Chelsea Early Summer Gallery Review
Photo from the NYTimes.com
Bjarne Melgaard
Greene Naftali
I read briefly about this show in the New York Times and of course was immediately intrigued and added it to my Chelsea to-do list. The show was brilliantly curated, however the content and the work was not as great. As soon as you walk off the elevator, you are hit by the severity of the show – chapters out of a book are tapped letter-by-letter on the floor of the gallery which forces you to walk over these letters careful not to destroy but you are literally walking on the work. This set the tone for the space- the destructiveness of the work and language and the pure chaos that existed throughout the space.
I was excited for the show, but was ultimately let down. There was a lot going on and therefore I left with a lot going through mind. I am hopeful to see more from this artist.
Edward Kienholz
David Zwirner
There were a lot of other misses that weren’t inspiring or moving. I was very grateful, however, to stop at David Zwirner to see Edward Kienholz’s Roxy, 1960-1961- a disturbing, beautiful, historic, gruesome environmental installation. The piece was great, very moving and very creepy. It was a great space and again amazingly curated with the room off-center in the gallery, out of the light of the street where you could be a true voyeur in the dark of the gallery. Reading the press release about the inspiration from a 1943 pre-war brothel, made the space truly amazing – still contemporary 50 years later.
Willie Doherty
Alexander and Bonin
I spent about 20 minutes in Alexander and Bonin’s gallery to watch Willie Doherty’s Unfinished, 2010. I thought there would be a highlight or a finality to the video piece, however it just looped and before I knew it, I realized I was watching it over it again. I actually liked the video – good for a rainy day. Sadly I was totally wasted to watch the other video.
Other highlights from the day included these great photgraphs by Vlatka Horvat -
And also a pop-in to Phillips to see some "affordable" Bruce Naumans that were sold at auction last Tuesday.
