AN AFTERNOON STROLL THROUGH CHELSEA

On a bitter cold day in early 2008 we found ourselves with a perfect parking spot on W 22 so we took a tour of the Chelsea galleries to see who was open. Here's what we saw:

ALBERTO BURRI @ MITCHELL-INNES & NASH
This retrospective of the late artist's works just knocked me for a loop. Well-rooted in the Arte Povera movement of the 1960's, Burri's work teams with the desire to find beauty in the most unusual places: Mail sacks sewn together and trussed with rope to stretchers creates a perfect combination of Mondrian Modernism with Sixties Minimalism; melted and burnt plastic create "action drawings" of delicate effect and lyricism; and the two large panels at the rear of the gallery appear like enormous sections of deeply parched earth, one pale, one black! Check it out before it closes January 18th!!

YASUMASA MORIMURA @ LUHRING AUGUSTINE
Morimura takes on men and history! In the first gallery are large stills of the artist recreating historic men in historic moments: two Einsteins, one sticking his tongue out, one not; Morimura as Lee Harvey Oswald being shot, as Trotsky & Lenin, as Charlie Chaplin in "The Great Dictator". In the rear gallery are three large video projects. These Requiems present three historic events in current time and space. We see Morimura as Lenin delivering his great address to "the people", here an actual group of street people who just sort of "hang around", dissipating as the artist sprinkles them with artificial snow. We also get Morimura as Charlie Chaplin as Hitler, which starts off brilliantly with an onerous speech in gibberish made of national adjectives (Chinese, British) then turns long-winded, as he spouts on about not wanting to be a dictator, whilst trying to recreate Chaplin's ballet with globe/balloon from "The Great Dictator" in the halls of some officious Japanese hall overlooking a highway. Then finally we get Morimura as Mishima, spurring on his uninterested audience to rise up in revolution and rebel. It's an ambitious project, but it gets bogged down by its own weight. The video lacks the joie-de-vivre we get from a Morimura still, even one of him being shot point blank by a Jack Ruby stand-in.

90° The Margins as Center @ ANDREA ROSEN GALLERY
A rather upscale market show which has allowed the staff to renew their affinity with corners of their gallery. You're heartily greeted by a large globular sculpture from 1969 by Lynda Benglis. Head straight back, going under Robert Morris' "Untitled" (Corner Beam), 1964, to Gallery Two where a heavenly James Turrell corner piece glows blue. And no corner show could be complete with out the maestro himself, Richard Serra, represented here with two large prop pieces with two bored security guards (Mind The Black Tape). Worth a pop in. Very posh!!

Also seen:

Group Show @ Sonnabend Gallery - A lot of the usual suspects. Check out Matthew Weinstein's "Triumph of Painting" series and the Haim Steinbachs in the back.

Joel Shapiro @ Pace Wilderstein - Bigger is not better in this case. Nor is bronze, which makes a number of these works feel bulky. The standouts here are the pieces in wood. Stained on some sides, each block is interesting in its own construction, and they come together with a lightness the other works lack.

The Geometry of Seeing: The Art of Elaine Lustig Cohen 1966 - 2007 @ Julie Saul Gallery - Art by a renown graphic designer. The collages are very well done indeed.