Events

Gallery Talk: Peter Hujar & Paul Thek: In the Catacombs

During the 1960s, the photographer Peter Hujar and the artist Paul Thek had an intimate and productive relationship, both personally and professionally. Join us for a gallery talk with Oliver Shultz, Chief Curator of the Pace Gallery and a leading authority on Paul Thek. Mr. Shultz will share his insight into the relationship between these two seminal artists, focusing on the images of the Capuchin catacombs of Palermo that Hujar shot on a trip there with Thek in 1963. The talk will explore how this close relationship informed each artist’s individual practice, and how it fit into the context of the vibrant avant-garde counterculture that flourished in downtown New York in the 1960s and 1970s.

Oliver Shultz is Chief Curator at the Pace Gallery and Director of 125 Newbury, Pace’s project space in New York. Before joining Pace, he was a curator at MoMA PS1, where he was part of the team that curated more than twenty exhibitions between 2015 and 2019. In 2014, Mr. Shultz served as the Fisher Curatorial Fellow in Painting and Sculpture at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He received his PhD in art history in 2018 from Stanford University, where he was the Hume Graduate Fellow in the Arts, with a doctoral dissertation on the work of Paul Thek. Mr. Shultz has lectured widely, including at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Courtauld Institute in London, the Institute of Fine Arts in New York, Hunter College, UC Berkeley, Stanford, and Yale, among others.

Gallery Talk: On Steve Lawrence, Peter Hujar, and Newspaper

This talk will focus on the history of Newspaper, a wordless, picture-only tabloid that was published by the artist Steve Lawrence with help from Peter Hujar between 1968 and 1971 out of an apartment they shared at 188 Second Avenue. Newspaper ran for fourteen issues and featured the disparate practices of over forty artists. With an editorial focus on placing appropriated material alongside new works, the periodical sought to codify a visual language of high and low culture that represented contemporary society in the late 1960s. While largely overlooked in art-historical discourse, Newspaper showcased many of the most revered artists working in the United States at the time, as well as an emerging coterie of queer artists, many of them East Village residents. Beyond providing a close reading of the publication and an account of the life of Steve Lawrence, this talk will also contextualize how Newspaper influenced Hujar’s sequencing practice through the 1970s and 1980s. Having intimately witnessed the production of Newspaper, Hujar used the publication as a site for experimentation. The talk will be led by photographer, art historian, and archivist Marcelo Gabriel Yáñez.

Marcelo Gabriel Yáñez holds a BA in Art History from New York University. His undergraduate honors thesis, titled “On Peter Hujar, Steve Lawrence, and Newspaper (1969–1971),” analyzed a network of artists in downtown New York and their participation in an obscure no-word picture tabloid. Mr. Yáñez published a continuation of Newspaper between 2016 and 2017 and converted his thesis into the book Newspaper, published by Primary Information in 2023. He is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Art and Art History at Stanford University and an incoming 2024–2025 Smithsonian Institution Predoctoral Fellow at the Archives of American Art. Mr. Yáñez is at work on a dissertation tentatively titled “The Disappearance of Landscape: Artists on Fire Island, 1937–1983,” which exists alongside a long-term film project about Fire Island’s eventual submersion. Other ongoing projects include research and writing on the Turkish-American photographer Sheyla Baykal (1944–1997) and the Puerto Rican painter René Santos (1954–1986), as well as a discographic project about early recorded music in Cuba and Puerto Rico.

KOLO: Young Professionals Happy Hour

You’re invited to a special Young Professionals Happy Hour at the Ukrainian Museum on Wednesday 5 June at 6.00 pm. Join us for an evening of wine, networking, and engaging conversations with like-minded individuals.Discover the Ukrainian Museum’s current and upcoming exhibitions, learn about ways to get involved, and seize the opportunity to become a founding member of “Kolo,” our new young professionals network.”Kolo” is designed to offer young professionals in the Ukrainian-American community exclusive access to the art world through a Ukrainian perspective. As a founding member, you will enjoy tailored events, unique programming, and special membership benefits. Additionally, you’ll have the unique chance to shape and lead this exciting new initiative to great heights.Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to connect, unwind, and explore new horizons at the Ukrainian Museum. RSVP on Eventbrite and be sure to invite your friends!

