Every week, WGBH Arts Editor  Jared Bowen sums up the exhibitions, theater, movies and music you should check out in and around Boston.

Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty, on view at Lesley University’s Lunder Arts Center through November 19

Lesley University's Synopsis: "'Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty' will be the first-ever major exhibition of Penn’s work in the Boston metropolitan area, and this exhibit’s only appearance in New England. ... The exhibition features work from all stages of Penn’s career—street scenes from the late 1930s, photographs of the American South from the early 1940s, celebrity portraits, fashion photographs, still lifes, and more private studio images. 'Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty,' drawn from the holdings of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, will display 146 photographs from the museum’s permanent collection, including 100 photographs recently donated to the museum by The Irving Penn Foundation."

Jared Says: "A sharply told story of a photographer refusing to be confined, who had an enduring commitment to being an artist."

Doris Salcedo: The Materiality of Mourning, on view at the Harvard Art Museum through April 9, 2017

Harvard Art Museum's Synopsis: "Doris Salcedo: The Materiality of Mourning brings together a deeply evocative constellation of recent works by Doris Salcedo, the renowned Colombian Artist known for her sculptures and public installations that respond to the testimonies of survivors and victims of political violence. ... Salcedo’s artistic process is distinctive in the way it fuses painstaking research with works fastidiously made by hand. The Materiality of Mourning features four separate installations, with a number of Salcedo’s works created between 2001 and today. These include the Harvard Art Museums’ recent acquisition, “A Flor de Piel” (2013), which debuts publicly for the first time in this exhibition."

Jared Says: "Pure, haunting brilliance."

Shakespeare Unauthorized, presented by the Boston Public Library in the McKim Exhibition Hall through March 31, 2017

Boston Public Library's Synopsis: "Shakespeare Unauthorized pulls back the curtain on four hundred years of collaboration, confusion, and even literary deception that surround the plays, poems, and life of William Shakespeare. Through an unprecedented exhibition of the Boston Public Library’s world-class collections, visitors can view some of the rarest, most extraordinary books in the world, including rare first and early editions of beloved plays like A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, and The Merchant of Venice, as well as all four Shakespearean folios."

Jared Says: "It's fair to say that this is a rather Earth-shattering excavation of Shakespeare."

Mala, presented by ArtsEmerson at the Paramount Theatre through November 20

ArtsEmerson's Synopsis: "Mala puts a sharp focus on what it means to put our loved ones first, right to the very end, and what happens when we strive to be good but don't always succeed. A world premiere production by ArtsEmerson, this powerful one-woman show by and featuring Cuban-American Melinda Lopez transports us into a world which is uniquely first generation in its specifics, and universal in its power. An utterly unsentimental journey towards the end of life, Mala is an irreverent exploration of how we live, cope and survive in the moment." 

Jared Says: "Dying, as we know, is nasty business for the living, and Melinda Lopez brings a piercing honesty."

Whats going on with the arts in your world? » Tell Jared about it on  Facebook or  Twitter

This post has been updated.