Day 2 – Blue Wig, Chelsea Gallerys, Art Opening, Crash Party, Photo Shoot – Nov. 18, 2011 A Daily Journal of New York
Friday November 18th
Woke up from a full nights sleep! Yea, no jet lag! After a cup of coffee, we took the subway with my sculptures to the GLAAD offices. I forgot the batteries so we went to buy some and on the way I saw a great wig place and Lazar convinced me that it was just what I needed for my “look” on the opening of the GLAAD OutAuction on Sunday (sorry, no pictures -that would spoil the surprise). I agreed, on the promise that we find something funky for him to wear as well. Dropped of the 9v battery and continued to a vintage clothing store, in an attempt to find a new look for Lazar (by the way, calling him “Lazar” and not “Michael” is in my opinion a positive image change – what do you think? I’m not sure if Lazar agrees) We were recommended to go to– “Cheap Jack’s Vintage Clothing, on 303 5th Avenue and 31st St. The clothes were anything but cheap. From $50 up to $250. Here is what we came up with:
The jacket 170 usd
Check out original donny and marie t-shirt – only 150 usd
The complete ensemble – pants, shirt and jacket
What about the Hawaiian look? – This one is my favorite!
In the end the only one who bought something was me (of course). It was a see through light blue vintage apron that had a challa and Shabbat candles and said “Good Shabas”. I am thinking – photo shoot, naked woman wearing the apron and holding up two candles or a challa over breasts and doing it all in vintage style :-).
From there we walked and walked and walked to Chelsea.
Finally arrived and started to walk down the main street of galleries and started to go in to each one. Here are the ones we saw:
________________________________________________________________________________
- The Pace Gallery, 510 West 25th Street, New York, Hiroshi Sugimoto, “Surface of the Third Order”
check out the reflection in the glass! Looking back, this exhibit was probably my favorite of everything that we saw (and it was the first one we walked into!) each of these 12 sculptures goes for 60,000 usd – and they were all sold!
“An exhibition of new objects by Hiroshi Sugimoto, with work from the same series presented concurrently at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas. The exhibition will feature two bodies of conceptual three-dimensional work: intimately-sized crystal pagodas inlaid with images from Sugimoto’s iconic Seascape series and large-scale aluminum sculptures based on mathematical functions.
________________________________________________________________________________
2. Andreas Kocks: re:paint, Winston Wachter Fine Art, Inc, 530 West 25th Street, New York
I liked these pieces as well. They were made out of paper or “Bristol” as we say in Israel.
Quoted from the Press Release:
“Working solely with paper and a limited color palette, Kocks’ forms seek to evoke and balance elements of four artistic genres: the linearity of drawing, the painterly brushstroke, the specific element of architecture, and the physicality of sculpture. Whereas in his previous show the capacity of architecture to frame and activate space was exploited and celebrated, here it is the brushstroke that takes center stage. Recalling Lichtenstein’s iconic series of brushstrokes, and the celebration of the master’s hand within art historical tradition, Kocks gives the viewer a new way to think about this most fundamental artistic element. With sizeable dimensions and a three-dimensional corporeality, the brushstroke is given a new life.”
Yeah….. that’s what I wanted to say, just couldn’t think of the words 🙂
________________________________________________________________________________
3. The next gallery was another space also owned by, The Pace Gallery. The exhibit was of artist Matta: A Centennial Celebration.
I really liked this artist – especially the third painting down – the cost? Only 957,000 usd – a bargain considering the guy has been dead for ten years already!
“Chilean-born Matta is considered one of the great Surrealists and is widely acclaimed for his critical – and catalytic – influence on the development of Abstract Expressionism andon his contemporaries, including Jackson Pollock, Arshili Gorky, Mark Rothnko and Robert Motherwell. “The Ffunction of art,” Matta once said, “is to unveil the enormous economic, cultural, and emotional forces that materially interact in our lives andthat constitue the real space in which we live”
________________________________________________________________________________
4. Next on our stop was the Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street.
They had a group exhibit of many artists. The ones I really liked was the guy who did sculptures out of Lego (Nathan Sawaya), and alsot Rolf M. Vogt who did Collages in Plexi, and Jeanette Marie Kjeldsen had some really cool paintings. The rest I found to be very mainstream. The gallery was nice, and while not as impressive as the previous solo exhibits I had seen, I would still probably agree to sell a kidney to have my art pieces shown there:-).The price were much more moderate as well, ranging from 500 usd – 12,00 usd. sorry, no pictures here.
________________________________________________________________________________
5. ONE OF THESE PAINTINGS IS WORTH $1,200,000 – which one is it?
One of these paintings is the canvas that my friend Lazar uses to clean his brushes, and the other one is by Joan Mitchell, and is selling or 1.2 million dollars.
We then went to another gallery NAME UNKNOWN, that had some abstract paintings that looked like the paint can spilled on the canvas and then they used the canvas to clean the paint brushes. Its not that I don’t like this style … its just that sometimes for some reason, unexplained to me, it works like majic, and other times, it just looks like crap and this, in my very humble opinion, was one of them. To which is which press here
________________________________________________________________________________
6. We continued on to the Dillon Gallery, that had a showing of artist Alexander Kaletski, called Contemplation (November 4-December 6, 2011).
What was super cool, was how he took a very simple figurative sketch and painted it again and again on different backgrounds, and canvases (many of which were cardboard boxes), thereby creating completely different paintings.
