Things to Do This Week in Boston
Your frequently updated guide to getting off the couch and out of the house.
Things to Do in Boston for the week of April 22 through Sunday, April 28.
Jump to: | Wednesday, April 24 | Thursday, April 25 | Friday, April 26 | Saturday, April 27 | Sunday, April 28 | Monday, April 29 | Art & Exhibitions | Upcoming |
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MULTIPLE DAYS
Ongoing through Monday, April 29 (and Beyond)
CONVENTIONS
Boston Outdoor Expo
The summer outdoor sports season is fast approaching—are you stocked up? Do you know where you’re going? Whether you’re about cycling, kayaking, camping, hiking, climbing, all of the above, or anything else, you’ll find plenty of inspiration here, with more than 30 speakers, I formative panels, showcases of the latest gear, and more.
$15-$25, Saturday and Sunday, April 27-28, Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, 415 Summer St., Boston
FESTIVALS
Japan Festival Boston
Boston Common transforms into a temporary Little Tokyo this weekend, with traditional and contemporary dance and music performances, lots of food, workshops and cultural demonstrations highlighting tea ceremonies, origami, Japanese cards and board games, and even cosplay, plus kids’ activities and vendors of all sorts.
Free, Saturday and Sunday, April 27-28, Boston Common, 16 Charles St., Boston
ART + MUSEUMS
Art in Bloom
One of the prettiest times to visit the MFA is this annual celebration of spring, pairing custom floral arrangements with 45 pieces of art. The arrangements, bringing the essential colors of two-dimension paintings into the three-dimensional space, add a striking vivacity to the galleries.
$27, Friday through Sunday, April 26-28, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston
Boston Design Week
Landscapes, architecture, fashion, industry, sustainability, art—if it has to do with design, it’s probably represented at some point in this 13-day smorgasbord of events—more than 70 in all, involving some of the area’s best-known institutions.
Prices vary by event, through May 5, various locations, Boston area
FOOD + DRINK
The Boston Sauce Party
The name of this event is a little coy, but yes, they do mean hot sauce, and with 24 artisan producers participating, there’s going to be a lot to try. For the boldest capsaicin enthusiasts, there will be three fearsome-sounding competitions: the Hot Wing Eating Challenge, the Spiked Pizza Eating Challenge, and (most fearsome-sounding of all) the Marshmallows from Hell Challenge.
$10, Saturday and Sunday, April 27-28, Harpoon Brewery, 306 Northern Ave., Boston
See also: Where to Eat in Greater Boston in April 2024
Top 50 Best Restaurants in Boston
THEATER
A Strange Loop
The Huntington Theater and Front Porch Arts Collective join forces for this local production of Michael R. Jackson’s brilliantly meta, Pulitzer-winning musical about Usher, a writer who’s writing about a writer writing about a writer. Its Broadway version won the 2022 Tony for Best Musical.
$25-$80, Friday, April 26 through May 25, Virginia Wimberly Theatre, Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont St., Boston
Hadestown
Singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell’s musical adaptation of the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice won eight 2019 Tonys, including Best Musical. Not satisfied with simple fantasy, Mitchell created a version of the myth with contemporary political and ecological resonances. The story may be familiar, but you’ve never seen it like this.
$63-$317.75, Tuesday through Sunday, April 23-28, Boch Center Wang Theater, 270 Tremont St., Boston
The Drowsy Chaperone
Lyric Stage brings back this meta-musical in which a theater nerd known only as Man in Chair annotates an imaginary, trope-stuffed 1920s musical—his favorite cast recording—as it’s being brought to life for the audience. It’s directed and choreographed by Larry Sousa, with musical direction by Matthew Stern.
$30-$85, through May 12, Lyric Stage, 140 Clarendon St., Boston
OPERA
Don Giovanni
Using period instruments and the original score from the 1787 Prague premiere, Boston Baroque presents Mozart’s ever-popular opera, in which a womanizing schemer gets his comeuppance. The Don is played by Sidney Outlaw, who’s got to have one of the coolest names in the opera game.
