ARCHITECTURE

DYNAMIC DUO Two of the world’s cultural centers are the focus of a new exhibit opening at the AIA New York Chapter and the Center for Architecture. “Berlin-New York Dialogues: Building in Context” has been mounted as part of the Center for Architecture’s ongoing City Dialogues series. The show highlights the similarities and differences in architecture and environment in the two cities. The sustainability of these cities’ neighborhoods is increasingly dependent on a critical combination of identity, diversification, and infrastructure. In conjunction with Carnegie Hall’s “Berlin in Lights” festival, the exhibit program will also feature mobile workshops, a family day, and a panel discussion on memorials with the German Consulate. Tonight, 6 p.m., through Saturday, January 26, Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–8 p.m., Saturday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m., Center for Architecture, 536 La Guardia Place, between Bleecker and West 3rd streets, 212-683-0023, free.

ART

THE CARTOONIST The Jewish Museum presents “From The New Yorker to Shrek: The Art of William Steig.” Steig worked for 73 years at the New Yorker, where his art appeared on more than 120 covers and more than 1,600 of his drawings were published. He is credited with transforming the way cartoons were created at the weekly magazine. He also wrote and illustrated children’s books; his picture book “Shrek!” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) inspired the “Shrek” films by DreamWorks. This is the first major exhibition of the artist’s work. Featured are 190 original drawings, several of the artist’s notebooks, sketchbooks, and letters, as well as Steig’s mock-ups for his books for young readers. Through March 16, 2008, Saturday–Wednesday, 11 a.m.–5:45 p.m., Thursday, 11 a.m.–8 p.m., the Jewish Museum, 1109 Fifth Ave. at 92nd Street, 212-423-3200, $12 adults, $10 seniors, $7.50 students, free for members and children under 12.

IN SEARCH OF OBJECTS William Bailey’s still lifes of freestanding objects and figures are painted not from models, but from memory. Writing in the October 25 New York Sun, critic John Goodrich remarked, “Mr. Bailey guards each object’s independence, modeling it in a separate harmony of colors, and pointedly locating it with overlappings of contours and shadows. To this end he takes constant, subtle liberties, sharpening or softening shadows and simplifying planes.” Through Saturday, November 24, Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m., Betty Cuningham Gallery, 541 W. 25th St., between Tenth and Eleventh avenues, 212-242-2772, free.

WORLDS AWAY The title of the latest exhibit of paintings by James Boyd-Brent, “World Enough, and Time …,” gets its name from a line of verse in Andrew Marvell’s poem “To His Coy Mistress.” The show explores Mr. Boyd-Brent’s interest in the inner lives of his subjects. Scenes in the exhibit depict cheerless, abandoned streets haunted by ghosts and sprits floating above rooftops. Through Saturday, November 24, Thursday–Saturday, noon–6 p.m., New York Studio Gallery, suite 607, 511 W. 25th St., between Tenth and Eleventh avenues, 212-627-3276, free.

DANCE

DANCING ON THE EDGE The program for Garth Fagan Dance’s 2007 season at the Joyce Theater includes the world premiere of “Edge/Joy,” a full-company piece that re-envisions space on the stage with action taking place along the periphery and overlapping entrances and exits. The Eastman Music Ensemble performs accompanying music, a suite of three works composed by Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, during two performances. Mr. Fagan is the recipient of a Tony Award in 1998 for his choreography for “The Lion King.” Tonight and tomorrow, 8 p.m., Saturday, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., Sunday, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., the Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Ave., between 18th and 19th streets, 212-242-0800, $44.

FILM

A BLACK AUGUST Spanish filmmaker Marc Recha is the subject of BAMcinématek’s annual series, “The Next Director.” Mr. Recha was born in the Catalonia region of northeastern Spain, and his films reflect the environment and the people of that area. In his latest feature, “August Days” (2006), the director combines autobiography and fiction to tell the story of a director (played by Mr. Recha and also named “Marc”) who drives through Catalonia with his twin brother (played by Mr. Recha’s twin brother, David, and similarly named) in search of inspiration for his next film. The physical and environmental effects of the Spanish Civil War and of industrialization are highlighted. Mr. Recha participates in a question-and-answer session after the screening. Tomorrow, 6:50 p.m., BAMcinématek, BAM Rose Cinemas, Peter Jay Sharp Building, 30 Lafayette Ave., between Ashland Place and St. Felix Street, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, 718-636-4100, $11 general, $7.50 students, seniors, and children, $7 members.

THE CROATIAN BACHELOR “Beyond Boundaries: The Emergence of Croatian Cinema” features 11 contemporary films, a program of animated shorts, and a program of movies from the golden age of Yugoslav cinema. The series, presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, celebrates a period of politically nonconformist filmmaking in the 1960s and ’70s. Among the highlights is Zvonimir Berkovic’s “Rondo” (1966), which screens on Friday and Saturday. The psychological drama follows a husband and wife and their bachelor friend, with whom they become ensnared in a romantic trap. Each Sunday, the threesome gathers to play chess, but the game soon gives way to sexual tension between the unhappy wife and the handsome bachelor. Tomorrow, 5:15 p.m., and Saturday, 1:15 p.m., through Wednesday, November14, dates and times vary, Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater, 165 W. 65th St., between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, 212-496-3809, $11 general, $7 members, students, and seniors, $40 series pass (admits to five titles), $30 for Film Society members.

