HARLEM WEEK-END

EL MUSEO DEL BARRIO: ‘NEXUS NEW YORK: LATIN/AMERICAN ARTISTS IN THE MODERN METROPOLIS,’ through Feb. 28. A bright light at the top of Museum Mile, the city’s premier Latino art center has reopened after a makeover with a dense, episodic and absorbing visual history of the Latino art presence in New York in the first half of the 20th century. As much an archival display as a standard art show, it focuses on luminous, culture-changing personalities, from the Mexican-born art impresario Marius de Zayas, who teamed up with Alfred Stieglitz to bring the first Picasso show to New York; to Joaquín Torres-García, a Uruguayan who arrived in New York in 1920 and saw proto-Pop Art everywhere; to the Chilean Roberto Matta, a dynamic agent for Old World Surrealism in the New World. In addition, El Museo now has its first permanent-collection gallery, with an installation, “Voces y Visiones,” that reaffirms historical connections to the nearby East Harlem neighborhood. 1230 Fifth Avenue, at 104th Street, East Harlem , (212) 831-7272, elmuseo.org. (Cotter)

 

STUDIO MUSEUM IN HARLEM: ‘30 SECONDS OFF AN INCH,’ through March 14. This exhibition of 60 disparate artworks by 42 contemporary artists from several generations might be called revisionist. It takes a refreshingly visual, even formal, approach to art that is usually plumbed for political and social meanings based largely on the artist’s identity. Its curator, Naomi Beckwith, wants to emphasize the meanings — social and otherwise — embedded in the actual objects on view. Her success is mixed, partly because she doesn’t spend much time explaining the experiential nature of her selections in the catalog, and also because she includes too many familiar, established artists. But she makes many excellent choices, introduces some promising young talent and displays a visual intelligence that is often rare in her chosen profession. 144 West 125th Street , (212) 864-4500, studiomuseum.org. (Smith)