Everything You Need To Know This Week On New York's Art Scene

Vivian Maier, Self-Portrait

Picture this: An eccentric street photographer creates over 100,000 images from the 1950s to the 1990s, passes away in relative obscurity, and is then posthumously hailed as one of the best urban photogs of the 20th century. Indeed, the story of Vivian Maier is an exceptional one. After spending her youth in France, the New York-born artist returned to her native country to work as a nanny and take thousands of pictures on her ever-present Rolleiflex of NYC and Chicago. Though she showed her work to no one while she was alive, Maier's brilliance finally got the recognition it deserved after her negatives were discovered by Chicago-based realtor and historian John Maloof at an auction house in 2007. He then traced the identity of the mysterious woman and brought her work to light, helping feature it in more than 20 exhibitions since 2010. Self-Portrait is the first showcase of Maier's many and varied self-portraits, which give a face to the artist that history almost forgot. When: November 8-December 14 Where: Howard Greenberg Gallery, 41 East 57 Street [Photo via]