PAINTINGS

DISTANT SEPARATION A Beijing-based artist, Hu Xiangdong, is known for sculptures and paintings that address the collision between Eastern and Western ideas about culture, society, and art. “Estranged,” his latest exhibit of paintings, at the Asian art-themed gallery M. Sutherland Fine Arts, depicts landscapes and figures viewed through what resembles a white film. The effect is as if the viewer has attempted to remove the shrink-wrapping from an image and only crumpled it in the process. Selections from the exhibit include “Estranged No. 2” (2007), above. Opens today, exhibit through Friday, January 18, Tuesday–Saturday, noon–5 p.m., M. Sutherland Fine Arts, 55 E. 80th St., between Park and Madison avenues, 212-249-0428, free.

PHOTOGRAPHY

EMPTINESS AND BEYOND Canadian photographer Lynne Cohen’s exhibit “Camouflage” is composed of works made over the past three decades, none of which have ever before been presented in America. The photographs, all black-and-white, are of various interior spaces, arranged and designed with order in mind. What they lack is the presence of those who might have arranged the spaces themselves. Highlights include “Untitled (Sleeping Cowboys)” from the 1980s. Through Saturday, December 22, Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m., Hasted Hunt Gallery, 529 W. 20th St., between Tenth Avenue and the West Side Highway, 212-627-0006, free.

BRUCE ALMIGHTY “Isaac Bashevis Singer and the Lower East Side: Photographs by Bruce Davidson” is on view at the Jewish Museum. The exhibit includes 40 photographs spanning the years between 1957 and 1990. An author and Nobel laureate, Singer is widely revered among Yiddish writers of the last century. Mr. Davidson’s portraits capture Singer and residents of the city’s Lower East Side. The author and the acclaimed photographer were friends and neighbors in their Manhattan apartment building. In 1972, the pair collaborated on a humorous and surreal film, “Isaac Singer’s Nightmare and Mrs. Pupko’s Beard.” During and after production, Mr. Davidson photographed his friend, whether reclining on a sofa, or feeding the pigeons on a Broadway park bench. Through Sunday, February 3, Jewish Museum, 1109 Fifth Ave. at 92nd Street, 212-423-3200, Saturday–Wednesday, 11 a.m.–5:45 p.m., Thursday, 11 a.m.–8 p.m., $12 general, $10 seniors, $7.50 students, free for members and children under 12.

READINGS

ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE Author James MacKinnon reads from and discusses “Dead Man in Paradise” (New Press), his account of his journey to the Dominican Republic, where he set out to uncover clues to solving the mysterious death of his uncle. Mr. MacKinnon’s uncle, a Canadian priest, and two policemen were found dead on the island under suspicious circumstances some 40 years ago. Mr. MacKinnon has received three National Magazine Awards in Canada for his journalistic work on social issues. Tomorrow, 8 p.m., West Side YMCA, 5 W. 63rd St., between Broadway and Central Park West, 212-875-4101, free.

TALKS

A WOMAN’S WORTH The Center for Jewish History hosts a painter and printmaker, Miriam Stern, who gives a talk about her gallery art installation “Ezrat Nashim.” The site-specific work tackles women’s issues such as they relate to Jewish tradition and religious texts. The title of her artwork refers to the women’s area in an Orthodox synagogue. Sunday, 3 p.m., Center for Jewish History, 15 W. 16th St., between Fifth and Sixth avenues, 212-294-8330, free for members and children under 5, or with museum admission, $8 general, $6 seniors, students, and children ages 5 to 16.

ART KLATCH The National Academy Museum and artcritical.comhost a review panel on a selection of exhibits showing around the city. Featured panelists include critics Vincent Katz of Art in America and Linda Yablonsky of Bloomberg News. Among the shows under review are Kara Walker’s “My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love” at the Whitney Museum of American Art; Isaac Julien’s “Western Union: Small Boats” at Metro Pictures, and Kate Shepherd’s exhibit of abstract art, “No Title Here,” at Galerie Lelong. A critic for The New York Sun, David Cohen, is moderator of the event. Tomorrow, 6:45 p.m., National Academy Museum, 1083 Fifth Ave. at 89th Street, $5, free for National Academicians, friends of the Academy, and students.

DRAWING FROM FEAR In the arts and in the press, the medium of illustration has been used to convey images of anxiety and fear when there is unease in a cultural climate. This is the focus of a daylong symposium, “Illustration in the Age of Anxiety,” presented by Parsons the New School for Design. The event comprises three talks. “Shaky Line, Shaky Times” features satirical illustrators Ed Sorel and Ed Koren, who discuss their own famously angst-ridden drawing styles. An associate professor at Parsons, Dan Nadel, is moderator of the talk. “Reading in Public” features graphic novelist Ben Katchor in a discussion about the difficulty of seeking solace in reading in troubled times. And in “A Light in the Dark,” artists Camille Rose Garcia and Tara McPherson talk about depicting the dark sides of life, with the chairman of the Parsons illustration department, Steven Guarnaccia. Saturday, 3–6 p.m., the New School, 55 W. 13th St., between Fifth and Sixth avenues, 212-229-8919, free.

THEATER

OFFICE SPACE The lives of a receptionist and her coworkers are changed when the handsome Mr. Dart comes to town, in “The Receptionist.” The play is written by Adam Bock and directed by Joe Mantello, the director of Broadway’s “Wicked.” Among the featured cast members is Jayne Houdyshell in the titular role. The actress was nominated for a Tony A+ward last year for her role in Lisa Kron’s 2004 comedy “Well.” Through Sunday, December 23, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, 8 p.m., Wednesday and Saturday, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., Sunday, 2 p.m., New York City Center, 131 W. 55th St., between Sixth and Seventh avenues, 212-581-1212, $75.

To submit an event for consideration for the Calendar, please wire the particulars to calendar@nysun.com, placing the date of the event in the subject line.