ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN

DESIGN OF A CENTURY “Piranesi as Designer,” an exhibit that examines the artist’s role in the reform of architecture and design, is on view at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. The 18th-century Italian architect and designer Giovanni Battista Piranesi created elaborate interiors and exquisite furnishings that continue to have an impact on how artists work within the two media. The show includes etchings, original drawings, and prints by Piranesi, as well as a selection of three-dimensional objects. Among the highlights is “Chimneypiece for John Hope” (c. 1767), right, which is set in marble. Through Sunday, January 20, Monday–Thursday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Friday, 10 a.m.–9 p.m., Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m., Sunday, noon–6 p.m., Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, 2 E. 91st St. at Fifth Avenue, 212-849-8400, $12 general, $9 seniors and students, free for Cooper-Hewitt and Smithsonian Institution members, and children under 12.

ARCHITECTURE

MAKING AN ENTRANCE The New York School of Interior Design presents the opening of “Making an Entrance: Design Philosophy and the Entry in Western Architecture.” The exhibit explores the history and evolution of the entryway in architecture. Particular attention is paid to the classical tradition and the ways in which the modern movement produced a practice of building entrances that embodied both a literal structure and a metaphorical divide between the outside world and the interior of an architectural composition. The director of the NYSID library, Eric Wolf, is curator of the show. Tonight through Friday, December 21, Monday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., 212-472-1500, New York School of Interior Design, 170 E. 70th St., between Lexington and Third avenues, free.

ART

THE WORLD OUTSIDE An artist of Cuban-Dominican heritage, Quisqueya Henriquez is given her first major survey, at the Bronx Museum, with a selection of sculptures, installations, drawings, photographs, videos, and light/ sound works. The artist’s pieces frequently explore themes such as environment and its role in how cultural clichés are produced. This exhibit collects art works created between 1991 and 2007. Ms. Henriquez aligns herself with an avant-garde group of Cuban artists that rose to prominence in the 1980s. Through Sunday, January 27, Bronx Museum of the Arts, 1040 Grand Concourse at 165th Street, 718-681-6000, $5 general, $3 students and seniors.

CONNECT THE DOTS “Prakriti” is the intriguing title of the latest work by artist Anil Revri. Mr. Revri’s geometric abstractions employ a variety of dotted, curved, and slanted lines that create an illusion of three-dimensional space. Mr. Revri uses an abstract language of serialized stripes, dots, and circles to replicate the meditative aspects of Middle Eastern arts. The Sundaram Tagore Gallery is noted for its commitment to developing artists that engage in the current social dialogue of this increasingly globalized world. Through Saturday, October 13, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, 547 W. 27th St., between Tenth and Eleventh avenues, 212-677-4520, free.

ABSTRACT THOUGHTS “The Abstract Impulse,” an exhibit that celebrates 50 years of abstract art, is presented by the National Academy Museum. The show includes a variety of works (dating from 1956–2006) from its permanent collection, and explores the impact of abstract art over the last half century and its continuing relevance today. Also on view is American landscape artist Asher B. Durand (1796). Through Sunday, January 6, Wednesday and Thursday, noon–5 p.m., Friday–Sunday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m., National Academy Museum, 1083 Fifth Ave. at 89th Street, 212-369-4880, $5 general, free for students.

FOOD & DRINK

BUON COMPLEANNO A “sagra” is an Italian town festival, and Il Buco restaurant is mounting a traditional “sagra del maiale” to celebrate its 13th anniversary. Every year on its birthday, the restaurant holds a pig roast. This year, Il Buco roasts a 160-pound pig infernillo-style, between two iron griddles with fire on top and at the bottom of the grill. Also on the menu are porchetta panini on ciabatta bread with mostarda; pork, apple, and peperoncino sausage, and apple ricotta fritters. Today, 1–6 p.m., Il Buco restaurant, 47 Bond St., between the Bowery and Lafayette Street, 212-533-1932, $20 per plate, $8 a cocktail.

A LITTLE CHILE A selection of restaurants and wine retailers celebrate Chilean Independence Day — September 18 — with a two-week long, citywide festival. During “Salud! Chilean Wine Fest,” New Yorkers can sip Chilean Carmenere by the glass at Dos Caminosor Churrascaria Plataforma. At Astor Wines & Spirits and Chelsea Wine Vault, free tastings are on offer, and Havana Central hosts wine classes with an eye on Chilean vineyards. Through Sunday, September 30. For a complete schedule and list of participants, visit winesofchile.org.