$30-$210, Thursday through Sunday, April 25-28, Huntington Theater, 264 Huntington Ave., Boston
DANCE
Ballet Banquet
City Ballet of Boston and youth dancers from the Tony Williams Dance Center perform Gianni Di Marco’s truncated version of Sleeping Beauty, Morgan Brown Sanborn’s energetic Tableau, Marcus Schulkind’s solo piece Allemande, Tony Williams’ Baba Ghanoush, and Ben’s Trumpet, a jazz ballet inspired by the children’s book of the same name.
$20-$35, Friday through Sunday, April 26-28, Strand Theater, 543 Columbia Rd., Dorchester
MUSIC
The Town and City Festival
Over 50 acts are converging in downtown Lowell for this alternative fest, including Darlingside, Ryan Montbleau, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Dengue Fever, Robyn Hitchock, Colleen Green, Air Traffic Controller, Amythyst Kiah, and—well, you get the idea. This thing is stacked.
$8-$55, Friday and Saturday, April 26-27, various venues, downtown Lowell
COMEDY
Robert Kelly
Medford native Robert Kelly has long been based in New York, but you couldn’t take the Boston out of him if you even wanted to. The veteran comic is best known today for his podcast You Know What Dude! His latest special is Kill Box; in this clip, he recalls an unpleasant family snow tubing trip in hilariously excruciating detail.
$33, Friday and Saturday, April 26-27, Laugh Boston, 425 Summer St., Boston
Anthony Jeselnik
Anthony Jeselnik’s talent for dark, cutting humor earned him roles and writer and performer on several episodes of Comedy Central Roasts in the 2010s, leading to his own series on the channel, The Jeselnik Offensive and Good Talk. His last standup special was 2019’s Fire in the Maternity Ward.
$47-$136.75, 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 25, The Wilbur, 246 Tremont St., Boston
$47-$85, 7 p.m., Thursday, April 26, Chevalier Theater, 30 Forest St., Medford
Taylor, the Next Jedi: an Improvised Star Wars Parody
Just like J.J. Abrams with Emperor Palpatine, Improv Asylum has dug their Star Wars spoof out of the grave for another round of performances. In each show, an audience member is cast as the titular protagonist and put through whirlwind of ridiculous space drama, set off by a few suggestions from the rest of the audience.
$35, through May 17, Improv Asylum, 216 Hanover St., Boston
MOVIES
Days of Heaven
Terrence Malick’s 1978 masterpiece, starring Richard Gere, Linda Manz, and Brooke Adams as farm workers in the early years of the 20th century, newly arrived in the Texas panhandle from the big city, just got the 4K restoration treatment, which means its breathtaking cinematography looks better than ever.
$12.50-$14.50, Friday through Sunday, April 26-28, Brattle Theater, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge
Riddle of Fire
With the next season of Stranger Things still pretty far off, this adventure from writer-director Weston Razooli, starring a cast of kids but geared toward adults, might be just the thing to tide you over. It’s not a sci-fi/fantasy joint, but it strongly evokes movies of the 80s, particularly The Goonies, while hiding a different resonance beneath its surface nostalgia.
$12.50-$14.50, Thursday through Sunday, April 25-28, Brattle Theater, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge
One from the Heart: Reprise
In addition to getting the 4K restoration treatment, Francis Ford Coppola’s 1982 film One from the Heart, now includes six additional minutes of footage. Teri Garr and Frederic Forrest star as a recently separated couple, each looking for a new awakening on the Las Vegas strip. Tom Waits composed part of the soundtrack.
$12-$16, Saturday and Sunday, April 27-28, Somerville Theater, 55 Davis Sq., Somerville
Challengers
Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name) is back with this tale of Tashi (Zendaya), an injured tennis wunderkind. These days, the closest she can get to the court is coaching her husband, Art (Mike Faist). The tension is more than athletic: Art’s next challenger, Patrick, is his ex-bestie—and Tashi’s ex-lover.
$12.99-$16.49, opens Thursday, April 25, Alamo Drafthouse, 60 Seaport Blvd., Boston
Sasquatch Sunset
The brotherly directing team of David and Nathan Zellner (Damsel) provide a comic but kind of deep glimpse into the lives of a family of bigfoots (Jesse Eisenberg, Riley Keough. Christophe Zajac-Denek and Nathan Zellner)—and it turns out that at the end of the day, in ways flattering and not-so-flattering, they aren’t so different from us.
