New York will be hit with 90-plus-degree highs for the foreseeable future, but don’t let that keep you from this week’s superb crop of openings. Here's one good reason: Mixed Greens has invited the Belgian-waffle-purveying Wafels & Dinges truck to camp outside its space for its opening night. Order the Coupe Dame Blanche, a waffle blessed with three scoops of vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, and chocolate fudge: a perfect way to cool down after a hot evening spent seeing art.

WEDNESDAY

Normal Dimensions,” at Half Gallery, 208 Forsyth Street, through August 13, opening Wednesday, July 14, 6–8 p.m., halfgallery.com

At the young gallery — co-owned (along with James Frey and Andy Spade) by that scruffy snark-pot critic on Bravo's Work of Art: The Next Great Artist, Bill Powers — the  multitasking curatorial maven Neville Wakefield assembled this show about the hidden identities of seemingly simple objects. The three screws in the wall are there on purpose, subtle sculptures conceived by British artist Susan Collis that are made of silver, red carnelian, jasper, and onyx. Londoner Olympia Scarry also uses subterfuge, riffing on Beuys with a five-foot-long white block made of fat, water, lye, and saliva. Swiss artist Carol Bove straddles the gap between unique and editioned work in her Woman sculpture, a seven-copy work, each iteration adorned with a peacock feather. A piece by the show’s fourth and final artist Xaviera Simmons is titled Whatever the Cost, I'll Pay in Full. It’s better that you see it for yourself.

Inspired,” at Steven Kasher Gallery, 521 West 23rd Street, through August 13, opening Wednesday, July 14, 6–8 p.m., stevenkasher.com

Arts patron Beth Rudin DeWoody, who was feted at the Parrish Art Museum last weekend, curated this 30-plus-artist show of photographs that copy, expand on, or play with iconic images. Par exemple: the subjects in Mickalene Thomass version of Manets Le Dejeuner Sur L'Herbe wear clothing with patterns worthy of a Seydou Keïta portrait and lend the photo its subtitle: Les Trois Femmes Noires. Elsewhere, Kathy Rudins Dunkin' Donuts snapshot emulates Eggleston, LaToya Ruby Fraziers self-portait mines Helmut Newton, and Scott Peterman updates Berenice Abbotts Nightview of New York. Terence Koh, typically ambitious, channels Duchamp and Warhol.

THURSDAY

Gimme Shelter,” at Mixed Greens, 531 West 26th Street, through August 20, opening Thursday, July 15, 6–8 p.m., mixedgreens.com

It’s hard to beat a show with such an illustrious title, which its 17 artists have taken more or less literally. Kevin Cyr builds a shelter from a shopping cart and a tent, while Jonathan Durham documents a service at a mega-church in Texas filled with people looking for spiritual sanctuary. Also on display will be Kate Gilmores superb Down the House, which involves the theatrical destruction of home, a comedic counterpoint to Eric Heists tragic images of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. 

Here We Aren’t, So Quickly,” at Thierry Goldberg Projects, 5 Rivington Street, through September 5, opening Thursday, July 15, 6–8 p.m., thierrygoldberg.com

Reviewing MoMA P.S.1s “Greater New York” exhibition, artist Mira Schor recently posited that the art on display showed “little evidence of any trust in the capacity of a singular object or medium to carry meaning.” That couldn’t be said of the three young artists in this show, who all make figurative works (sans accoutrement), albeit with varying degrees of obfuscation. Japanese artist Hiroyuki Nakamura depicts characters from the American heartland — farmers, cowboys — with surreal touches, while Krisjanis Katkins-Gorsline obscures his subjects’ identities with patches of abstraction. Guy Ben-Ari is the most direct, painting pictures of people looking at pictures: they’re feel-good pictures (nothing wrong with that), fashioned with a Katz-ian verve.

SATURDAY

Wavelength” and “< — >,” at Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Avenue, Saturday, July 17, 7 p.m. and 8:15 p.m., anthologyfilmarchives.org

Now 80 years old and still churning out new work, Canadian multimedia artist Michael Snow remains one of the past century’s most underappreciated aesthetic innovators in the U.S. Anthology is presenting his rarely seen (outside of film school) structuralist classic Wavelength (1967), which features a guest appearance by filmmaker Hollis Frampton, along with the even more rarely seen (1969), whose visual content mimics its bizarre title.