ANDREW M. GOLDSTEIN

The Comics Journal, edited by Timothy Hodler and Dan Nadel, published by Fantagraphics Books, tcj.com

This month saw the relaunch of TCJ.com, the Web site for the 35-year-old fanboy bible the Comics Journal, which over the years has been a prime mover in the cultural upscaling of the comic book, helping take it to the point where graphic novels are reviewed in the New York Times. (That every other movie is based on a comic book nowadays may also be a pernicious side-effect of this development.) Now helmed by the new editorial team of Dan Nadel and Tim Hodler, two founders of the Eisner-nominated publication Comics Comics, the site is not only a well-designed destination for news and features (such as an interview with the amazing Bill Plympton, or a review of the great Marvel artist/writer Jim Starlin's graphic memoir) — it's also a valuable forum for comics obsessives to geek out in the blogs and comments sections. Call it a perpetual Comic-Con, without the costumes. 

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Damon Johnson "The Beautiful Chaos: A Style Installation" at Gallery Bar, through March 24, culturally-stimulating soirée March 23, 7-10 p.m., 120 Orchard Street, gallerybarnyc.com

Last week Gallery Bar, the Lower East Side hangout and art venue that is part-owned by Miami  collector scion Darren Rubell, was shut down in a dramatic police raid after alleged underage-drinking and overcrowding violations. Now, however, the bar is back in business, and will be hosting a closing party tonight for "The Beautiful Chaos: A Style Installation," a show of comic-book-inspired collages and installations by Damon Johnson (the step-son of art PR guru Nadine Johnson). Working in a self-proclaimed "urban surrealist" style, Johnson has done murals at the U.S. Open and at the Montauk Surf Lodge, and appeared in a Half Gallery show curated by Jesus author James Frey. 

Darren Bader "Oaint" book signing at Gagosian Shop, 988 Madison Avenue, March 24, 6-8 p.m., gagosian.com

The artist, curator, and onetime Urs Fischer studio assistant Darren Bader is perhaps best known for making artworks that confuse the viewer, sidestepping their expectations or sometimes eluding them altogether. In a 2007 show he displayed a catalogue to the previous year's Art Basel Miami Beach and a jar of tahini in a Rivington Arms show; he's including melting ice cream in another show; and I was hard-pressed to figure out what exactly it was that he contributed to PS1 MoMA's 2010 "Greater New York." (I'm told it may have been an audio piece in the hallway — search me.) Tonight he's debuting his latest project at Gagosian's uptown book store, in conjunction with the hip galleries of Alez Zachary and Andrew Kreps, and it's a monograph that looks just like a copy of the Leonardo Di Caprio-fronted March 2010 issue of Esquire magazine. Suspicions that the work might actually just be a copy of Esquire — a pretty funny art prank, actually — are disabused by the cover's subtle overlay, in the magazine's font, of Darren's name. Dive inside and you'll find a cornucopia of mind-bending ad mashups, weird text pieces (absurdist timelines, correspondences with other artists, quotes from sources like Deleuze and Blackstreet, etc.), porn, computer-game screengrabs, and a scattering of images from art history. If you like contemporary art, and if you love magazines, this is like a vial of visual crack.

BEN DAVIS

Tim Rollins and K.O.S. at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, 540 West 26th Street, opening March 24, 6-8 p.m., through April 30, lehmannmaupin.com

This is the latest product of the long-running and now-legendary collaboration between Rollins and the Kids of Survival, begun in 1984 as an educational experiment with at-risk kids in the Bronx, but now having far transcended that background. The new work spins art from the literary symbolism of various high-school lit classics, with the group making their own spins on the original illustrations from "Huckleberry Finn" or creating works based on the color symbolism in "The Great Gatsby." 

Bidoun magazine, art and culture from the Middle East, Fall 2010 issue, Lisa Farjam Editor in Chief, bidoun.org

I picked up this copy of the excellent Bidoun magazine at the recent art fair in Dubai. It is interesting in two ways, in that it suggests two trends for art publishing: to transform the publication into a unique art object in itself and to build outside projects around the magazine's identity. As to the first, each of the copies of the magazine features a unique photo on its cover, one of a trove of random snapshots purchased in a Cairo market, shipped to the magazine's printers in the States and then affixed as a kind of found-object cover-image (mine features a woozy snapshot of some kind of office tower). At the same time, this particular issue focuses on Bidoun's own peripatetic "Library" project, an archive of books on or about the Middle East, from academic texts to cheap romances à la "The Sheik's Bride," which has toured to places including the New Museum as something between an art installation and a promo for the Bidoun brand.

EMMA ALLEN

Merce Cunningham Dance Company "CRWDSPCR," "Quartet," and "Antic Meet" at the Joyce Theater, 175 8th Avenue, through March 27, Tues-Wed 7:30 p.m., Thurs-Fri 8 p.m., Sat 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., Sun 2 p.m., joyce.org

I was lucky enough to sit in on a rehearsal of the MCDC at their Bethune Street studio this summer, to observe as the company practiced — in silence, of course — a 1958 choreography titled "Antic Meet," not performed since 1969, and perhaps best known as the piece in which Cunningham himself once took to the stage to dance the interlude in which dancer wears a chair strapped to his back. The music is by Cage, the décor and costumes were designed by Rauschenberg, and the piece itself is actually funny (there is a pretty hilarious sweater, knitted by a former member of the company, involved... I won't tell you any more). Head over to the Joyce, one of my favorite venues in which to see dance, to enjoy "Antic Meet" and two other Cunningham creations. And remember, as the Legacy Tour leaps toward its conclusion at the end of this year, see as much of the MCDC as you can, while you still can.