$14.49, opens Thursday, April 18, Alamo Drafthouse, 60 Seaport Blvd., Boston
La Chimera
Brought to us by Italian writer-director Alice Rohrwacher, La Chimera travels back to the 80s to tell the story of Arthur (Josh O’Connor), a British man who runs with a squad of tomb raiders in Italy, all the while pining for his disappeared love, Beniamina (Yile Vianello), whose mother (the great Isabella Rossellini) awaits her return with a quasi-religious fervor.
$13.50-$15.50, Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline
Civil War
Dispensing with any tedious backstory, director Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Annihilation) throws his audience right into the middle of a full-blown 21st century war between an America led by an authoritarian president (Nick Offerman) and a handful of breakaway states. We experience the action through the eyes of journalists, including photographer Lee, played by Kirsten Dunst.
$12-$16, opens Friday, April 12, Somerville Theater, 55 Davis Sq., Somerville
Dawn of the Dead
A decade after establishing the modern zombie film with Night of the Living Dead, George A. Romero returned to the genre with this 1978 sequel, embracing a more satirical edge by shifting the setting to a zombie-ridden shopping mall. The interpretations may be obvious, but that doesn’t make them any less satisfying.
$7-$14.49, Friday through Tuesday, April 12-16, Alamo Drafthouse, 60 Seaport Blvd., Boston
The Beast
Inspired by a Henry James novella but set 20 years in the future, the new film from French writer-director Bertrand Bonello images a world where technology has enabled us to purge our genetic code of the troubling residue of past lives—23andMe doesn’t sound so impressive now, does it?
$13.50-$15.50, opens Friday, April 12, Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline
Wicked Little Letters
Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley star, respectively, as Edith, old-fashioned townie, and Rose, a spunky Irish newcomer, in this period comedy mystery, set in an English coastal town about a century ago. When an apparent prankster starts sending everyone obscene letters, everyone suspects Rose—until evidence suggests that the truth is not so simple.
$13.50-$15.50, Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline
Monkey Man
Dev Patel co-wrote, directed and stars in this intense action thriller about a professional fight-thrower in India who transforms into a righteous vigilante, determined to avenge his mother’s murder, after taking inspiration from the story of the Hindu monkey god Hanuman.
$10.99-$14.49, Alamo Drafthouse, 60 Seaport Blvd., Boston
Dune: Part Two
Denis Villeneuve’s immersive adaptation of Frank Herbert’s legendary sci-fi novel comes to a thrilling conclusion in its long-awaited second half, in which Timothée Chalamet—ahem, Paul Atreides—leads the Fremen in a battle to re-take the planet Aarrakis from the villainous and extremely pale Harkonnen dynasty.
$22.25, Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline
Perfect Days
Wim Wenders’ newest film drops in on the life of Hirayama (Kōji Yakusho), a solitary Japanese man who cleans Tokyo’s rather stunningly designed public toilets for a living. It may not seem like a desirable job, but the endearing Hirayama approaches it, and the rest of his unexpectedly full life, with passion and wisdom.
$13.50-$15.50, Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline
TOURS
View Boston
If you’ve got visitors and you want to give them a killer 360-degree view of the city, or if you just want a peep yourself, you can hardly do better than View Boston, at the top of the Prudential Center. You can spring for a guided tour or just take it in yourself. The view isn’t all you’ll find up there—there’s also a restaurant, The Beacon, and Stratus, a cocktail bar. Higher-level ticket packages include a sample drink.
$29.99-59.99, open daily, 10 a.m.-10 p.m., Prudential Center, 800 Boylston St., Boston
The Innovation Trail
This new tour focuses not on colonial and revolutionary Boston—that’s been thoroughly covered—but on the city’s history, down to the present, as a hub of science, medicine, and technology. You can pay for a guided tour on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday through the end of October, or opt for a self-guided experience whenever you want.
Free-$20, now open, starts in Central Square, Cambridge or Downtown Crossing, Boston
Want to suggest an event? Email us.
MONDAY (4/22/24)
GAMES
F1 Arcade Boston Opening Day
The Seaport District’s newest amusement is this upscale arcade, where you and your friends can compete in a simulated Formula 1 race. It’s the only game on offer at the bar, but once you experience the breakneck excitement for yourself, you’ll understand why nothing else is necessary.
