FAMILY MUSIC

WILD THINGS The Juilliard School’s newest musical ensemble, Axiom, performs “Des canyons aux étoiles,” a piece by the French composer Olivier Messiaen. The composer was a writer and organist by trade, but he was also an avid ornithologist. Wildlife and the outdoors inspired many of his works. Written in 1972, “Des canyons aux étoiles” was inspired by the Bryce Canyon in Utah and the avian life that existed around it. Music director Jeffrey Milarsky conducts. Tonight, 8 p.m., Juilliard School, Peter Jay Sharp Theater, 155 W. 65th St., between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, 212-799-5000, free.

DANCE

GEORGIA ON MY MIND The Brooklyn Academy of Music presents “Nina Ananiashvili and the State Ballet of Georgia.” Ms. Ananiashvili, who is the artistic director of the company, is also a former principal of the Bolshoi Ballet and has been a frequent guest performer of American Ballet Theatre. The company, which is based in Tbilisi, the capital of the former Soviet republic, dances Balanchine’s “Duo Concertant” and “Chaconne.” Also on the program are new works by the Bolshoi Ballet’s artistic director, Alexei Ratmansky, and the choreographer in residence at the San Francisco Ballet, Yuri Possokhov. Mr. Ratmansky’s contribution is the Kabuki-inspired “Dreams about Japan,” which merges Japanese dance elements with the classical ballet. Tonight and Friday–Saturday, 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, 3 p.m., Brooklyn Academy of Music, Howard Gillman Opera House, 30 Lafayette Ave., between Ashland Place and St. Felix Street, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, 718-636-4100, $20–$70.

THE WOMAN AND THE SEA The Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College presents an evening with the Richmond Ballet, which dances premieres by a member of the American Ballet Theatre faculty, Jessica Lang. Ms. Lang’s “To Familiar Spaces in Dream” depicts the piano as muse and is set to the music of Philip Glass, John Cage, and Craig Armstrong. “Women and the Sea: A Tribute to Will Barnet” is inspired by the paintings of the New York-based artist. The performance is followed by a Q&A session. Saturday, 8 p.m., Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts, Walt Whitman Theatre at Brooklyn College, 2900 Campus Rd. at Hillel Place, Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, 718-951-4500, $25.

DESIGN

HAUTE COMMODES New work by the contemporary French sculptor Ingrid Donat is on view at Barry Friedman Ltd. The exhibit features Ms. Donat’s richly textured, limited edition bronze-cast furniture. Ms. Donat’s aesthetic combines tribal, classical, and Modern sources, and recalls the stylistic influence of colonial Africa, Central and South America, and Oceania on French artists and designers of the 1920s and ’30s. Highlights include her low-lying tables, which evoke the handcrafted detail of ancient African masks. Through Saturday, March 15, Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m., Barry Friedman Ltd., 515 W. 26th St., between Tenth and Eleventh avenues, 212-239-8600, free.

FILM

TRUTH HURTS Vice President Gore hosts a screening of his Academy Award-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” (2006) at the Museum of Modern Art. The recent Nobel Peace Prize recipient discusses the long-term effects of climate change and why the matter is an urgent one. The film’s director, Davis Guggenheim, moderates the talk. “An Inconvenient Truth” is the fourth-highest-grossing documentary to date. Tonight, 8 p.m., MoMA, Roy & Niuta Titus Theater 2, 11 W. 53rd St. at Fifth Avenue, 212-708-9480, $10.

THE BAND PLAYED ON The story of Joy Division is one of pop music lore: The English post-punk band was buoyed by lead singer Ian Curtis’s spastic, melancholy songs and performances, until he hanged himself at 23. Director Grant Gee’s documentary “Joy Division” (its wide opening this May follows a limited release in 2007) is the filmmaker’s look at the enigmatic singer’s life. Curtis’s death in 1980 was the subject of much rumor and only accelerated interest in his work. The biopic focuses not only on Curtis, but also on the lives of the surviving band members. The director places the rest of the members — who are living stable, midlife existences — in direct contrast with Curtis’s unpredictable bleakness. The screening is featured as part of this month’s Film Comment Selects Series. Today, 4:30 p.m., Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater, 70 Lincoln Center Plaza at 65th Street, 212-875-5600, $11 general, $7 students, seniors, and members.

PHOTOGRAPHY

A HORST OF COURSE For more than 60 years, the work of photographer Horst P. Horst filled the pages of Vogue magazine. His celebrity portraits and cutting-edge fashion spreads played a significant role in shaping the world of fashion photography. “Horst Platinum,” a retrospective exhibit of his art, is on view at the Forbes Galleries. Curator Juan Carlos Arcila-Duque selected 50 of the artist’s photographs spanning the years between 1931 and 1991. Highlights include the iconic “Mainbocher, Corset,” which first appeared in a 1939 issue of Vogue.

Through Saturday, March 15, Tuesday–Wednesday and Friday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m., Forbes Galleries, 62 Fifth Ave. at 12th Street, 212-206-5548, free.

WHO’S THE BOSS? An artist based in Hangzhou, China, Chen Xiaoyun, presents “Love You, Big Boss,” his first New York exhibit. The show comprises three videos and four large-scale photographs depicting staged scenes of everyday life. The allegorical images seem at once familiar and peculiar, but all are meant to confront America’s role as superpower and how it is perceived abroad. In the video that shares a name with the exhibit, an orchestra performs in an empty theater with each musician playing his or her own version of the American national anthem. Through Sunday, March 30, Monday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m., Project Gallery, 37 W. 57th St., between Fifth and Sixth avenues, 3rd floor, 212-688-1585, free.

EXTRA TIME AND KISSES The City Reliquary presents “76 Kisses: Snapshots From the Collection of Lori Baker and David E. Brown,” an exhibit of found photographs. The Brooklyn-based couple, who are artists, searched high and low for images spanning the last century that featured twosomes caught in passionate embrace — from long lip locks to saucy smooches. The pair, who scoured eBay, yard sales, flea markets, and stumbled upon a few chance finds, compiled the collection after meeting — rather appropriately — on the popular photo-sharing Web site, Flickr.

Through Sunday, March 30, Saturday and Sunday, noon–6 p.m., or by appointment, City Reliquary, 370 Metropolitan Ave. at Havemeyer Street, 718-782-4842, donations welcome.

LUNCH WITH GUS The Museum of the City of New York presents “Manhattan Noon: Photographs by Gus Powell,” a collection of about 30 recent works inspired by poet Frank O’Hara’s 1964 volume, “Lunch Poems.” Mr. Powell photographed New Yorkers during his lunch break: He found the full range, from lounging construction workers to ladies rushing by in stilettos, all of them lighted by the midday sun. Through Saturday, March 15, Tuesday–Sunday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Ave. at 103rd St., 212-534-1672, $9 general, $20 families, $5 students and seniors, free between 10 a.m. and noon on Sunday.

PAINTINGS

CREATING ON CANVAS Beijing-based artist Zhu Jinshi is best known for his sculptural installations: Last fall at the Beijing Today Art Museum, he mounted a piece made of 3,600 light bulbs that were arranged to look like one giant bulb. In his new exhibit, “Abstract Oils,” M. Sutherland Fine Arts presents the painterly side of Mr. Zhu’s work, along with works by another Chinese artist, Hu Xiangdong. Selections from the exhibit include Mr. Zhu’s “Abstraction No. 4” (2007), above.

Through Saturday, March 8, Tuesday–Saturday, noon–5 p.m., M. Sutherland Fine Arts, 55 E. 80th St., between Madison and Park avenues, 212-249-0428, free.

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