NICELY NICELY: A Walk Through Chelsea

The thaw and the need to pick up art brought us to Chelsea today. While in the neighborhood we saw:


Joel Sternfeld "First Pictures" @ Luhring Augustine (531 W 24) - As the title announces, the photographs in this large exhibit all date from 1970 to 1986, many of which have never before been printed for exhibition, and set up the vocabulary the photographer would refine in later work. Nearly encyclopedic in volume, the prints themselves are modest in size; representing four separate "volumes" of work, there is a nostalgic, yet witty quality that makes you know you are looking at one man's work. I find the shore photos particularly charming and the show is a wonderful chronicle of some awful low-end fashion and styling. This show ends February 4th so catch it if you can!

Joel Sternfeld "First Pictures"

Shirin Neshat @ Gladstone (515 W 24) - Voluptuous large black-and-white photographs, mostly portraits, all inscribed with either text or drawings based on a classic Persian epic "The Book of Kings". A 3-channel video from 2010 entitled "Over-Ruled" runs in the back: A panoramic panel of a judge and his "assistants" is flanked by an oud player on one side and a singer on the other. I found the proportions of the work rather stunted and might work better as a larger projection. Closes February 11th.


Damien Hirst "The Complete Spot Paintings 1986-2011" @ Gagosian (all galleries) - The title says it all: a preposterous amount of dots shown in a preposterous way (the true Hirst-Heads can earn a free signed print if they make the effort to see all 11 exhibits before March 17th). Of the two downtown spaces the one on W 21 Street is the more intriguing selection; a wide selection of sizes and densities show the fun playfulness of this conceit (a small canvas packed with tiny spots is particularly giddy). The pretentiousness of the conceit comes to the forée on W 24th Street where too much of the same thing in the same room shows their vapid side. The most effective section here is the back gallery with the tondo paintings, circles on circles were a nice 60's flashback! In NYC until February 18th.

Hirst Spot Paintings on 24th St

Chris Martin @ Mitchell-Innes & Nash (534 W 26) Paintings - The third show by this Brooklyn-based painter at this gallery is a provocative mix of some of the painters earlier tropes with newer ones, including a grid of newspaper on the surface of the paintings, a Jamaican flag color palette, and curious cut-outs. The contagious silliness that drew me to Martins work previously is lacking in these new works, but still on view in some of the largest canvases. Don't forget to pat the lucky lawn troll in the corner. Worth a peek.



Also seen:
Bosco Sodi "Ubi sunt" @ Pace (545 W 22) The unique signature style of this Mexican-born, Brooklyn-based artist is hard-worn ugly deep-pile shag carpet. This work reminds me of Arte Povera surface paintings or Yves Klein texture paintings in colors that go well with peoples sofas. Ugh!!

THE WEDDING (THE WALKER EVANS POLAROID PROJECT) WITH RONI HORN/A curatorial composition by Ydessa Hendeles @ Andrea Rosen (525 W 24) A high falutin' show for a lot of mediocre SX-70 nicely displayed. Roni Horn should register a protest. It's closing SOON!!


Clay Ketter @ Sonnabend (536 W 22)  Lush, large-format color photo show of decaying Spain. Nice work from this photographer. Worth a peek.

Back in the saddle again: A Walk thru Chelsea

On a recent rainy Friday we found ourselves delivering art to W 26th St. While in the neighborhood we saw:


Deborah Butterfield @ Danese (535 W 24) - It took an artist of Butterfield's stature and reliability to get to go up to the top floor of this building to see this gallery's premier show. Elegant and austere, Butterfield continues to produce her equine sculptures from found wood. The pieces convey the strength and tenderness of these beautiful animals.

Agnes Martin @ Pace (524 W25 St) - A small survey of Grey Paintings from the 80's. Martin was able to captured the veiled quality of the second string color field painters and tie it into the Minimalist movement that the 60's and the earthworks of the 70's. Working in New Mexico, Martin's work reflects the majestic meditative landscape there. Most impressive are the canvases who's greys are lovely washes of blues.


Social Media @ Pace (510 W25 St) - This group show just closed but took an interesting look at the way social media is changing the artist's way of seeing. One got the sense of media overload and the virtual became visceral. Penelope Umbrico used thousands of images off of Flicker to create images of sunsets. Emilio Chapela's "According to Google" is a multi-volume collection of images gleaned off of the search engine, each volume titled singularly like "Sex" and "Love". While thumbing through these bound books one can't help but chortle at some of the unusual images that crop up. Christopher Baker's "Murmur Study" places thermal printers high on the wall and printing out reams upon reams of tweets referencing emotional sounds like "ooo" and "aahh". The output is funny and frightening.


