| The New York Optimist August, 2008 |
Gallery Art Crawl, August 7th, 2008
Here we are, in the Summer doldrums, the dog days of August, and it
sure shows; Chelsea feels like a ghost town, with only five or six
openings as opposed to the 20-30 usual receptions on any given Thursday. But
fret not...September 4th,the Grand Re-Opening,will see the return of
the masses, sporting their tans from the Hampton's, Nantucket, the
Vineyard, Fire and Block Islands, St.Tropez, etc. September 4th is the
Chelsea Block Party, and I fully expect to see you all there in your
linens and Guayaberas, but enough with the sandals guys...leave the flip
flops at the beach house. Remember, art looks better if you look better,
so lets step it up...no more slumming it on the art crawl. Lets
blur the line between starving artist, critic, gallerist and collector.
Lets just all enjoy some art!
On a different note, I have a bone to pick with a new aspect of the
gallery scene. It has to do with the emergence of the new gallery
presence on the Lower East Side. More galleries are opening up down there,
and many are relocating from Chelsea. My problem is that the galleries
in this new venue also choose Thursday evening for their
openings...problem is that as of yet, we have yet to perfect the being in two
places at the same time. I feel that Chelsea sort of has the monopoly on
Thursday openings, so why double-book? I don't believe the tenet of
divide and conquer is suitable in this situation. I'm pretty
sure if the LES galleries had their openings on Friday, much of the
traffic that chooses Chelsea on Thursdays, they would also visit the LES
on Friday, hell, even Wednesday. With all the great restaurants, what a
perfect date-scenario...friday evening, art openings, dinner and
drinks...very appealing.
Who decided that openings have to be on Thursday, and if the LES scene wants
to create its own identity, why not start from scratch, define and develop itself
on its own terms, not the pre-existing formula. Right now, I feel the
LES is the ugly step-child of Chelsea, and for one, I will continue to
choose and attend the Chelsea openings. There simply is more to see,
more emerging and established artists, more openings, more people,
greater concentration of visual stimulus. It is like David and Goliath,
but in this scenario David gets his come-uppance. Can't we all just
get along, in harmony?
Here we are, in the Summer doldrums, the dog days of August, and it
sure shows; Chelsea feels like a ghost town, with only five or six
openings as opposed to the 20-30 usual receptions on any given Thursday. But
fret not...September 4th,the Grand Re-Opening,will see the return of
the masses, sporting their tans from the Hampton's, Nantucket, the
Vineyard, Fire and Block Islands, St.Tropez, etc. September 4th is the
Chelsea Block Party, and I fully expect to see you all there in your
linens and Guayaberas, but enough with the sandals guys...leave the flip
flops at the beach house. Remember, art looks better if you look better,
so lets step it up...no more slumming it on the art crawl. Lets
blur the line between starving artist, critic, gallerist and collector.
Lets just all enjoy some art!
On a different note, I have a bone to pick with a new aspect of the
gallery scene. It has to do with the emergence of the new gallery
presence on the Lower East Side. More galleries are opening up down there,
and many are relocating from Chelsea. My problem is that the galleries
in this new venue also choose Thursday evening for their
openings...problem is that as of yet, we have yet to perfect the being in two
places at the same time. I feel that Chelsea sort of has the monopoly on
Thursday openings, so why double-book? I don't believe the tenet of
divide and conquer is suitable in this situation. I'm pretty
sure if the LES galleries had their openings on Friday, much of the
traffic that chooses Chelsea on Thursdays, they would also visit the LES
on Friday, hell, even Wednesday. With all the great restaurants, what a
perfect date-scenario...friday evening, art openings, dinner and
drinks...very appealing.
Who decided that openings have to be on Thursday, and if the LES scene wants
to create its own identity, why not start from scratch, define and develop itself
on its own terms, not the pre-existing formula. Right now, I feel the
LES is the ugly step-child of Chelsea, and for one, I will continue to
choose and attend the Chelsea openings. There simply is more to see,
more emerging and established artists, more openings, more people,
greater concentration of visual stimulus. It is like David and Goliath,
but in this scenario David gets his come-uppance. Can't we all just
get along, in harmony?
| And now on to the galleries... Hero Shen Jingdong at China Square 545 W. 25th Street, 8th Floor Curated by Eric C. shriner August 5-30, 2008 Hero offers up a refreshing take on some of the prediminant themes in contemporary Chinese art: Communism, the military, industry and economic growth. Shena's paintings and sculptures are portraits of seemingly mass-produced generic figurines, differentiated and distinguishable only through their wardrobe, army, navy, air force. In some cases, the figures all smile generically, in others uniformly straight-faced, with the exception of our Hero, who is shedding tears. The figures loosely remind me of the playmobiles I played with as a kid in Europe. She successfully separates his subjects from direct scrutiny, disarming them, presenting them as store-bought toys, more than any actual threat or historical reference. |
| Unfortunately, there was an event at White Box they forgot to invite me to, but it sounded like a lot of fun...it involved drinking to vote for your favorite presidential candidate, with your empties serving as ballots and you could vote as often as you wanted! And for all those of you still on the Hampton's through August, I wish to alert you to a great event. Caio Fonseca, one of my favorite painters, is showing paintings on canvas and paper at the Drawing Room, 16R Newton Lane, East Hampton from August 14-September 29 with a reception for the artist Saturday, August 23rd, 5-7 pm. Don't miss it! Also, during my absence the past couple weeks, I missed a couple openings, apparently. If you're in the neighborhood, I suggest you stop by the Prince Street Gallery. Dasha Shkurpela is showing sculptures, paintings, and works on paper. I wish there were only the sculptures, and these are what I recommend...the works on the wall, though referential only distract. Windows. Dasha Shkurpela at Prince Street gallery 530 W. 25th Street, 4th Floor |
New York City |
| And of course, after this limited crawl, we made out way to the Fryingpan on Pier 66a for a front row seat of sunset over New Jersey, with cold, refreshing libations and great company, friends both new and old. |
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