No sleep till Brooklyn – NYC celebrates its week of summer openings. What better way to avoid the grotesque hot summer days than a pilgrimage through pristine well air-conditioned galleries in the art world’s capital?! Exactly, none.

Wednesday, June 29

In true New York spirit, there are more art happenings in a day than any one person can see, but it’s too late to stop us now. Save energy by avoiding the steamy subways and head to High Line. Maria Hassabi’s Movement #2 takes place on the north side of the floating park on West 30th Street. Hassabi presents a new composition for four dancers effectively creating a sculpture in the round.

Walking south down the High Line curator Cecilia Alemani’s new exhibition titled Wanderlust takes as its entry point walking and journeys (a theme we highly support). Roman Ondak’s work Teaching to Walk reenacts a memory of his wife teaching his son to walk.

High Line, between 10th and 11th avenue from Gansevoort and Washington to 34th Street

At the south entrance is a large scale Torbjørn Rødland’s Billboard Blue Portrait (Nokia N82) a perplexingly mysterious image of an obsolete golden Nokia phone glowing with the famous portrait of Anne Frank. Rødland seems ubiquitous at this moment in the 9th Berlin Biennale, Manifesta 11 and Eva Presenhuber gallery in Zurich.

Whitney Museum of Art public exhibition space, Facade of 95 Horatio Street

Former Gavin Brown's Enterprise director Bridget Donahue opens another smash hit exhibition titled “On Empathy,” featuring Ketuta Alexi-Meskhishvili, Christian Holstad, Jessica Jackson-Hutchins and Andro Wekua. It seeks to make visible inter-subjective dialogues of compassion – and is an absolute not-to-miss event at NYC’s most Instagrammed and Snapchatted gallery space.

Bridget Donahue, 99 Bowery

Ebony Haynes, the newly appointed director of Martos Gallery, stages her first exhibition at the highly watched gallery’s project space Shoot the Lobster. For this exhibition, the artist Raffaella Hanley puts on a sample sale of her collection Lou Dallas.

Shoot the Lobster, 138 Eldridge Street

At Queer Thoughts, the group exhibition “Marriage,” features Olga Balema, Guillaume Maraud, and Lulou Margarine. All young artists to watch.

Queer Thoughts, 373 Broadway

Artists Space hosts a conversation and book launch titled after Yates McKee’s 2016 publication Strike Art: Contemporary Art and the Post-Occupy Condition. Asking the question are we moving from Institutional Critique to institutional liberation.

Artists Space, 55 Walker Street

After the openings and talks, we’ll be tearing it up at our much-loved haunt Mr. Fong’s in Chinatown. The bar has no PR strategy, no sign but is packed every night from 10 PM.

Mr. Fong’s, 40 Market Street

Thursday, June 30

Thursday night is gallery night. GBE, Real Fine Arts, David Zwirner, Greene Naftali, Bortolami, Luhring Augustine, Anton Kern and many more will be having openings.

“Goulding the Lolly” opens at Gavin Brown's Enterprise curated by Brian Belott and featuring an illustrious list of artists, such as Darren Bader, Katherine Bernhardt, Melissa Brown, Jesse Greenberg, Jamian Juliano-Villani, Josh Kline, Eric Mack, and Spencer Sweeney. Bernhardt and Juliano-Villani are two of the most exciting artists, pushing back against the weight of 'Zombie Formalism' and returning image to painting. Just fantastic – don’t miss!

Gavin Brown Enterprise, 291 Grand Street

In an update on Duchamp, a new artistic practice has emerged in which fictional collectives transform 'readymade' commodity culture into aesthetic form. Bernadette Corporation is one of the earliest of these avatars in a tradition that has continued to today. One of the founding members, Antek Walczak opens “Films” at Real Fine Arts in Brooklyn.

Real Fine Arts, 673 Meeker Avenue, Brooklyn

“I Beam U Channel” opens at Bortolami, titled after the sculpture by Eric Wesley the show includes some of our favorite artists such as Tom Burr, Ann Veronica Janssens, Ben Schumacher and Charlotte Posenenske. Posenenske is the historically significant artist who shines her light on the exhibition; she will have an upcoming retrospective at Dia Beacon.

Bortolami Gallery, 520 W 20th Street

Friday, July 1

In 2004 Bernadette Corporation published the novel titled Reena Spaulings which is a manifesto of corporate art collective aesthetics after the fictional protagonist became a real-world artist and art gallerist (consisting of John Kelsey and Emily Sundblad). The group show “The Highs of Everyday Life,” curated by Monika Senz which includes gallery artist Josephine Pryde, who is a star of this year’s Berlin Biennale.

Reena Spaulings Fine Art, 165 E Broadway

Friday night bar hopping includes art world favorites, China Chalet, Happy Endings and Swat Bar. Yet none is as treasured as Beverly's. Packed with artists, curators, and people who like to get down the long, cramped bar glows from the namesake magenta neon sign.

Beverly’s, 21 Essex Street

Saturday, July 2

We save Queens for Saturday. The highly influential SculptureCenter headed up by Mary Ceruti with curator Ruba Katrib has a current exhibition of the astounding Leslie Hewitt titled “Collective Stance.” She is the quintessential the ‘post-medium condition’ artist. But in the ‘post-Occupy condition’ the debate rages on. One emerging artist, Elizabeth Jaeger took sides by teaching a fabulous free sculpture class at Bruce High Quality Foundation University. Jaeger’s work is psychologically charged, made of the loaded material of ceramics it moves between domestic vessels and subconscious body parts.

SculptureCenter, 44-19 Purves Street, Long Island City

MoMA PS1 celebrates “Warm Up 2016,” a party series that takes place every Saturday this summer through August 27. The highly anticipated outdoor music series continues its tradition of introducing audiences to the best in experimental music, sound, and DJs – both local and international – across a range of genres. This time it’s Theo Parrish, DJ STINGRAY, Kiki Kudo, and Lena Willikens / Cómeme + Salon Des Amateurs.

MoMA PS1, 22-25 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City

Sunday, July 3

While it is worth journeying uptown to see Martin Creed’s much talked about show “The Back Door” at New York’s big deal exhibition space, Park Avenue Armory, we are saving Sunday to cool down and find some understanding. So we head to Brooklyn Bridge Park where the Public Art Fund has commissioned a Creed sculpture by the same name. We plan to do a waterfront workout, maybe kayaking, but we will definitely pop a bottle of cold bubbly as it is the first New York summer that has finally legalized public drinking.

Pier 6, Brooklyn Bridge Park

– Justin Polera