"Art/Sewn: Tradition, Innovation, Expression" at Five Myles, 558 St. Johns Place, Brooklyn, opening March 26, 4:30-7 p.m., through May 6, fivemyles.org

This show, curated by Ward Mintz, looks like it will provide an interesting array of contemporary art that incorporates sewing, manipulating traditional craft techniques to various aesthetic ends. Billed as a feminist survey, "Art/Sewn" will include works by Emily Barletta, Sandy Benjamin-Hannibal, Denise Burge, Elisa D'Arrigo, Linnea Glatt, Janet Henry, Cyrilla Mozenter, Jessica Rankin, Laura Splan, and Anna Von Mertens. Consider this the more manageable, up-to-date, Crown Heights alternative to the profusion of red and white quilts that are heading to the Park Avenue Armory on Friday for the "Infinite Variety" show of bedding from the vast private collection of Joanna S. Rose.

SCOTT INDRISEK

Eric Wysocan "A Thousand & One Nights" at Andrea Rosen Gallery, Gallery 2, 525 West 24th Street, through April 23, andrearosengallery.com

This small show in the second gallery of Andrea Rosen reminds me of Joy Division and New Order. I'm not quite sure why — perhaps the fake flower still life behind tinted glass recalls the album cover of "Power, Corruption & Lies." In any case, it's a jumble of pieces, quiet and oddball next to the epic David Altmejd vitrines outside. Instead of monstrous anatomical assemblages you get airport X-ray machines, sculptural busts arranged in rows before flickering lights, and delicate glass plinths housing clear, shattered vases.

VICE Books Presents Neu Sex by Sasha Grey at Housing Works Café, 126 Crosby Street, March 28, 7 p.m., housingworks.org

Brandon Stosuy keeps eclectic company, to say the least. Seems like when he's not helming art projects about black metal he's hanging out with porn star Sasha Grey, who's taking a break from extreme sexual acrobatics to debut a photo book from powerHouse. There's a lot of self-portraiture; Grey cops to a love for Nan Goldin and Cindy Sherman. (We have a feeling she's probably paying a visit to Laurel Nakadate's show at PS1 while she's in town.) Expect a crowd of 20-something males trying to avoid drooling, and probably more than a few ladies who can pontificate on why having sex for money is actually ninth-wave feminism.

Artists Wanted & Scope Art Fair fundraiser at the home of Matthew Blesso, 684 Broadway, Penthouse E, March 26 at 7:30pm, tickets at wwo.org

A night of musical performances, plus an art auction, to raise funds for the Worldwide Orphans Foundation. The event features a rooftop installation by Andrew Ohanesian, known for staging mundane spaces in uncommon places — a previous work treated the common office cubicle as a sort of readymade. Work on the auction block includes pieces from Hugo Fontela, a young Spanish artist recently featured in Modern Painters, plus Robert Irwin, Pedro Cuni, and many others. The night's focus is on musical performances (Dave Eggar, Angelica de la Riva), and the entire event takes place in the penthouse. If you start feeling a bit decadent and First World, just know that it's all for a good cause.

KATE DEIMLING

Boris Smelov retrospective at Sputnik Gallery, 547 West 27th Street, 5th floor, through April 30, reception March 24 6-8 p.m., sputnikgallery.com

This small show is packed with fascinating photos from the 1970s-1990s by late Russian photographer Boris Smelov. The urban fabric of Saint Petersburg is his subject, from vertiginous apartment building courtyards to desolate roads with poetic traces in snow. In one shot, a young girl stretches in front of a worn stone façade, the domes of a stately building reflected in a window, an almost intrusive reminder of that grandiose side of the city that is usually absent from Smelov's work. But the marginal, elderly folk in his few portraits — which have a spontaneous and surprising feel — look as if they would be just as much at home on the streets of New York.

Les Chauds Lapins CD Release Show at 92Y Tribeca, 200 Hudson Street, March 25, 9 p.m., 92y.org

They're from Brooklyn, but Meg Reichardt and Kurt Hoffman have France in their soul. In new arrangements on banjo-ukuleles, Meg sings sly and heartfelt versions of French chansons from the 1920s to 1940s (in beautifully-accented French, I might add). Consider it a quirky updating of an already quirky art form, or an utterly charming tribute. The group (whose name means "The Hot Rabbits") will be celebrating the release of their new CD, "Amourettes,"and Ethan Lipton and his orchestra will also perform.

DANIEL KUNITZ

"Spirituality: Works by David Wojnarowicz from 1979-1990" at P.P.O.W., 535 West 22nd Street, 3rd floor, through April 9, ppowgallery.com

Beyond the controversy and hype, out of hearing distance of the Catholic League's inane objections, far from the protesters in D.C. you will find "Spirituality," a show of work by the ever-divisive late artist David Wojnarowicz. Including paintings, photographs, sculptures — and yes, the film "A Fire in My Belly," which was recently booted from the National Gallery of Art for its depiction of ants crawling on a crucifix — all made between 1979 and 1990, the exhibition reminds us that Wojnarowicz wasn't just an East Village hipster who died of AIDS, he was also a wonderful, lancing artist. Go and have the boils of your complacency drained.