$20 (three races), 11 a.m.-11 p.m., 87 Pier 4 Blvd., Boston
TUESDAY (4/23/24)
MUSIC
Black Country, New Road
In 2019, this English sextet, landing somewhere the gritty noise-jazz-rock of King Crimson, the artsy leanings of Slint, and the high drama of The Arcade Fire, might have seemed like a left-field novelty, but they’ve proven otherwise. For their second and latest album, 2022’s Ants from Up There, they moved toward a less outré sound without losing their unique edge.
$34-$75, 8 p.m., Royale, 279 Tremont St., Boston
BOOKS + READINGS
Marie-Helene Bertino
Parakeet and 2AM at the Cat’s Pajamas novelist Marie-Helene Bertino is back with Beautyland, the tale of Adina, born with a strange knowledge of a distant planet. Eventually, she gains the ability to communicate with the people there, learning that they sent her to Earth as a messenger. But should Earth know? And is she the only one of her kind?
Free, 7 p.m., Harvard Book Store, 1256 Mass. Ave., Cambridge
WEDNESDAY (4/24/24)
MUSIC
Leslie Odom, Jr.
Best known for playing Aaron Burr in the original Broadway run of Hamilton, Leslie Odom, Jr. is a triple threat as an actor, author, and musician; he takes the Colonial’s stage to share the last of those talents. His latest album, 2023’s When A Crooner Dies, is a diverse collection of original pop/R&B songs, touched by the sense of drama you’d expect from a Broadway star.
$39-$154, 7:30 p.m., Emerson Colonial Theater, 106 Boylston St., Boston
KID-FRIENDLY
Punk Rock Aerobics for Kids
Designed for kids aged six to 10, these recurring Wednesday classes fuse aerobics and punk dancing to create a super fun workout, set to a high-energy rock soundtrack (don’t worry, it’s confirmed G-rated). Founder Hilken Mancini has become something of a punk celeb herself—in 2021, Green Day featured her in their video for “Here Comes The Shock.”
Free, 6 p.m., Curtis Hall, 20 South St., Jamaica Plain
THURSDAY (4/25/24)
MUSIC
Adam Doleac
Initially splitting his musical time between an independent solo career and co-writing songs with artists like Darius Rucker and Kane Brown, Adam Doleac unveiled his first major label album, Barstool Whiskey Wonderland, in 2022. His pop country sound is informed by youthful enthusiasms for non-country acts like Dave Matthews and John Mayer.
$20, 8 p.m., Royale, 279 Tremont St., Boston
ART + MUSEUMS
ArtsThursdays: A Night of Biodiversity
Check out the Harvard Museum of Natural History’s Frogs! Through an Ecology Lens photo exhibition, hear from its creator, S. D. Biju, learn about Thoreau’s plant collections, make a cyanotype (a form of photograph that doesn’t require a camera), avail yourself of the cash bar, and take some fun pics in the photo booth.
Free, 5 p.m.-9 p.m., Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge
FOOD + FUN
Villa Mexico Cafe Fundraiser
In a nod to nostalgia and a worthy cause, locally based PR agency marlo marketing holds a festive fiesta at their 20th-anniversary Studio Series event. Dust off your dancing shoes (and maybe some stretchy pants) for an all-you-can-eat taco extravaganza from Villa México Café, a beloved, local, family-owned restaurant that’s been impacted by Downtown and the Financial District’s decreased foot traffic.
$40 (with proceeds benefiting Villa México), 5:30 to 7:30 pm, 210 South St., Boston, 21+
FRIDAY (4/26/24)
MUSIC
Waxahatchee
Kathryn Crutchfield released her sixth album, Tigers Blood, at the end of March. The well-received collection is packed with stories of interpersonal drama and nostalgia. Its second single, “Bored,” has an upbeat, country-fried 90s energy, the mounting tensions of its almost rapped lyrics blowing up in a big, raw, and satisfying chorus.
$41.25-$459.10, 8 p.m., Orpheum Theater, 1 Hamilton Pl., Boston
Helado Negro
Known in ordinary life as Roberto Carlos Lange, Helado Negro has struck a unique balance between artsy, lo-fi electronic composition and chilled-out indie pop vibes. It’s great music either for a late-night train ride or a walk on one of those perfect spring days that’s hopefully just around the corner. His newest video, for “Colores Del Mar,” appeared last week.
