Artful Weekend

A pilgrimage to The Modern is always a good idea. While you’re catching the final days of “Urban Theater: New York Art in the 1980s” (through January 4), do investigate the museum’s Focus exhibition for Paris-born, L.A.-raised, current New York painter Jules de Balincourt. De Balincourt renders precise details on an ambitious scale, while reveling in little narratives and scenes of dystopian America peppered with odd elements of utopia. Grandma Moses meets Pieter Bruegel the Elder pollinated by a bit of Florine Stettheimer, the nonetheless original artist invites us into his folk-inflected universe (through January 25).