Shamans, Vermin, and a Campy Slasher Flick: This Week in Art

Apparently some dude named Jeff Koons will be squeezing a bunch of vacuums and enormous balloon creatures into the Whitney over the next few weeks. But boys and girls, it’s not time just yet to put on your Ewwww-Koooons snarl. So get out there this week and see some “real art” before you trek uptown to see the Whitney collapse under the all that vacuous weight. See below for our recommendations of ongoing shows and openings happening this week.

TUESDAY

Bhoner (Screening)
Budding filmmakers Colin Shields and Frank Anderson (AKA and/or) bring back camp with their “teenage rom-com slasher flick.” Sounds like an all-around winner to us.
AMO Studios, 106 Eldridge Street, Lower East Side. 7-10pm. $4

WEDNESDAY

Shamanism, Meditation, Transcendence, Oblivion
As part of this gallery’s Leaps Into the Void series, this psychedelic iteration will feature work united by a focus on “spiritual transcendence.”  Exhibiting artists include Gwyn Joy, Sky Kim, and more.
Garis & Hahn, 263 Bowery, Lower East Side. 6-8pm. 

THURSDAY

Quality of Life

Daniel Bejar, Ethan Breckenridge, Claudia Cortinez + Carlos Vela-Prado, Aliza Nisenbaum, and Reka Reisinger all display work dealing with their particular vision of the good life. This is a vague description perhaps, but consider you might leave this exhibition feeling uplifted or something.
BOSI Contemporary, 48 Orchard Street, Lower East Side. 6-8pm. 

FRIDAY

Just Feel
Solo exhibition featuring glass sculptures by Katerina Ganchak. Probably best not to show up drunk and wearing heels.
, 252 Java Street, Suite 308, Greenpoint

U:L:O: Part I

Featuring work by , Sol Hashemi, Sara Ludy (SEE PIC), and tons of other artists. Curated by Important Projects (Oakland, CA), Queer Thoughts (Chicago), and Zachary Davis (NYC). Looks like it will involve some post-identity stuff with a net edge. Radical.
Interstate, 66 Knickerbocker Ave, Bushwick. 6-9pm. 

SATURDAY

Show #11
This bewilderingly named show features the work of five painters, including Travis Carrier, Frankie Phillips, Andy Pomykalski, Min Ho Shin, and Zuriel Waters. Carrier’s paintings are particularly enthralling as faded visions of (my interpretation anyway) post-apocalyptic tropics or nature scenes from the planet Venus. But hey, you be the judge of that.
The Parlour, 791 Bushwick Ave, Bushwick. 6-9pm. 

ONGOING

Me, My Mother, My Father, and I
Hurry over to the New Museum before June 29 to catch Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson’s exhibition. Featured work includes edited bits from Iceland’s first feature film (curiously enough, the 1977 film, Morðsaga stars Khartansson’s mother and father) complete with musc composed by Kjartan Sveinsson (former member of Sigur Rós), and other parent-son collaborations– including an ongoing film project in which Kjartansson’s mother hocks lugies into his face over and over again.
The New Museum, 235 Bowery, Lower East Side, ends June 29th.

Pierre Huyghe Residency
This exhibition promises to be very weird indeed. The exhibition’s mission is to pry Pierre Huyghe’s skull open and examine the French artist’s creative processes and inspiration. Huyghe’s goal is to create an experimental biodome of sorts– so far spiders have already been released into the gallery and rat pheromones sprinkled throughout to hot n’ bothered vermin.
The Artist’s Institute, 163 Eldridge Street, Lower East Side, ends August 17th. 

Through a Glass Darkly
A show featuring David Terranova’s lonesome landscapes, Thora Dolven Balke’s photographs that plays with reflection and eschew the ease of high-contrast in favor of forays into over- and underexposure, and the photographic work of Czech-born artist Jan Tichy, whose work is at “the intersection of video, sculpture, architecture, sound, and photography.”
Simon/ Neuman² Gallery, 540 Driggs Avenue, Williamsburg, ends June 29th