$20, 8:30 p.m., The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge
COMEDY
Drew Lynch
Snarky America’s Got Talent success story Drew Lynch officially crowed himself (in a manner of speaking) by titling his 2023 special Short King. In the special, he also makes an important contribution to the study of Types of Guys: “I think we can all agree that the worst human beings on Earth are dudes who tap the top of the door frame as they walk into a building.”
$28-$163, 7:30 p.m., The Wilbur, 246 Tremont St., Boston
Adam Gilbert
Indiana native Adam Gilbert isn’t afraid to make self-deprecating jokes about his unusual voice and stature, but after a while, his brain starts to feel like the most unusual thing about him—“Murder,” he declares later in that clip, “has got to be the creepiest way to kill a guy.” Recently, he offered his audience a different perspective on the President.
$23, 7:30 p.m., White Bull Tavern, 1 Union St., Boston
FANDOM
25 Years of Mission Hill
Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein appear in person answer fan questions and screen a few restored episodes of their lamentably brief animated series Mission Hill, which, despite its name (and the fact that Oakley went to Harvard), doesn’t technically take place in Boston. Either way, the 13-episode saga of young adulthood at the turn of the millennium has become a cult classic.
$25-$65, 7 p.m., Somerville Theater, 55 Davis Sq., Somerville
BOOKS + READINGS
Dana Mattioli
For those who remember the early days of Amazon as a simple online bookstore, it’s hard to comprehend how the company became the behemoth is today, with Gilded Age levels of power and scope. Wall Street Journal writer Dana Mattioli has the whole story in her new book The Everything War.
Free, 7 p.m., Harvard Book Store, 1256 Mass. Ave., Cambridge
SATURDAY (4/27/24)
MUSIC
Sexyy Red
On her 2023 breakout track, “Pound Town,” St. Louis rapper Sexyy Red managed to sound funny and badass at the same time; a remix, featuring Nicki Minaj, was an even bigger hit. The song’s novelty had all the makings of a one hit wonder, but Red was not done with the charts. Her most recent success is “Get It Sexyy.”
$72-$194, 8 p.m., Agganis Arena, 925 Comm. Ave., Boston
Belle & Sebastian
The band that went so well with your argyle sweater and messenger bag returned at the top of 2023 with Late Developers, and it’s been hailed as a solid late career entry. Its panoramic, synth-heavy lead single, “I Don’t Know What You See In Me,” might surprise casual listeners who remember the chamber pop dioramas of the Scottish act’s earlier days.
$41.25-$536.63, 8 p.m., Orpheum Theater, 1 Hamilton Pl., Boston
SUNDAY (4/28/24)
MUSIC
Joey Alexander Trio
A native of Bali, Indonesia, Grammy-nominated jazz piano prodigy Joey Alexander was a star from his debut album, 2015’s My Favorite Things. Here’s the tween Alexander performing his cool, bluesy rendition of the Rogers and Hammerstein standard. He’s only gotten more skilled since those days, even if he’s still too young to order a drink at an American bar.
$45-$120, 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., Scullers Jazz Club, 400 Soldiers Field Rd., Allston
Oneohtrix Point Never
One of Boston’s great contributions to electronic music (his odd moniker is actually a joking reference to the local adult contemporary FM station Magic 106.7), Daniel Lopatin unveiled his latest album, Again, this past September, framing it, curiously, as “a speculative autobiography.” Whatever that means, the album is another sonically rich journey through realms of beauty and noise.
$35, 8 p.m., Royale, 279 Tremont St., Boston
FOOD + DRINK
Big Queer Food Fest
Eight top-notch local LGBTQ+ chefs will share their delicious art at this event, hosted by Chopped judge Tiffani Faison, our 2022 pick for Best Chef. She’ll be joined by Tatiana Rosana (Para Maria), Kareem Queeman (Mr. Bake Sweets), Michele Ragussis (Gedney Farm), Robert Gonzalez (Aatma Restaurant, Fuji), and Karen Akunowicz (Fox & Knife, Bar Volpe), and a couple others. Drinks will be provided by SUPERGAY Vodka and Provincetown Brewery.