Gallery Talk & Walking Tour: Peter Hujar & The Ukrainian Village NYC

Peter Hujar exemplified the downtown New York arts scene. His training, paired with his identity and background, resulted in the powerfully disruptive and influential photographs that he created in the early years of his career. Born into a Ukrainian American immigrant family, he would later plant his roots in the heart of New York City’s East Village, also known as the Ukrainian Village, where he would be enthralled by the world of performance art, music, theater, and literature.

Join us for a gallery talk and a walk through Peter Hujar’s local neighborhood, steps from the Ukrainian Museum, stopping at establishments and venues that influenced the photographer during his time there. This event will be led by Museum director Peter Doroshenko, who will begin the tour in the Peter Hujar: Rialto exhibition currently on view at the Museum, and then lead visitors on a walk to better understand the neighborhood that inspired and shaped this exceptional photographer’s artistic vision.

(Members only) New Exhibition Openings: Peter Hujar: Rialto & Oleksandr Glyadelov: Fragments

The Ukrainian Museum is excited to present the exhibition Peter Hujar: Rialto. Peter Hujar (1934–1987) exemplified the downtown New York arts scene. His training, paired with his identity and background, resulted in the powerfully disruptive and influential photographs that he created in the early years of his career. Born into a Ukrainian American immigrant family, he would later plant his roots in the heart of New York City’s East Village, also known as the Ukrainian Village, where he would be enthralled by the world of performance art, music, theatre, and literature. This exhibition at the Ukrainian Museum will feature 75 of Hujar’s earliest photographs – from 1955 until 1969. Portraits, country landscapes, and city life will be the focus of the exhibition.

Oleksandr Glyadelov has lived and worked in Kyiv since 1974. His work addresses humanitarian crises, child homelessness, HIV/AIDS, drug addiction, prisons, and military conflicts. As an independent professional photojournalist, he has covered military conflicts in Moldova, Nagorno-Karabakh, Chechnya, Kyrgyzstan, Somalia, South Sudan, and Ukraine. Oleksandr Glyadelov’s photographic exhibition features sites and events that he has doumented across Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion. The images function as timestamps profoundly recording both devastation and survival during the ongoing war. Glyadelov captures urban scenes and rural settlements, often just hours after their destruction. Glyadelov is the winner of the 2020 Shevchenko Prize

This event is by invitation only and for Museum members. Registration is required.

New Exhibition Celebration and Talks: Peter Hujar: Rialto & Oleksandr Glyadelov: Fragments

Join us for an afternoon of special tours and talks given by the curators of the newly opened exhibitions Peter Hujar: Rialto and Oleksandr Glyadelov: Fragments.

Tickets: General $20, Member $15

Film Screening and Panel Discussion: Beneath the Rubble: Documenting Devastation and Loss in Mariupol

The Museum is pleased to host this important event organized by SITU Research and Human Rights Watch about an extensive research project report and visual investigation into the assault on Mariupol, which stands as one of the worst chapters of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Human Rights Watch, Truth Hounds, and SITU Research recently released the joint report “Our City Was Gone: Russia’s Devastation of Mariupol, Ukraine.” This joint report documents Russia’s horrific destruction of Mariupol, which has turned a once thriving city into a wasteland of charred buildings and immeasurable human loss. The joint project includes a thorough 224-page report, a 22-minute video, and an online feature with a comprehensive digital damage assessment, an analysis of graves to help estimate the death toll, an organogram with Russian units and commanders involved in apparent war crimes, and other data. The report is based on 240 interviews, an analysis of 850 photos and videos, documents, and dozens of satellite images.

Join us for a screening of the video, followed by a panel discussion to launch the New York City release of this investigation. The panel will include Ida Sawyer, Director of Crisis & Conflict with Human Rights Watch, Sam Dubberley, Managing Director of Digital Investigations Lab with Human Rights Watch, Brad Samuels, Director of SITU Research, and Evan Grothjan, Senior Researcher at SITU Research. The panel discussion will be moderated by Adriana Farmiga, Acting Dean and Adjunct Professor at The Cooper Union School of Art.