Richard Serra @ Gagosian (555 W24) - Two enormous new works, Junction and Cycle. The artist continues to explore the juxtaposition and nesting of his huge cor-ten steel walls. Vertiginous and scary, Serra is at the top of his game.

Also seen:
David Byrne @ Pace (508 W 25) "Tight Spot" - An enormous inflatable globe stuffed into a tight spot under the High Line that emitted some low thrumming sound. Huh?


Paul Winstanley @ Mitchell-Innes & Nash (534 W 26) Paintings - A second US show by this British painter. Using photography as a jumping off point, these pictures are too hazy to be photo-realistic and too real to be expressionist. A bit too mundane in their imagery, the most interesting works tend to come in pairs of similar images executed in slight variations in color and representation. Worth a peek.


Lari Pittman @ Gladstone (515 W 24) - As Pittman's "prestige" moves up, his paintings become more and more about less and less. Thin and flashy, the artist obviously took a trip to Brazil and these canvases are the result. Ho-hum.

A STROLL THROUGH CHELSEA

Since our invitation to a studio visit to the Upper East Side was rescinded we strolled the Hi-Line then took in some art. Here's what we saw:

JANET CARDIFF & GEORGE BURES MILLER @ LUHRING AUGUSTINE GALLERY -Fabulous fun. Cardiff and Miller continue to produce smart works that demand the visitor's attention. Aural and narrative exploration are the words-dejour here. Three 'antique' black telephones adorn the wall when you enter the gallery. Definitely sit in on the bleary dream Cardiff recounts on the rightmost of the three. Mid-Gallery contains The Carnie, a large loud carousel with two small children floating above it. Make your way through as quickly as you can and get your behind into the last gallery which contains a lovely old wooden library filing cabinet. The piece is called "The Cabinet of Curiousness". Open a drawer and a sound or a voice or piece of music emerges from the drawer. Drawers can be opened and closed in random order which made for great viewer interaction. This piece drew me in so deeply and contentedly that i never listened to the final telephone pieces. On my next visit, because I intend to come back!
I would love to concertize on this instrument!! GO NOW!!
Up until May 1, 2010 - DO MOT MISS! TOTO AND I BOTH SAY GO!!




URSULA VON RYDINGSVARD @ GALERIE LELONG - Large, raw wooden sculptures. A variety of inside-outside vessel objects are crafted with the artist's usual attention to rough-hewn detail. Impressive in a Teutonic-fetish way. Ouch!!

Up until May 1, 2010 - WORTH A LOOK!




DONALD BAECHLER @ CHEIM & READ - Baechler continues to institutionalize his naïf style. Large flowers, soccer balls and skulls float on enormous tarps of spattered paint and newsprint. Theses pieces are big! And absolutely nothing new.


Up until MARCH 27, 2010 - IF YOU MUST. DEFINITELY FOR PAINTHEADS!!




CATHERINE OPIE  @ GLADSTONE GALLERY- Beautiful butch lesbians. Opie's color work is rich and straightforward. Her small black and white are fiercely fetishistic and don't really dull their porno appeal. Opie is highly capable and highly over-rated.
Up until April 24, 2010 - HOT HOT HOT??


Also seen:


APRIL ROSS-HO:  "Somebody stop me" @ MITCHELL-INNES & NASH- A nice New York debut by this California based artist. Very girly, very gold. My hat is off to anyone who makes their own pegboard! And we love the enormous inverted gold clown pin and gold chain ornaments. WORTH A LOOK.


ANDRE BUTZER: "Nicht fürchten! Don´t be scared!" @ METRO PICTURES GALLERY - Large, thick lavish paintings. Messy and derivative. Standouts are Grablegung von Winnie Puh (Entombment of Winnie the Pooh) and Nicht fürchten! (3) (Don't be Scared! (3))!! WORTH A WALK-THRU.


WES LANG: "Smile, It's a Grey Day: @ ZIEHERSMITH GALLERY - More paintings, large and small. Memento Mori moments galore. The smaller works are more successful, especially the 'black' paintings, simpler and more evocative. FLIP A COIN.

WILHELM SASNAL @ ANTON KERN GALLERY - A talented Polish painter working in the German School of Everystyle. Dim, wishy-washy and uninspiring. IF YOU MUST.


BARBARA KRUGER @ MARY BOONE GALLERY - A large scale multichannel video of humorless humor "artfully" projected. SKIP IT.

A Stroll Through Chelsea

While all the Hottentots were busy with the Armory Show and its offshoots, Toto and I took time to take in a few shows in Chelsea. Here's what we saw:

KEN PRICE @ MATTHEW MARKS GALLERY - Fun, fun, fun. These witty ceramic works are finished with gorgeous painted surfaces that are channeling the spirit and voluptuousness of Austrian glass from the turn of the last century. We loved the deflated Macy's Thanksgiving Day float in luminous gold as we entered the front door and continued through the entire exhibit. A favorite: the tubular 360 tube in Loetz peacock blue!