$50, 5 p.m., High Street Place, 100 High St, Boston
MONDAY (4/29/24)
MUSIC
Breland
Bro country singers have been “rapping” for years, but Breland offered a more direct fusion of rap and country his 2019 hit “My Truck.” His bread and butter is the more full-on pop country of songs like “Cowboy Don’t,” offering a fresh perspective in a genre that loves its formulas. Who would guess he’s from New Jersey?
$20, 8:30 p.m., The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge
ART + EXHIBITIONS (Ongoing)
Firelei Báez, Untitled (Temple of Time), 2020. / Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth, New York. / Photo by Phoebe d’Heurle.
Firelei Báez
Back in 2021, the Dominican-born Firelei Báez wowed visitors to the Institute of Contemporary Art’s Watershed, where she filled the huge East Boston warehouse space with a dreamlike installation combining West African indigo printing and Caribbean Sea imagery with a massive replica of the ruins of Haiti’s Sans-Souci Palace. Now she has her first museum retrospective at the ICA celebrating her paintings, drawings, and mixed-media works. The pieces, which meld Afro-Caribbean, folklore, sci-fi, and historical themes, may be smaller scale, but they pack the same visual and conceptual punch. —MATTHEW REED BAKER
through September 2, Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Dr., Boston
Dress Up
With more than 100 pieces of clothing, jewelry, accessories, and photos and illustrations going back more than a century, this show examines the ever-shifting meaning of fashion in our lives as a mode of both personal and political expression.
$27, Saturday, April 13 through September 2, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston
Songs for Modern Japan
The Museum of Fine Arts casts a spotlight on an obscure artistic subject: the covers of Japanese sheet music collections in the first half of the 20th century, which provided opportunities for graphic designers to explore popular movements like Art Nouveau, and, later on, served as real estate for imperial propaganda.
$27, through September 2, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston
Framing Freedom: The Harriet Hayden Albums
Take a unique look at the lives of Boston’s Black abolitionist community through these selections from the photo albums of Harriet Bell Hayden, who escaped from enslavement in Kentucky with her family in 1844. Their new home on Beacon Hill served as a stop on the Underground Railroad.
$10, through June 22, Boston Athenaeum, 10½ Beacon Street, Boston
A still from the Netflix phenomenon Squid Game, 2021 Netflix. / All Rights Reserved, Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Hallyu! The Korean Wave
It might seem as if South Korea’s global cultural influence—Parasite, Squid Game, a K-pop group visiting the White House—is a recent phenomenon, but, the Museum of Fine Arts hopes to prove with this exhibition that it’s been brewing for years, and that today’s tastemakers have a strong sense of their national artistic history.
$34, through July 28, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston
See also: The MFA’s “Korean Wave” Exhibition Is Thrilling
Robert Rovenolt: (no regrets)
If you could see the memories and feelings floating through your head—some fleeting, some ruminated on, some in the background, some stuffed down as intrusive—what would they look like? Perhaps something like this set of works by longtime South End resident Robert Rovenolt, exploring what he calls “memory as collage.”
Free, through April 13, Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts, 551 Tremont St., Boston
Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away.
Drawing from the collections of more than twenty different museums and other institutions, this powerful travelling exhibition displays hundreds of photographs and objects—shoes, uniforms, bits of architecture, even a gas mask used by a camp officer—connected to the most notorious of the Nazi death factories.
$34.95, through September 2, The Saunders Castle at Park Plaza, 130 Columbus Ave., Boston
LaToya M. Hobbs, “Scene 5: The Studio,” from “Carving Out Time,” 2020–21.
LaToya M. Hobbs: It’s Time
This show collects, for the first time, the complete Carving Out Time series of woodcuts by Baltimore-based artist LaToya M. Hobbs. Depicting a single day in her own life, each panel is dense with the ephemera of identity, showing the various roles she plays as an artist, mother, wife, and teacher.
Free, through July 21, Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge
Noriko Saitō, Japanese, “Sunbeam,” 2002. Ink and color on paper; drypoint with aquatint.
Future Minded: New Works in the Collection
Harvard Arts Museums shows off some of their latest acquisitions, many by living artists, some centuries old, all reflecting shifts in the institution’s views of history and its impact on the conditions of the present. Artists include Jean (Hans) Arp, Edward Mitchell Bannister, Willie Cole, Svenja Deininger, Baldwin Lee, Lucia Moholy, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Noriko Saitō, Melissa Shook, and many others.