The guy who runs this gallery was very nice by the way and he said they accept submissions thorugh their web site.
________________________________________________________________________________
7. Stricoff Fine Art, 564 W. 25th Street.
Michel Vandenplas, the director of the gallery was very helpful and friendly. The artist that stuck out in both Lazar’s and my mind was that of Emma Rodgers (her work was slightly reminiscent of Lazars.)
this bronze casted piece, changes positions like a marionette and creates interesting shadows on the wall, which become a work of art in themselves.
________________________________________________________________________________
8. And then there was Malborough….yep the infamous Marlborough gallery.
When I first walked in and saw these super elaborate gold picture frames and what looked like middle eastern or far east tapestry , I kind of rolled my eyes, but then, I got closer and realized that they were all collages from magazines cut and pasted into the design and I started to see what the artist was doing. I felt like every piece here could be looked at and taken apart for hours.
The work was by Rashaad Newsom, and to quote the press release, “Rashaad Newsome’s work comprises of a visual vocabulary that combines high neo Baroque style with low pop-advertising imagery in obsessively-handmade collages. His richly detailed compositions form a kind of Rosetta stone for the hip-hop culture. Newsome culls familiar images of luxury goods from glossy consumer magazines: sports gear, jewel-encrusted brooches, rings, watches furs and yachts, which he meticulously affixes in richly layered compositions with patterned backgrounds and a distinctive use of central space with crests and shield built form unexpected detail.” …… wow….. they really hit the nail with this description… I wish I could write like this! 🙂
________________________________________________________________________________
9. Next on our list was Gagosian Gallery, with the largest Richard Serra sculpture that I had been in.
There were two: Junction (2011) and Cycle (2010), and while once you have experienced Serra, its all kind of the same, yet to experience it on this large scale with its massive disorientation, was really neat. (I know, I keep using words like “cool” and “neat” …. Guess Ill have to go back to school to study “B.S.” 101 again.
_________________________________________________________________________________
After all of these I was really hungry, and a little saturated from all the art,we started to look for a place to eat. On the way, I saw some street art:
We went to a great burger joint where we each had the “Chelsea Special” with fries and coke. We couldn’t believe it was already 4pm and we hadn’t eaten anything all day! We were so caught up in the art!
We went back to Kenny’s apartment to unwind. Unfortunatly, we looked up when the openings were and where and realized they opened from 5-7 and they were back in Chelsea, so we got up and went on the subway again. Got to the gallery where the opening was advertised, Derek Eller Gallery, 615 West 27th St., and Irony of Ironies, it turned out to be a young Israeli artist, Rona Yefman, with her show “Marath a Bouke, project #4” and the photo’s were taken of a transgeneder male in tel aviv and a video art in front of the Tel Aviv Museum. We didn’t stay too long, as we arrived towards the end, and the drinks had run out….
Rona Yefman Martha Bouke and Andy’s Flowers, Visit at the Museum, 2011
c-print 40 x 30 inches edition of 5 (with 2 AP’s)
____________________________________________________________________________
Leaving the opening, we saw a bunch of people going into another gallery for a private opening. I told Lazar, to follow me, and we joined the crowd. Everyone stood in line to be checked in as it was by invite only. Knowing our names would not be on the list, I cut to the front and greated the girl as if we were long lost friends and asked where the coat room was. When we went to hang up our jackets, I noticed a side entrance and we sneaked in. Turned out it was an opening for a book from “Time” magazine, with a collection of their best photographers. Lots of people, and a good bar, so we decided to stay and mingle a bit.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De2cusRAUBU&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
We started to mingle a bit and I met a guy called Shaggy, who wanted me to Shagg him for the week (yeah right! – sooo not). He is a Photographer for Talent Magazine www.timmag.com. The guy has long shaggy hair and on his business card he has a picture of a shaggy dog. I guess it’s a good way to make sure people will remember you, but Im not sure that that is how I would want to be remembered. We had seen and drunk enough, so we went to get our coats. At the coat room I met a guy Eddie, who kept telling me what a great smile I had blab la bla…. And then said he is a blogger and photographer and would love to do a photo shoot of me. I told him thanks and to be in touch but I was only in New York for a few days. He said, what about now? I guess I had drunk too much cause I said yes, so Lazar and Eddie and I went into the stair well and took the following shots:
He wanted Lazar to work as a model too, but as you can see it was kind of akward. These are just a few of the 100 or so photo’s that he took. The rest aren’t so flattering.
This is eddies blogspott. http://nycbyeddiep.blogspot.com/ as you can see, he is a sweet guy, and kind of does the same theme over and over again. Luckly I was unable to find the post where he put up all of the photo’s he took – the good the bad and the ugly 🙂
Laughing as we left the “photo shoot” we grabbed a cab to the village where we walked around trying to find a place to eat – I was still suffering from heartburn, with the flight and jet lag and all, so we went to a Thai restaurant so I could get something simple and not fried – I settled for a coconut filled with rice and crabmeat – yummmm. Afterwards we wandered around a bit – a lot of live music in the bars, but they were all packed as it was Friday night, and since it was a very very long day, we went back to Kenny’s couches to crash.
END OF DAY TWO!
Tomorrows highlights: SOHO, SOHO, SOHO (and another attempt at creating a new look for Lazar 🙂
Leave a Reply