New York Today: Art Abounds

Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times Paintings by Etel Adnan at the Whitney Biennial.

Updated 6:56 a.m.

Good Friday morning. The temperature is climbing. But it’s still pretty cold â€" 28 degrees.

Seek solace in art.

The Whitney Biennial, the vaunted survey of American contemporary art, opens tonight.

And it coincides with several sprawling art fairs this weekend:

The Armory Show, the Art Dealers Association of America Art Show and the Independent Art Fair.

When you walk into these shows, the city tends to fade, the black and white of winter blasted away by intense, saturated hues.

But here and there, it pops back into view.

The accordion-like notebooks of the 89-year old Lebanese artist Etel Adnan at the Whitney, for example, feature scenes from the New York City streets.

“They’re cityscapes, an outline of the skyline spread across these folding books known as leporellos,” said her gallerist, Photios Giovanis.

The skyline also appears behind an old Pepsi-Cola sign in Long Island City, in Vera Lutter’s photos at the art dealers’ show.

If you’re looking for a smaller fair with a more local feel (than, say, an airport terminal) there’s Fountain, Spring/Break and the last Brucennial.

The Brucennial, which began in a Brooklyn storefront, features only female artists this year.

For a full roundup, check out Hyperallergic’s guide.

And wherever you go, you’ll do a lot of standing, so aim for a balance between comfort and style.

Spray paint your hiking boots.

Here’s what else you need to know for Friday and the weekend.

WEATHER

Warren G. Harding promised a “return to normalcy” in 1920 and got elected president.

We extend the same offer concerning the weather.

Though not for today, when the temperature will stall out in the high 30s, under cloudy skies.

But then: 47 degrees on Saturday! A bit cooler on Sunday, with a little snow.

And another run at moderate temperatures on Monday and especially Tuesday, when it might break 50.

COMMUTE

Subways: Big mess on the 1, 2 and 3: The 1 is replaced by shuttle buses south of Chambers Street. Southbound 2 runs local from 96th to Chambers. Northbound 2 runs on the 5 from Nevins Street to the Bronx. And the 3 is suspended between Atlantic/Barclays and Times Square.

Check latest status.

Rails: Scattered delays on North Jersey Coast Line. O.K. Check L.I.R.R., Metro-North or N.J. Transit status.

Roads: No major delays. Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s.

Alternate-side parking is in effect.

Weekend Travel Hassles: Check subway disruptions or list of street closings.

COMING UP TODAY

- Doughnut holes good, potholes bad: outside a Dunkin’ Donuts in Astoria, officials promote a bill requiring potholes to be fixed within five days. 11 a.m.

- No fair! Brooklynites rally for the same Verrazano Bridge toll discounts the M.T.A. recently granted Staten Islanders. 11:30 a.m. near the bridge.

- Mayor de Blasio talks with parent bloggers at City Hall about universal pre-K and after-school programs. 12:15 p.m.

- The author and technologist Jaron Lanier explains how digital networks have “led our economy into recession and decimated the middle class,” at Cooper Union. 6:30 p.m. [Free]

- A new show of art made from bits of the urban environment, including river flotsam and ceramic shards, at the Arsenal in Central Park. [Free]

- The New York Public Library hosts a Carnaval-themed party at the Schomburg Center in Harlem. 6 p.m. [Free, R.S.V.P.]

- The New York Disabilities Film Festival runs through March 11 at more than two dozen venues. [Admission varies]

IN THE NEWS

- Assemblyman William F. Boyland Jr. of Brooklyn was convicted on federal bribery charges. [New York Times]

- Officials at a school in Brooklyn did, effectively, nothing to stop an 11-year-old girl from being sexually abused by male students for months, the D.O.E. concluded. [Gothamist]

- A man yelling antigay slurs attacked a couple holding hands at the West Fourth Street subway station and broke one man’s nose. [CBS New York]

- Arrests for panhandling and peddling on the subways have tripled under Police Commissioner Bratton. [New York Times]

- Knockout attack: a 23-year-old man was randomly punched from behind in NoLIta. [CBS New York]

- A woman paid a fortune teller on West 51st Street $217,040 to remove a curse. [New York Post]

- A young Arctic harp seal took a winter vacation to the Rockaways and lolled on the beach in apparent good health. [DNAinfo]

- Of course: Two Brooklyn artists are living in a giant hamster wheel. [Animal New York]

- Scoreboard: Oilers douse Islanders, 3-2 in overtime.

THE WEEKEND

Saturday

- Street fair season begins: $25 gets you nibbles from seven high-end food vendors at “Taste of Seventh” on East Seventh Street. [Also Sunday]

- Wagner’s “Die Walkure,” performed in its entirety to piano accompaniment by New York Opera Forum, at the public library on East 96th Street. Noon. [Free]

- Ben Marcus, author of “The Flame Alphabet,” reads from his short-story collection, “Leaving the Sea,” at the main Brooklyn Public Library. 4 p.m. [Free]

- The Flamenco Festival runs through Sunday at New York City Center. [$25 and up]

Sunday

- Get Fido or Fluffy a free rabies shot at Blue Heron Park in Staten Island. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

- An interactive “autism-friendly” concert with a jazz saxophonist, at Mosholu Montefiore Community Center in the Bronx. 1 p.m. [Free]

- The 1934 Chinese silent film “The Goddess,” about an unmarried mother who turns to prostitution, at the main Brooklyn Public Library, with live music. 1 p.m. [Free]

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

- And if you’re looking for stuff to do outside New York City, The Times’s Metropolitan section has suggestions for Westchester, Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut.

AND FINALLY …

Think you know this city?

See you tonight at the Queens Museum’s Panorama of the City of New York.

That’s the scale model of the city that covers an area roughly the size of a baseball diamond.

It contains 895,000 buildings, 100 bridges and landmarks like a 15-inch-tall Empire State Building.

Why tonight?

It’s the Panorama Challenge Trivia Night, at 7 p.m.

If your team identifies the most locations, you will get your name etched on a trophy at the museum.

For now, etch your R.S.V.P.

Joseph Burgess contributed reporting.

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