Free, through July 21, Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge
Our Time on Earth
Bringing together 12 installations from around the world, including such exotic experiences as a magnified look at plankton, a dive into the layers of a tree, and an interspecies dinner, this exhibition from London’s Barbican Centre aspires to a future in which humans coexist peacefully with their environment.
$20, through June 9, Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St., Salem
Wu Tsang: Of Whales
Worcester native Wu Tsang brings one part of her trilogy inspired by Moby-Dick to the Institute of Contemporary Art with this immersive installation that uses extended reality technology to try to get inside the mind of a sperm whale, creating a “lush, dreamy oceanscape.”
$20, through August 4, Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Dr., Boston
Raqib Shaw: Ballads of East and West
The Gardner Museum casts a major spotlight on stunningly intricate painter Raqib Shaw, a London-based native of the Indian-controlled portion of the disputed Kashmir region whose surreal works have one foot in the imagination and one in socio-political reality.
$20, through May 12, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 25 Evans Way, Boston
Lorraine O’Grady: Both/And
Wellesley College’s Davis Museum hosts the first major career-spanning exhibition for alum Lorraine O’Grady, a multidisciplinary artist and writer who’s spent decades exploring the construction of Black womanhood, diasporic consciousness, and other socio-political concerns, particularly through the diptych, which she uses to hold and stage the tensions between contradictory ideas and self-concepts.
Free, through June 2, Davis Museum, 106 Central Street, Wellesley
Destiny Doorways
Using botanical imagery to depict the pathways of life, this installation by Mithsuca Berry engages the viewer with opportunities to reflect on where they’ve been and where they’re headed. You’ll get to choose from a variety of media to make your your own art in response, adding it to the chorus of other visitor responses.
$20, through June 15, Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Dr., Boston
WNDR Museum
This new gallery space in Downtown Crossing is hitting the ground running with iconic Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s Let’s Survive Forever and more than 20 other immersive installations, including The Wisdom Project, where visitors can add their own response to the question “What do you know for sure?,” and WNDR’s signature Light Floor, which changes in response to visitors’ movement.
$32-$38, 500 Washington St., Boston
Wordplay
The Institute of Contemporary Art has mined its own collection for work highlighting the use of words in visual art, with pieces from Kenturah Davis, Taylor Davis, Joe Wardwell, Rivane Neuenschwander, Shepard Fairey, Jenny Holzer, Glenn Ligon, and more.
$20, through January 5, 2025, Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Dr., Boston
The Lost Generation: Women Ceramicists and the Cuban Avant-Garde
Boston College’s McMullen Museum explores the unsung work of the women of the Taller de Santiago de las Vegas, a ceramics workshop near Havana, during the Cuban revolutionary era. Their striking modernist designs made a deep impression on a group of much better-known male painters and brought greater prestige to the art of ceramics in Cuba.
Free, through June 2, McMullen Museum of Art, 2101 Comm. Ave., Brighton
Wolf Vostell: Dé-coll/age Is Your Life
Committed to the use of destruction in art making as a means of highlighting the destructiveness in society, Wolf Vostell created a body of work that cried out for peace in the anxious Cold War era. Harvard’s Busch-Reisinger Museum has the largest collection of his work on this side of the world, much of which, including prints, sculptures, films, performance-related items, will be on display here.
Free, through May 5, Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge
Picasso: War, Combat, and Revolution
Take a deep dive into the world of Picasso’s immortal and imposing Guernica, one of the great anti-war statements in 20th century art, dense with both pathos and symbolic meaning. Although the painting itself remains in Madrid, you’ll see several drawings and prints from Picasso that express similar themes to the painting.
Free, through May 5, Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge
Day One DNA: 50 Years in Hip-Hop Culture
Featuring more than 200 objects, including studio reels, photos, party fliers, magazines, custom clothing, jewelry, recording equipment, and more from the archives of Ice-T and DJ Afrika Islam, this show looks at hip hop history both from a personal perspective and in its wider cultural context.
Free, through May 31, Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art, 102 Mount Auburn St., Cambridge
The Myth of Normal
Featuring the work of MassArt alumni to celebrate the school’s 150th anniversary, this multimedia exhibition examines what happens when dysfunctional modes of thoughts and behavior become norms, and how the self-expressive potential of art can provide relief from the sometimes-damaging pressure to be “normal.”