Up until April 17, 2010 - VERY FUN! TOTO AND I BOTH SAY GO!!




JAN DIBBETS @ GLADSTONE GALLERY - Ellsworth Kelly meets Todd Hido. Deceptively simple photographs are juxtaposed at right-angles which combine the horizon lines contained in both photos. Varied photo sizes as well as placement on the larger paper field add enough variety to the mix while a perimeter line in graphite unite them. Fanciful and not unpleasant.


Up until January 16, 2010 - WORTH A LOOK!




BILL JENSEN @ CHEIM & READ - An 80's stalwart re-emerges as an apostle of abstract painting. Jensen has refined his palette and style to his benefit. His surfaces are less tortured then they once were and his color choices have brightened. Compact and well composed, many of these paintings are truly delightful. The show also features many black & white drawings that seem to reflect the artist's study of Chinese Philosophy, the escape hatch for most American Abstract Painters today.


Up until MARCH 27, 2010 - I APPRECIATED THE EFFORT MORE THAN TOTO! DEFINITELY FOR DIE-HARD PAINTHEADS!!



JOE BRADLEY & CHRIS MARCH @ MITCHELL-INNES & NASH - This two-man show juxtaposes the delicious painterly excesses of our city's foremost painters, Mr. March, with an acolyte of the Minimalist school, Mr. Bradley. The two play off each other well displaying a nice study in painterly composition and construction! Mr. March in particular shines with large exuberant paintings.


Up until March 27, 2010 - DON'T MISS!!

 Also seen:


WOLFGANG TILLMANS @ ANDREA ROSEN GALLERY - A sprawling photographic installation of Mr. Tillmans’ snapshots. I think Mr. Tillmans may have found his 'happy medium' in the large-scale photos in the smaller second gallery. These large vertical works seem to work best for his images. Lesson learnt, Mr. Tillmans? Let's hope so. WORTH A QUICK PEEK.


GARY SIMMONS @ METRO PICTURES GALLERY - These white on black images of movie palaces and drive-ins are nicely rendered and executed. The enormous wall drawing in the back gallery is a tour-de-force!! MAKE A WALK-THRU.


CANDIDA HOFER @ SONNABEND - More of the usual from Empress of the Interior. Cold and a bit more washed-out than usual. The standout image is in the rear gallery of the a wonderfully rococo interior littered with empty Phillip Stark Ghost Chairs. HEAD STRAIGHT TO THE BACK AND LOOK RIGHT. THEN LEAVE.


TONY SMITH @ GAGOSIAN GALLERY - A blue-chip show of America's grandfather of abstract sculpture. Simple, direct and nicely curated. IF YOU MUST.


PETER HALLEY @ MARY BOONE GALLERY - More Cells and Conduits in 80's day-glo and glitter. Does anyone still buy these? Does anyone still buy this? Hello Mr. Halley? 1988 is calling; it wants its hair scrunchy back. SKIP IT.

A WALK THROUGH CHELSEA

Dropping our postcard entry off at VisualAIDS, we took a quick peek at a few exhibits in Chelsea. Here's what we saw:

NORBERT SCHWONTKOWSKI "ANGSTRŒM" @ MITCHELL-INNES & NASH - A remarkably delightful show of paintings by this 60 year old German artist in his first New York solo exhibition. Schwontkowski has taught in Germany for years and he makes me want to enroll for my MFA over there. A gracious mix of fancy and simplicity, these are some of the most painterly paintings I've seen in NY in quite some time. A Balthus-like precociousness presents images that are disarmingly naive yet show a masterful hand in drawing and application of paint.

Up until January 9, 2010 - DON'T MISS!!

ANNA JÓELSDÓTTIR "priest chews velvet haddock" @ STUX GALLERY - A compelling installation by this Icelandic artist. A frantic, ecstatic energy charges through these works, especially the installation works that have a Mad Hatter quality. The work that provides the title for the show is a phantasmagorical cascade of mylar tattooed and tinted in a highly detailed fashion.

Up until January 9, 2010 - WORTH A LOOK!!




PETER FISCHLI/DAVID WEISS "SUN, MOON & STARS" @ MATTHEW MARKS - An encyclopedic work by the leader alchemists of the art world. A dizzying series of tables provide a chromatic study of magazine advertisements that also follow a bizarre uncanny narrative. Entertaining and engaging up close, I had wished there was a bit MORE room in the gallery to display their larger essence. "CLAY AND RUBBER" at the gallery's 24th St Outpost is another anthology, this of 24 everyday objects cast in one of the two title materials. Masterfully done, I couldn't help get the feeling I was in a really high-end Home Depot!
Up until January 16, 2010 - WORTH A LOOK!




