500 Years of Chinese Paintings Flowers on a River: The Art of Chinese Flower-and-Bird Painting, 1368-1911, Masterworks from Tianjin Museum and Changzhou Museum opens March 23 at China Institute Gallery. More than 100 works of flower-and-bird paintings, which illustrate the Chinese concept of “humanity in harmony with nature” will be on display. Flower-and-bird paintings is one of three major genres of Chinese art—alongside landscape and figure painting. Through June 25. 

Book Talk Tribecan and CUNY professor Cheryl J. Fish will discuss her novel Off the Yoga Mat, a story of three characters reinventing their lives at age 40. Fish will be joined by yoga and fitness instructor Sarah Garcea, who will lead a few chair yoga poses and talk with Fish on writing fiction that incorporates yoga and sauna. Mon., April 3, 5-6 pm at New Amsterdam Library at 9 Murray St. Registration suggested.

At the Flea "Hang Time," written by Pulitzer Prize Finalist Zora Howard, introduces the audience to three men who chew the fat under an old, wide tree, giving the audience a peek into the interiority – the great loves and bitter blues – of Black men in America. Through April 3 at The Flea Theatre, 20 Thomas St. Tickets here.

“Irrational Craft” is a five-person show of works in clay, beads, glass and paper created entirely by hand. One artist, for example, uses “wild” clay that she harvests herself. Curator Hannah Rothbard calls the works a rejection of “the culture of immediacy through nuanced engagement with material.” None of it, she notes, “is thrown on a wheel, all of the beading and paper-cutting is done by hand rather than with a machine or laser-cutter.” To March 30 at 81 Leonard Gallery.

Bountiful Baskets Indigenous women basket weavers share the beauty of Native basketry, as well as the significance of keeping basket traditions alive, through different weaving traditions, materials, and stories. Free, At The National Museum of the American Indian. Sat. and Sun., March 18–19, 11am–4pm. Photo: Blue Basket by Ronni-leigh Goemen

Working On It, an exhibition of recent work by faculty artists from the Music and Art and Media Arts and Technology departments at Borough of Manhattan Community College, is on view at the Shirley Fiterman Art Center, 81 Barclay St. The show features traditional painting, sculpture, installation art, experimental photography, video and works employing new media. Wed.-Fri. 12 to 5pm or by appointment. Through March 22. Above: Carol Pereira-Olson, Untitled, 2022