Free, through May 19, MassArt Art Museum, 621 Huntington Ave., Boston
Surveillance: From Vision to Data
If you’ve ever seen an ad online for something you only mentioned in conversation, you know you’re being watched—and your phone is just one of the more recent tools of the trade. This exhibition examines some historic instruments of surveillance, showing how they’ve been used, in the eerie words of its synopsis, “to transform individuals and landscapes into data.”
Free, through June 22, Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard University, 1 Oxford St., Cambridge
Resa Blatman’s Beauty and the Beasties from “Bats!” at the Peabody Essex Museum. / Photo courtesy of Resa Blatman
“Bats!”
The Peabody Essex Museum would certainly win the award for Salem’s Best Halloween Museum Exhibition (if only it existed!) with its latest extravaganza. For starters, the PEM has gathered various pop-culture artifacts and artworks celebrating our favorite winged mammals by contemporary talents such as Somerville painter Resa Blatman and Argentine papercraftsman Juan Nicolás Elizalde. But the exhibition also has a natural-history element to it, stressing how bats are, in fact, indicator species that reveal the health of the environment around us. Best of all, visitors get to meet a small colony of real live Egyptian fruit bats, who are as adorable as they are fascinating. —MATTHEW REED BAKER
$20 (non-member general admission), through July 28, Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St., Salem
Shehuo: Community Fire
Since 2007, Chinese photographer Zhang Xiao has periodically documented the celebration of Shehuo, a spring festival in rural Northern China, showing its regional quirks, handmade props that double as family heirlooms, and its transformation over the years into a commercialized spectacle for tourists.
$15, through April 14, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, 11 Divinity Ave., Cambridge
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UPCOMING
2024
April 2024
- April 18, 2024. Cypress Hill, Pharcyde, and Souls of Mischief at Roadrunner. [Info]
- April 26-27, 2024. The Town and the City Festival, Lowell, Mass.
- Robyn Hitchcock, Darlingside, Ryan Montbleau, Orbit, and more. [Info]
May 2024
- Sunday, May 5. Sheer Mag with Pile at the Crystal Ballroom (55 Davis Sq., Somerville).
- CSS at the Sinclair (52 Church St., Cambridge).
- May 8. Chastity Belt at the Sinclair (52 Church St., Cambridge).
- May 9. Hatsune Miku Expo. Though she “performs” onscreen as a manga-style 16-year-old with bright-blue hair, Hatsune Miku really began life in 2007 as a piece of vocal synthesis software created by the Japanese company Crypton Future Media that lets music fans make their computer sing. Soon enough, the software became personified by this virtual cartoon singer, who is as joyously buoyant as she is fake. She’s also now an international phenomenon, “touring” the world with a live band in front of packed audiences. Wang Theatre (270 Tremont St., Boston). bochcenter.org.
- Saturday, May 11. PorchFest Somerville 2024. [Info]
- Sunday, May 12. Frankie Cosmos at the Crystal Ballroom (55 Davis Sq., Somerville).
- May 13, 2024-May 14, 2024. Mannequin Pussy at the Sinclair (52 Church St., Cambridge).
- Tuesday, May 28.
- Kathleen Hanna: Rebel Girl Book Tour at the Wilbur Theater (246 Tremont St., Boston). [Info]
- Shannon and the Clams at the Sinclair (52 Church St., Cambridge).
June 2024
- Wednesday, June 5. Of Montreal at the Sinclair (52 Church St., Cambridge).
- June 8. Boston Kids Comics Fest returns with another round of workshops and roundtables that aim to foster the next generation of cartoonists and comic-book illustrators. This one-day event, held at Northeastern’s Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex on June 8, will feature lectures by graphic novelists who are well-known stars to any schoolkid these days, such as Bad Kitty’s Nick Bruel, Amulet’s Kazu Kibuishi, and Lauren Tarshis of the popular I Survived series. Best of all, the festival has set aside quiet spaces, so your budding Stan Lee or Alison Bechdel can get some creative work done. bostonkidscomicsfest.org. —Matthew Reed Baker
- June 10. Allie X at the Sinclair (52 Church St., Cambridge).
July 2024
- July 17, 2024. The 50th anniversary of Best of Boston Soirée @ Roadrunner, 89 Guest St., Boston.
Want to suggest an event? Email us.
