Art in Mexico City, Renoir on Renoir, and over 400 Cuban and Cuban-American artists arrive in D.C. to celebrate the tiny island nation’s substantial cultural contributions in music, dance, art, and film.
In the nearly two decades since it opened, Mexico City’s kurimanzutto gallery has earned a reputation as one of the city’s most adventurous contemporary spaces. Conceived by artists Gabriel Orozco, José Kuri, and Mónica Manzutto, it was originally intended as a nomadic concept, moving around Mexico City’s urban landscape, but it’s evolved into a home for international artists and institutional exhibitions while maintaining a profoundly collaborative spirit. This month, it launches a New York gallery with an installation by Mexican artist Abraham Cruzvillegas—a new addition to his Autocontusión series which uses locally-sourced materials in sculptures and a site-specific mural noting the artist’s favorite places around New York. Like its predecessor, the New York space will be both a home for new art—and a launching pad for bringing it to ever more far-flung locations. 22 E. 65th St.; kurimanzutto.com.
‘Renoir: Father and Son/Painting and Cinema’ in Philadelphia
May 6-Sept. 3
Talent doesn’t often run in families to the extent that it did among the Renoirs: painter Pierre-Auguste is renowned among the Impressionists, while his son Jean became a celebrated filmmaker in his own right. The relationship between the two men and their unique artistic exchange hasn’t been explored until now, thanks to the Barnes Foundation—one of the world’s great Renoir repositories, and an institution especially expert at revealing artists’ hidden depths through insightful juxtapositions in exhibition. Over 120 works, many never seen in the U.S. before, by father and son—including paintings, drawings, photographs, posters, film, ceramics and more—will be displayed. Together, they illuminate Pierre-Auguste’s influence on his son’s work and the relationship between two seemingly very different ways of image-making: painting and cinema. 2025 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy.; barnesfoundation.org.
Courtesy of artist/The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
‘Artes de Cuba: From the Island to the World’ in Washington, D.C.
May 8-20
For two weeks this month, the nation’s capital will have a whole lot more than cherry blossoms adding warmth and beauty to the air. Over 400 Cuban and Cuban-American artists will flock to the Kennedy Center, showcasing the tiny island nation’s substantial cultural contributions in music, dance, art, and film. Highlights range from concerts by the likes of Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble, Buena Vista Social Club’s Omara Portuondo, and current Cuban music stars Los Van Van; to performances by Alicia Alonso’s Ballet Nacional de Cuba; large-scale art installations by Manuel Mendive, Roberto Fabelo, José Parla and more; and a showcase of Cuba’s biodiversity, presented in conjunction with the American Museum of Natural History. And that’s only a taste of the unprecedented influx of culture from the tropics that this vibrant festival will bring. 2700 F St. NW; kennedy-center.org.
First produced in London to great acclaim in 1937–then revised and produced in 1984, again becoming a smash hit—Me and My Girl eventually made it to Broadway in 1986, buoyed by Noel Gay’s beloved score featuring popular songs like “Leaning on a Lamp Post” and “The Lambeth Walk.” Thanks to the Encores! Series, it makes a rare modern stateside appearance at New York City Center in a new production overseen by director and choreographer Warren Carlyle. It stars the charming Christian Borle as an everyman unexpectedly elevated to Earl status, and Laura Michelle Kelly, as the titular “girl” he risks losing when he crashes high society. 130 W. 56th St.; nycitycenter.org.
Roger Mastroianni
‘The Prometheus Project’ in Cleveland
May 10-13 and 17-19
One of the most exquisite orchestras in not only the United States but the world, the Cleveland Orchestra is about to close out its centennial season at gorgeous Severance Hall with a characteristically ambitious undertaking: The Prometheus Project, a two-week festival featuring all of Beethoven’s symphonies and overtures. Maestro Franz Welser-Möst leads the orchestra in a series of programs showcasing the variety of the great composer’s work; vocal soloists join for the last concerts, which, of course, center on the magnificent ninth symphony (the orchestra takes the Project on the road to Vienna and Tokyo next). 11001 Euclid Ave.; clevelandorchestra.com.
Courtesy Artisphere
Artisphere in Greenville
May 11-13
An annual highlight of the cultural calendar in ever-more-hip Greenville, South Carolina, Artisphere brings 135 jury-chosen artists to exhibit their multi-media works in town, including printmakers, watercolorists, ceramicists, jewelers and more. This year, returning festival favorites include temporary works by illustrator and chalk artist David Zinn; interactive experiences throughout the community; a diverse live music lineup; and plenty of local and regional wines and craft beers to keep perambulators happy as they peruse the artists’ wares. artisphere.org.
“Rick Bartow: Things You Know But Cannot Explain” in Los Angeles
May 12-Jan. 6
A member of the Mad River Band Wiyot tribe, Rick Bartow started painting in the late 1970s, after serving in Vietnam and recovering from PTSD and alcoholism. His large-scale paintings, drawings, prints, and sculpture blended Native Northwest culture with images influenced by art around the world, in the process challenging traditional notions of what Native art could look like, probing how art intersected with colonization, trauma, and identity. In his wildly colorful works, it’s easy to see the influence of modern masters like Basquiat, Bacon and Rauschenberg; in the first major Bartow retrospective, at the Autry Museum of the American West, viewers will learn more about his war experience, motifs from Native art, and travels from his own Oregon coast and beyond impacted it as well. 4700 Western Heritage Wy., Griffith Park; theautry.org.
