Much of this week is about trading, not buying. AIGA's design swap meet at Industry City runs on the same logic as a good record swap: bring five things, leave with five different things, no money involved. CJ Hendry's Pastel is still up at Salon 94 Design through August 16. I'd say it's worth the trip uptown if you haven't gone yet.
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Bring up to five things you don't want anymore: a type specimen book, a vintage poster, a studio zine, a Pantone swatch set. Trade them straight across for someone else's, no cash involved, at The Landing in Industry City. Every item is worth the same regardless of condition or rarity. Tickets are running low.
Wed 5-7p -
Love teaches soft robotics at NYU ITP and spent years building costumes for stage and screen, including the Spider-Man suit from Broadway's Turn Off the Dark, now in the Smithsonian's collection. She walks a room of artists and tinkerers through material softness, how a machine gets engineered to bend instead of break. It's already sold out.
Wed 7-9p -
Two hours with natural seagrass, woven into a trivet using the traditional Japanese nabeshiki technique. Craft Society runs weekly workshops built around folk and heritage craft, this one inside Snow Peak's Williamsburg retail space on North 6th.
Thu 6:30-8p -
A decade-long retrospective of Assembly, Recess's program for system-impacted young people ages 18 to 26: 67 artworks by 24 artists, curated by KT Kennedy, Lindsay Harris, and Kyle Ingram. Up since mid-July on Washington Avenue in Brooklyn, closing Friday.
Fri 1-5p -
The Ecuadorian-Lithuanian DJ and death doula behind the label APOCALIPSIS closes out Amant's Friday courtyard series. Galleries stay open until 9, so I'd get there early and walk the current shows before the set starts.
Fri 6-9p -
Vakta's first solo show, a set of photographs chosen for the feeling they carry rather than the place they were taken. She won her way into the room herself: five of her photos took first prize in an earlier Greenpoint Gallery exhibition. She's hosting the opening in person, with a small bar on site.
Fri 8p -
A release party built around Rema's new single "Tea," with DJ sets from Jumbee, Flygerian, Odalys NY, and Ilytobego rather than the artist himself. If you're already at Amant for Riobamba, 99 Scott is about a mile east, same night.
Fri 10p -
Original art, handmade jewelry, ceramics, natural perfumes and soaps, plus a permanent-jewelry station, all inside Awita's own Williamsburg studio on South 2nd. I'd go for the ceramics and the permanent-jewelry station alone. It's free, and RSVP is encouraged.
Sat-Sun 12-6p -
A DIY jewelry session built around a pre-made nameplate in 14K gold-plated or silver, your choice of chain, and a curated set of charms to customize it. Two hours, no experience needed, inside Adanne's Bed-Stuy bookshop on Ralph Avenue.
Sun 1-3p
Eleven artists working across five decades of politically engaged art, up in Tribeca through August 15. Zoë Pulley, our Issue 15 Featured Creative, has a piece in it, viewable every Tuesday at noon, but she's not the only reason to make the trip. She also has a solo exhibition at the Armory September 24-27 worth marking down now.
A two-and-a-half hour walk through the corporate modernism that shaped Midtown, meeting at 42nd Street. Independently run, not affiliated with any institution, so book direct through Eventbrite.
Hetanshi Vakta calls herself an I/O psychologist by background, photographer by instinct. Finding Home, her first solo show, gathers images from her travels, a foggy dock at dusk, a lone Joshua tree against red rock, chosen for how they made her feel rather than where they were taken. "I wasn't just photographing places," she writes, "I was photographing the way they made me feel." Two of her other images, Four of a Kind and Brooklyn Majesty, were nominated for the 2025 World Photo Annual.
See you out there,
Sam