I aggressively scheduled to tour 16 galleries in West Chelsea for Saturday; mostly because I could not make it to the openings during the week. The one opening I did get to was Ryan McGinley at Team gallery on Thursday. I didn’t actually see the show as it was so packed the hipsters were pouring out onto Grand Street and I was in no mood to push through a seemingly self-important crowd to see photographs of skinny naked gay boys - I can just look in the mirror. Anyway, my aggressive schedule proved feasible and I ended up touring 20 galleries with three friends in tow. It was much easier than expected as some shows were duds and easy to hit in under 10 minutes.
We started the day on the very northern fringes at 29th Street with Peter Blum to see three video pieces by Superflex. The highlight was “Flooded McDonald’s”, a fantastic 20-minute video where the inside of a presumed staged McDonald’s is flooded with crystal clear water. What starts off colorful and commercial quickly turns dark, oily and disturbing. With fries, cups, napkins and even coffee pots and chairs floating in the flooded waters the mood slowly turns from comical to disgust. It was only more brilliantly conceived, as the only noise was the calming/soothing sounds of the running water. We stayed for the whole video, which made me nervous as we had a schedule to keep to. Highlights from the videos in the show can be found at Vimeo.
Up next was David Nolan to see the Visible Vagina group show. Although most of the work did not catch me, two highlights were Sarah Davis' painting of Brittney Spears and Allyson Mitchell's crocheted room that actually did feel like the inside of a vagina. We all felt the need to get into fetal position and I thought about lighting a joint… if I had one or even smoked pot.
Unlike the Superfelx show, the Visible Vagina was good for a pop-in but not a destination show. Nari Ward had an interesting show at Lehmann Maupin, using interesting textures to creature dark mysterious pieces. Luckily the video in the back of the gallery was both interesting and thought-provoking, as the white ambulance parked in the front of the gallery was honestly dull.
Continuing the boring section of the tour was a stop by Nicole Klagsbrun for the “lean” show, the works here are severely minimalist and lacked any sign of talent or significance. I usually support all kinds of contemporary art, but this show felt lackluster and amateur.
And again more uninteresting pieces continued at Cheim & Reid with Bill Jensen’s show, which had several beautifully crafted paintings, but most were uninspiring and flat. The surprise hit was the Flag Foundation’s show “Size Does Matter”, which was curated by Shaq. It was, as expected, a lot of mainstream pieces, but it was nice to see some classics such as Robert Therrien, Charles Ray and Ron Mueck. Plus as much as I hate 545 West 25th Street for being noncontextual, it is a great space for art.
However, the disappointments continued with the Robert Adams show at Matthew Marks. While some of the photographs were very appealing, their small size in such a large space played down any significance they might have otherwise portrayed.
However, the disappointments continued with the Robert Adams show at Matthew Marks. While some of the photographs were very appealing, their small size in such a large space played down any significance they might have otherwise portrayed.
Thank god for the Gladstone gallery, Catherine Opie and her $10,000 photographs of bull dykes and power lesbians. There were so many that inspired me and disgusted me and made me smile – all at the same time. Although there were some great color photos in the front gallery, a room with smaller black and white prints really got me. Specifically, the gender-bending photographs, the beautiful images of androgynous women from different angles and of course the few S&M shots that felt classic Opie.
If you go, hit these four:
That’s 9 of 18, the rest will come in part two.
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