MUSIC

SOUND AND FURY An electronic music group, Composers Inside Electronics, performs the late composer David Tudor’s “Rainforest IV.” The group first performed this collaborative work at the Kitchen in 1975. The electroacoustic environment at the venue integrates more than 20 sound sculptures to help support a sonic and visual experience. Composers Inside Electronics band members include John Driscoll and Phil Edelstein. Saturday and Sunday, 4–9 p.m., the Kitchen, 512 W. 19th St., between Ninth and Tenth avenues, 212-255-5793, $10.

PHOTOGRAPHY

FADE TO DARK Black-and-white photography rules at Hasted Hunt, where three ongoing exhibits all employ the medium. “Portfolio of 12 Photographs” is a companion exhibit of works by Lisette Model, held in conjunction with a retrospective at Aperture Gallery. Aaron Siskind’s “Pleasures and Terrors of Levitation” includes photographs of people somersaulting or generally captured midair. “Found” by Gerald Slota features fuzzy, nostalgic photos of families. Through Saturday, October 27, Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m., Hasted Hunt, 529 W. 20th St., between Tenth and Eleventh avenues, 212-627-0006, free.

READINGS

WRITERS FROM UNDERGROUND KGB Bar hosts “Literary Idol,” a group reading by a selection of young, emerging writers recently published in New York magazine. Among the featured authors is a recent graduate of the Masters of Fine Arts program at Brooklyn College, Elliott Holt, and David Rogers, who worked a series of odd jobs, from medical transcriptionist to music teacher, before discovering his gift for fiction writing. A New York magazine contributing editor, Boris Kachka, leads the event. Saturday, 7 p.m., KGB Bar, 85 E. 4th St., between Second and Third avenues, 212-769-6816, free.

THEATER

PAY THE PIPER “The Piper” is a musical about a woman who runs a boarding house for prostitutes as a “mysterious strangler” lurks in their midst. Set in 19th-century Ireland, the woman’s life is altered when she discovers her daughter possesses a special gift for playing the penny-whistle. The musical is told in the tradition of Irish pub storytelling. Friday, 9 p.m., through Sunday, September 23, dates and times vary, the Theater at St. Clement’s, 423 W. 46th St., between Ninth and Tenth avenues, 212-352-3101, $20.

SINGING IN THE STREETS Passersby may not realize they have stumbled into Miami-based artist Dara Friedman’s live performance piece, “Musical.” In the next three weeks, some 100 office workers, schoolchildren, taxi drivers, doormen, and tourists in Midtown will break spontaneously into song. The exact locations and times of the performances are unannounced and the performances appear spontaneous. Through Friday, October 5, specific times unannounced, between Grand Central Station and Central Park South, and between Broadway and Park Avenue, 212-980-4575, free.

DESPERATE HOUSEWIFE When John Keane’s sexually charged “Sive” was first performed in 1959, his tale of a young schoolgirl forced into an arranged marriage with a lecherous old man proved scandalous to theatergoers. This revival, directed by Ciarán O’Reilly, delivers a glimpse of 1950s rural Ireland and a landscape inhabited by traveling tinkers, bitter housewives, and scheming matchmakers. Tonight through Sunday, November 11, Tuesday–Saturday, 8 p.m., Irish Repertory Theatre, 132 W. 22nd St., between Sixth and Seventh avenues, 212-727-2737, $55–$60.

PHOTOGRAPHY

BEEN AROUND THE WORLD For his latest exhibit, “I Met a Traveller From An Antique Land…,” photographer Simon Norfolk appears to have trained his lens on every corner of the world. The images represent an almost otherworldly perspective, such as a photo of King Amanullah’s Victory Arch, built in 1919 in Afghanistan. In that image, the clouds against the arch are ghostly, and the arch itself seems suspended in a deep blue sky. Selections from the exhibit include “Large Hadron Collider no. 6, CERN Laboratory, Switzerland” (2007), above. Opening reception tonight, 6–8 p.m., exhibit through Saturday, November 24, Tuesday–Friday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m., Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m., Bonni Benrubi Gallery, 41 E. 57th St. at Madison Avenue, 212-888-6007, free.

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