LYNDA BENGLIS @ CHEIM & READ - Large scale bronze wall hangings and free-standing objects. I like the general drift of these pieces, especially the two "Swinburne" pieces which are cast in tinted polyurethane. I start to run into problems here with the general surface of the work, which can be best described as wormy scatological. The two pink pieces redeem an otherwise unremarkable show.
Up until January 2, 2010 - TAKE A QUICK PEEK!




Also seen:


CHARLES RITCHIE "BOOKS & PAGES: 2004 - 2009" @ BRAVINLEE PROGRAMS - A lovely show of works on paper. Beautifully illumined pages are peppered with spidery script-scrawl. Masterful watercolors. Worth a trip in the 526 W 26th St building. STRAIGHTFORWARD & HONEST.


MATTHEW RITCHIE @ ANDREA ROSEN GALLERY - A monumental multimedia installation. Ambitious in scope it doesn't hold together as well as ANNA JÓELSDÓTTIR Anna Joeldottir's installation @ Stux. Make a walk through to take in the small Gallery 2 show of Pop icons, most notably a soft Oldenburg clothespin! Philadelphia Freedom!! MAKE A WALK-THRU.


CLIFFORD ROSS @ SONNABEND - Ross continues his study of ocean waves, an oeuvre that I not taken to in the past. But the artist has given these new prints are wider horizontally, echoing a film screen, and printed the image with archival pigment inks which provie these works a depth and substance they lacked previously. AN IMPRESSIVE STEP FORWARD.


SEAN SCULLY @ GALERIE LELONG - Luscious unremarkable paintings by a major American painter. one painting, LANDBAR, struggles to break the mold. IF YOU MUST.


ERIC FISCHL @ MARY BOONE - An uneventful exhibition by a major player on the painting scene. Matadors and nemeses in flashy style. Wonder where Mr. F will vacation next. SKIP IT.

A Walk Through Chelsea

Between dropping off some books at a dealers and having drinks with a friend after work, we were able to take in a few shows. Here's what we saw:

JACK PIERSON "ABSTRACTS" @ Cheim + Read - A handsome solo installation by a talented mid-career artist. The show features all wall relief work. Pierson has not lost his touch composition and display. Flourish, 2009 features possible remains from an old Pepsi-Cola sign arranged as a lovely, mysterious pirouette. Towards the back of the large gallery space, Pierson has pieces which have a different dynamic; longer titled works accompanying briefer, more cryptic reliefs that pay homage to Abstract Expressionism and the gesture. Shades of Rothko, Gottlieb and Kline keep coming to mind while viewing these pieces.

Up thru Nov. 14th - WORTH A VISIT




JUSTINE KURLAND 'THIS TRAIN IS BOUND FOR GLORY' @ MITCHELL-INNES & NASH - A large show of photographs inspired by the nomadic culture of the hobo. Handsomely formatted and hung. Kurland continues to grow as a photographer. Her landscape works has continued to mature and proves to be some of the more impressive work in the exhibit.
Up thru Nov. 14th - WORTH A LOOK!!




MAGNUS PLESSEN @ GLADSTONE GALLERY - A show of flashy paintings by this German painter. These works are all about surface and not much else. Technically intriguing, visually bland.
Closed Oct. 24th - LUCKY YOU!!


Also seen:


JANINE ANTONI: UP AGAINST @ LUHRING AUGUSTINE - A puzzling installation of photographs, installation and sculpture. A large noisy installation entitled Tear consists of an 11 foot video projection of the artist's eye in a room with and industrial wrecking ball. The series of small copper sculptures in the front gallery are not merely gargoyles, but devices for women to urinate standing up. A large color photograph of the artist using the 'device' near the gargoyles of the Chrysler Building serves as an instruction manual. Closed Oct. 24th - LUCKY YOU!!


ANSELM REYLE & TAKASHI MURAKAMI @ GAGOSIAN GALLERY - Pop Art meets Arte Povera by the former, a large colorful painting by the latter. Reyle's work has the fun and tang of a glass of champagne: you enjoy it at the beginning but probably hard to bear in the harsh light of a hung-over morning. Murakami's large canvas has rekindled my hope that this artist can actually produce artwork and not just manufacture kitsch.


TIM RODA @ DANIEL COONEY GALLERY: an interesting installation by an architect turned photographer. Taken in Italy and using his family as models, Roda creates and recreates a wondrous world of myth. The prints hang raw on the wall; many are on uneven cut pieces of paper. The artist has a good visceral sense of image. We look forward to more. UP THRU OCT. 31 - WORTH A LOOK


JAUME PLENSA 'IN THE MIDST OF DREAMS' @ GALERIE LELONG - Three enormous resin heads lit from within are the centerpiece of this show, but the pieces that really stand out are the elongated stone heads that are raw and broken at the top.