The summer solstice is almost here, and New York’s near-summer nights are luxuriating in sunlight. It’s time for al fresco art-viewing, late-night movie-going, and copious ice cream eating. The New York art world has the video nights covered this week, plus plenty of air-conditioning to refresh art-lovers traipsing among this week's shows. A request: Can someone please convince Cookshop to open their ice cream cart during the week? Chelsea’s art-workers are yearning for its fine, luscious offerings.

WEDNESDAY

Mark di Suvero at the Morgan Library, through September 12, 2010, opening Wednesday, June 16, 6–8 p.m.

Paula Cooper has a tidy assortment of di Suvero’s sculptures — and a trippy painting — on view at her Chelsea space, including the carefully balanced, 24-foot-tall New Albion (1964-65). If that weren’t enough to merit a second look at the sculpture-garden-pigeonholed master, the Morgan Library is welcoming three of his recent works, made with gritty steels, into their airy, pristine Renzo Piano-designed atrium. (The sculptor and architect are friends.) On Friday evening, the Morgan is also showing two films that document the process of installing di Suvero’s tricky works.

THURSDAY

Heat Wave,” at Lombard-Freid Projects, 531 West 26th Street, through July 30, opening Thursday, June 17, 6–8 p.m.

This survey (which earns a best-title-of-the-week nod) features six artists hailing from five far-flung locales. Indonesian Eko Nugroho paints Adult Swim-ready late Gustons (a comparison that never tires, one hopes) with watercolor, while Pakistani Bani Abidi photographs residents of Karachi as they tend to domestic affairs — ironing and shoe-polishing, for instance — out on the streets of the city. Israeli Maya Schindler, meanwhile, presents a white fiberglass and vinyl flag. Rounding out the bunch are Fikret Atay, Mounira al Solh, and Noa Charuvi.

Video Night” at Hasted Hunt Kraeutler, featuring Jennifer Baichwals Manufactured Landscapes, 537 West 24th Street, Thursday, June 17, 6–8 p.m. Film begins at 6:30 p.m.

Hasted Hunt Kraeutler is presenting Jennifer Baichwal’s documentary about the photographer Edward Burtynsky, whose detailed, oddly beautiful photographs of capitalism’s wastelands — one of his series is titled “Oil” — look increasingly terrifying, despite our President’s best efforts at convincing us that our world’s environment has better days ahead of it.

FRIDAY

Yevgeniy Fiks, “Ayn Rand in Illustrations,” at Winkleman Gallery, through July 30, opening Friday, June 18, 6–8 p.m.

Speaking of politics — Ed Winkleman is offering its second show of Yevgeniy Fiks' works, which are drawings of Soviet Realist images alongside texts by the hero of conservatives and founder of Objectivism, Ayn Rand. Though these may sound a bit heavy-handed, give them a chance. Like neater, tidier Raymond Pettibons, Fiks’ juxtapositions of image and text present the viewer with beguiling messages, which are far less straightforward than their ostensibly deadpan source material. What will Glenn Beck think?

SATURDAY

Charlotte Posenenske at Artists Space, 38 Greene Street, through August 15, opening Saturday, June 19, 6–8 p.m.

German Minimalist Charlotte Posenenske is among the pantheon of greats — like Cady Noland, Marcel Duchamp (sort of), and Michael Jordan (the first time) — that have walked away at the top of their game. Losing faith in the efficacy of art in the late 1960s, Posenenske spent the rest of her life, until her death in 1985, studying sociology. SoHo powerhouse Peter Freeman presented a stunning show of some of her bright-colored, aluminum wall-hung works last year, which look like Judd sculptures that have been compressed into planes and folded. Now, a few blocks away, Artists Space presents the first solo survey of her work in the U.S. A bonus: there will be a modest reception every two weeks as successive artists — Ei Arakawa and Rirkrit Tiravanija are on tap — reinstall her 1967 reconfigurable sculpture, Square Tubes Series D.