artwork that goes with their interior design. While most artists are just happy to sell their works and have them out of their studios, some feel that this practice relegates these pieces to mere decoration, an afterthought that is made merely to fill a wall—most notably, over the sofa. Most would argue that artwork is meaningful and deserve to have the furniture selected with the artwork in mind—not the other way around. Left: Gold glazed ceramic vessel by Syma, Ceramic Artist

Over the Sofa was developed to turn that idea on its head in this playful show featuring works by sixteen gallery artists in both two and three dimensions. Paintings and prints by Karin Bruckner, Stephen Cimini, Reidunn Frass, Sylvia Harnick, Vicki Khuzami, Candy Le Sueur, Mitchell Lewis, Susan Lisbin, Carol Massa, Sumayyah Samaha, and Gail Winbury hang over sofas and armchairs while sculpture by Mary Rieser Heintjes, Elisabeth Jacobsen, Bernice Sokol Kramer, Kate Missett, and Syma are placed on coffee and side tables.

Carter Burden Gallery, 548 West 28 Street, New York, NY Info

Friday, March 24, 11am MT: First day issue | Art of the Skateboard USPS Stamps

Fiercely independent and often rebellious, the skateboarding subculture crackles with raw creative energy. The bold artwork emblazoned on a skateboard deck is often as eye-catching and individualistic as a skater’s most breathtaking moves.

These four new commemorative Forever stamps celebrate the Art of the Skateboard with vibrant designs that capture skateboarding’s excitement and reflect the diversity and influences of the four artists whose work is featured: Crystal Worl, an Alaskan artist used a blue and indigo salmon formline design to express her Tlingit/Athabascan heritage. William James Taylor Jr, a self-taught Virginia artist created an energetic red and orange graphic abstraction. Federico “MasPaz” Frum, a Colombian-born, Washington, D.C.-raised muralist painted a stylized jaguar. Di’Orr Greenwood, of Arizona represented her Navajo culture with a turquoise-inlaid skateboard that features eagle feathers and colors of the rising or setting sun.

Art director Antonio Alcalá designed the stamp issuance, using photographs of skateboards created for these stamps. The Art of the Skateboard stamps are denominated as Forever stamps and will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail 1-ounce price. Customers may purchase stamps and other philatelic products through the Postal Store at usps.com/shopstamps, by calling 844-737-7826, by mail through USA Philatelic or at Post Office locations nationwide.

Desert West Skate Plaza, 6602 W. Encanto Blvd., Phoenix, AZ RSVP

Continuing: What That Quilt Knows About Me at Folk Art Museum

What That Quilt Knows About Me explores the deeply personal and emotional power associated with the experience of making and living with quilts. The exhibition’s title conveys the idea that quilts have the capacity for “knowing” or containing information about the human experience. Reflecting on this sentiment, the exhibition presents quilts as collections of intimate stories. 

Showcasing around 40 individual quilts spanning the 19th through 21st centuries, this exhibition speaks to how quiltmakers embedded their collective and individual histories into every weave and stitch, characterizing their work as live documents that hold keys to the past and its secrets. The featured quiltworks also push the boundaries of material and technique, with some examples incorporating elements such as photographs and paintings.

Curatorial tours are offered on March 23 and March 26 from 1-2pm; free with registration

American Folk Art Museum, 2 Lincoln Square, New York, NY Info  

Special for booklovers: Uncommon Denominator at The Morgan

In Uncommon Denominator, Nina Katchadourian stages a conversation among works from throughout her career, artifacts of her family’s history, and objects drawn from every corner of the Morgan’s vaults. To enlist the taste, imagination, and expertise of others, Katchadourian asked Morgan staff members to explain favorite objects to her. She incorporated many of these into a sequence of clusters in which images and objects echo, contradict, or comment upon one another. The resulting exhibition and catalogue promise to be a clever and thought-provoking inquiry into the nature of things and their relationships. Above: Detail of “Prince Charming” (2015) from the project Seat Assignment (2010–ongoing) by Nina Katchadourian

In this video Nina Katchadourian and curator Joel Smith discuss the artist’s new sequence-based exhibition UncommonDenominator combining pieces from the Morgan’s collection with her own artworks and objects of familial significance.

Save the date: March 24, 5:30 pm: Join Joel Smith, Richard L. Menschel Curator and Department Head, Photography, for a guided tour of our current exhibition. Register

Through May 28 at The Morgan Library & Museum ,225 Madison Avenue, New York, NY Info

Asia Week Continues through March 24

This week-long event, now in its 14^th year, draws visitors to 26 galleries and six auction houses exhibiting art and artifacts from across Asia. Highlights this week include an open house Thursday from 4-6 pm at China Institute, which is presenting Flowers on a River: The Art of Chines Flower and Bird Painting, 1368-1911. The first major exhibition in the United States systematically examines both the stylistic and cultural manifestations of this genre, presenting seventy items (over one hundred individual pieces) of masterworks by fifty-nine artists. Right: Leng Mei (dates unknown) Dog Sitting under Flowers Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk (Detail)

All from the collections of the Tianjin Museum and Changzhou Museum, the paintings span over five hundred years from the Ming and Qing dynasties and cover three subjects: "Precious Plums of the Palace: Academicism and Court Artists," "Fragrant" Plums in the Wild: Literati Art, Painters, and Painting Schools," and "Vitality of Nature: Flower and Bird Painting and Social Customs." This outstanding group of paintings will introduce the Chinese concept of "humanity in harmony with nature" and reveal the importance of this genre's auspicious imagery to the daily life and social customs of the Chinese people in their eternal pursuit of the meaning of life.

China Institute Gallery, 100 Washington Street [entrance at 40 Rector St, 2nd floor], New York, NY Info Clickhere for the complete Asia Week calendar

Looking Ahead to Friday, March 31: Concert for Trans Day visibility at the Great Hall

The New York City Gay Men’s Chorus—the world-renowned institution and pioneering voice for the LGBTQ community—perform in celebration of International Transgender Day of Visibility. "Shine On: A Concert for Trans Day of Visibility" is hosted by NYC legend, comedian, and international entertainer Murray Hill and features performances by trailblazing actress, singer, DJ, reality star, and activist Peppermint. This free program is part of the Gardiner Foundation Great Hall Forum series.

The Great Hall in the Cooper Union Foundation Building,  7 East 7th Street, between Third and Fourth Avenues, New York, NY  Register