Armory Week may be over, but there is no rest in the New York art world. This week, midtown Manhattan offers old classics and fresh adventure, while a fledgling Chinatown space presents another alluring lineup. And the enticing theme of Nicole Klagsbrun's latest show? Well, we all neeeed some concept to leeean onn.

Thursday

Shirley Jaffe, “Selected Paintings 1969–2009,” at Tibor de Nagy Gallery, 724 Fifth Avenue, on view through April 24, 2010, opening Thursday, March 11, 5–7 p.m.

An American painter who has spent the past 60 years living and working in Paris, Shirley Jaffe has a rich, resonant style that has seen it all. Now 86, she began as an abstract expressionist when the period had its vogue in the 1950s, when she associated with an artistic circle including Joan Mitchell and Sam Francis, but then in the 1960s she shifted her canvases to a hard-edged geometric abstraction that has just become more refined with time, while retaining the same bright palette. Now Tibor de Nagy is putting on a 40-year survey of her work that displays the strata of her artistic evolution, showing how she transitioned from the bodily, gestural strokes of AbEx to become a painter of visual punch and pared down wit that the kids at CANADA would do well to apprise.

Alisa Baremboym/Caitlin Keogh and Graham Anderson/Thomas Torres Cordova, at 179 Canal, floor 2, on view through April 4, opening Thursday, March 11, 7–9 p.m.

Chinatown upstairs galleries have been the site of unusual creative foment recently, and 179 Canal — a former jewelry showroom — is a reliable destination for work that’s as winningly low-fi as the dimmish lighting and soiled stairwells that one pays as the price of admission. For its latest show, the gallery has invited the artist duo of Graham Anderson and Caitlin Keogh to create an installation that combines theater-set-style paraphernalia with Bauhaus designs and sets from Diaghilevs Ballet Russe. The piece will be offset with video works by Alisa Baremboym and Thomas Torres Cordova, an effect that promises at the very least to create an echt downtown ambiance.

Gabriel Barcia-Colombo, “Nobody Leaves, Everybody Goes,” curated by Julia Kaganskiy, Karen Bookatz at Blue Box Gallery, 501 Lexington Avenue, opening Thursday, March 11, 7–9 p.m.

It is an evening of firsts in midtown Manhattan on Thursday, with Blue Box Gallery opening its doors to host the debut solo exhibition of new-media artist Gabriel Barcia-Colombo, whose work channels the twin spirits of multimedia masters like Nam June Paik and Aernout Mik. Barcia-Colombo’s video Separation Anxiety finds the artist in a fetal position, undergoing an ultrasound, while Spam is comprised of a can of, yes, Spam embedded with a video of a woman shouting nonsensical lines from spam emails — a trip through the strange twists of vernacular culture.

Friday

“\ (Lean),” at Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, 526 West 26th Street, No. 213, on view through April 24, opening Friday, March 12, 6–8 p.m.

It’s often surprising how radical a simple gesture can be, and how simple a radical gesture. For a case in point, check out “\ (Lean),” a new group show at Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, which has been on quite the roll lately. As the typographically witty title proclaims, the show is an exploration of what happens when the 20 artists included — from 1970s figures like John McCracken and Robert Gober to such current stars as Gedi Siboni and Brendan Fowler — lean their work louchely against the gallery wall instead of standing it up straight, as polite society demands. Happily, it’s is a chance to see some world-class leaners in action, like Andreì Cadere, whose seemingly-left-behind stick sculptures resemble a forgotten umbrella (or Joyce’s brother), and Bas Jan Ader, whose commitment to his leans often culminated in a glorious, tragic fall.

Oscar Tuazon, "My Flesh to Your Bare Bones," at Maccarone, 630 Greenwich Street, on view through April 24, opening Friday, March 12, 6–8 p.m.

Paris–based Tuazon seems to have big plans for this exhibition, which is billed as a "duet with Vito Acconci" — and it's apparently a response to that artist's unrealized proposal for a research station at Antarctica. The press release mentions shattered security glass, a steel frame, and a wet, rust–stained fabric frame. If nothing else, that should make for an ambitious showing.