This event is organized in partnership with Cooper Union. Admission is free but registration is required. Space is limited. Registration is first come, first serve.

Film Screening and Panel Discussion: Beneath the Rubble: Documenting Devastation and Loss in Mariupol

The Museum is pleased to host this important event organized by SITU Research and Human Rights Watch about an extensive research project report and visual investigation into the assault on Mariupol, which stands as one of the worst chapters of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Human Rights Watch, Truth Hounds, and SITU Research recently released the joint report “Our City Was Gone: Russia’s Devastation of Mariupol, Ukraine.” This joint report documents Russia’s horrific destruction of Mariupol, which has turned a once thriving city into a wasteland of charred buildings and immeasurable human loss. The joint project includes a thorough 224-page report, a 22-minute video, and an online feature with a comprehensive digital damage assessment, an analysis of graves to help estimate the death toll, an organogram with Russian units and commanders involved in apparent war crimes, and other data. The report is based on 240 interviews, an analysis of 850 photos and videos, documents, and dozens of satellite images.

Join us for a screening of the video, followed by a panel discussion to launch the New York City release of this investigation. The panel will include Ida Sawyer, Director of Crisis & Conflict with Human Rights Watch, Sam Dubberley, Managing Director of Digital Investigations Lab with Human Rights Watch, Brad Samuels, Director of SITU Research, and Evan Grothjan, Senior Researcher at SITU Research. The panel discussion will be moderated by Adriana Farmiga, Acting Dean and Adjunct Professor at The Cooper Union School of Art.

This event is organized in partnership with Cooper Union. Admission is free but registration is required. Space is limited. Registration is first come, first serve.

Roundtable: Decolonization in the Real World 

This is the first roundtable of 2024 in the series of seminal panel discussions we started last year with experts discussing the ongoing effort to correct Russian and Soviet colonialism on Ukraine’s rich cultural heritage. In this roundtable, our panel will discuss what is needed for the decolonization process, and how ordinary citizens can personally support this initiative. Our distinguished panelists will include Dr. Jason Stanley, Professor of Philosophy at Yale University and the author of How Propaganda Works (2015) and How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them (2018); Oksana Semenik, an art historian, journalist, and research scholar based in  Kyiv and the creator of the widely followed X (Twitter) account “Ukrainian Art History”; and Dr. Maria Sonevytsky, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Music at Bard College and the author of Wild Music: Sound and Sovereignty in Ukraine (2019) and Vopli Vidopliassova’s Tantsi (2023). The discussion will be moderated by Museum director Peter Doroshenko.

2 Years of War Commemoration: Maria Prymachenko’s Triumph over War, the Chornobyl Disaster, and Beasts – A Presentation with Oksana Semenik

Two years to the day since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Museum will host art historian Oksana Semenik for a special presentation on the largely ignored yet compelling works by Maria Prymachenko that provide insight into this iconic Ukrainian artist, who was wrongly perceived by Soviet authorities to be a simple woman. Maria painted entire series (not part of our exhibition) on the trauma of war, the Chornobyl disaster, and even satires on Soviet collective farming, whose dark themes are still relevant today. Ms. Semenik will discuss these moving pieces, replete with deep meaning, and how Maria furtively worked with and ultimately triumphed over these dark themes. Join us to commemorate the bravery and resilience of the Ukrainian people in the face of the destruction that Russia’s horrific war has brought upon them.

Gallery Talk: Maria Prymachenko’s Captions and Dialect

Maria Prymachenko lived all her life in an area between Kyiv and Chornobyl, Ukraine. Her paintings were originally titled in her native regional dialect. The artist also wrote imaginative stories in this dialect on the backs of her canvases, about the subjects in her paintings. Join us for a talk and walk through the Maria Prymachenko exhibition led by Ivanna Svitliar, a linguist from Kyiv, currently a Fulbright student, and the head of Project R.I.D, a volunteer community project centered around the Ukrainian language. Ms. Svitliar will share Maria Prymachenko’s intriguing stories and the insight that her use of captions and regional dialect gives us into her art.  Museum admission is included in the ticket price.