Lichtenstein at Mitchell Innes
My Saturday line-up was a very healthy balance between discovering new artists and big name shows like this one – a retrospective of Roy Lichtenstein. The show was small which was perfect for such powerful bright, quintessential pop paintings. In this show the mainstream pieces were incredible and the standouts of the show, which is rare for me to say. My favorite was “Reflections: Portrait of a Duck”. The piece was fun, beautiful and moving. The best part was the deep, rich, powerful blue color Lichtenstein used for the hat, which does not come through in the picture below.
Pipolotti Rist at Luhring Augustine
Although it might be premature, Luhring Augustine has been pulling out the big guns to become the best gallery of the year. First with sculptural works by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, then with the retrospective of Ragnar Kjartansson from the 2009 Venice Biennale and now with Pipolotti Rist. This show, by the artist who transformed the atrium of MoMA into a giant playpen for both children and adults, was transformative. The main space of the gallery was fully taken over by “Layers Mama Layers”. It was an otherworldly space that combined billowing sheets of fabric, lasers, videos of lambs in the meadow and soft, almost meditative music. The show is small, with only three installations, but they are powerful enough to make a huge impact.
Jeff Bark at Halstead Hunt
A classic combination of beauty and despair, Jeff Bark’s aptly named Lucifer Falls is a combination of the most beautiful, picturesque landscaped visited by characters in what appears to be their darkest moments. Almost all the pictures are impactful and moving, although some did feel staged and somewhat theatrical. Photographs that leave you questioning, expecting some dark, sordid tale, always appeal to me. These photographs, as beautiful as they are, felt more staged then I would have liked. Also, the combination of sexy headless nudes with suicidal beauties in homely nightgowns left me confused and somewhat annoyed. I need to investigate further.
Act Up at White Columns
This is where we started and although it was great to see some of the old propaganda from this pivotal organization, the show is mostly education more than anything. The dominant works are interviews that required some time and serious attention. I’ve seen better collections of Act Up’s pivotal, groundbreaking pieces and left wanting more.
Dan Colen at Gagosian
I am glad I waited to write this review until after the New York Times review as I now know I am not crazy. This show was snoozaroo. The best pieces were paintings made from chewing gum, which did still smell sweet if you got close enough. The other sculptural pieces were interesting but not worthy of the Gagosian space.
Dan Flavin at Paula Cooper
Again, I try to steer clear of the mainstream shows as I usually like to experience underexposed artists through galleries. Thus leaving the big guns for museums. However, it is a show like this one that proves an artist you thought you knew can still surprise you. The main piece in the gallery was part of the barred corridor series that Flavin created in the mid 70s. The piece was astounding and made me appreciate and love his work even more.
Tetsumi Kudo at Andrea Rosen
Coming off of Pipolotti, this show was a great collection to keep the high going. There were several pieces throughout that seemed like small botany projects with dirt-covered sculptures that resembled flowering ant farms. However, upon further investigation, it was not ants you found inside but beautifully bright electronic components of a computer. The show was playful, interactive and thought provoking.
Angelo Filomeno at Galerie Lelong
The marquis and a bearded dominatrix with a cake in the oven – with a title like that, how you could possibly walk pass this gallery? Angelo Filomeno’s sculptural and fabric pieces were very interesting with a palate exclusively of black and yellow. The show was a mix of skulls and crustaceans – a mix I’ve never seen before, but two iconic images that have been overused in recent times. The show did not seem groundbreaking or really interesting. A table full of S&M devices including whips and dildos mixed with skulls – all in glass – was boring. I am sorry, it just was. I hope to learn more about this artist and find other work that moves me.
Matthew Marks
We only got to one of the Marks galleries to see new pieces by Gursky, Charles Ray and others. We didn’t get to see Nan Goldin’s pieces as she was at the 24th Street gallery. The Charles Ray piece was a massive white wall sculpture of two boy’s faces. I always fall in love with a Charles Ray after I find out it’s him. This is not because I am a mindless follower of anyone in the major league. It’s because I’m usually not impressed until I realize it was his intention to sublimely fuck with your sense of perception, which he does in a different medium every time. The one Gursky piece (who can usually do no wrong) was a photograph of the audience at a soccer game. It seemed boring after the Dubai pieces he did last year.
Lennon Weinberg
This show by Joseph Zito is the winner of the oddest collection by a single artist. It included paintings, videos, sculpture and installation – at least I think it was an installation. The rear wall of the gallery was covered by a bright purple curtain with a bright purple covered bench in front. I have no idea what this show was about, but there were about 5 people working there and I assume they had no idea either.
Magnan Metz
This very small show, titled The heaviest luggage for the traveler is the empty one, was one of the highlights of the day with three amazing sculptures by Alejandro Almanza Pereda. My favorite and the biggest mind-fuck of the day was the vertical collection of cinderblocks that were balanced and held together by chains. The best part of this piece wasn’t the idea of what would happen if they feel down, but the surprise to the viewer to find the padlock with key on the back side of your approach – allowing any viewer with a death wish to simply turn the key. Both the four-Diana’s as I have self-titled them as well the botanical shelves also question our sense of architectural space both indoors and out. It was a great show and was a great way to end the day.
Friedrich Petzel
The group show was sadly not worth the pop in. The best pieces were the earthy, burnt canvases by Karin Sander. These were very interesting, but they were not enough to overcome the boredom that came from works you’ve seen before. Also, the curating was not without fault here as it was unclear the connection between the pieces.
Danziger Projects
Small, tiny show by Christopher Bucklow of cibachrome prints of skinny ladies that look like little balls of fire. The show is very small and the limited pieces shown are all very similar without any alteration outside of color choices. Worth a pop-in if you have the time, but don’t go out of your way.
Mike Weiss
Very commercial show of shinny things by Liao Yibai that focuses on our culturally obsession with labels. Again, not worth the pop in, it was all things anyone who’s been to an art fair has seen before.
McKenzie Fine Art
Not expecting greatness in the paintings by Tom Leaver – but found it! I loved these very ethereal paintings of dark, somewhat dreary forest landscapes. The pictures were beautiful and the painter’s obsession with a tacit image was clearly represented in the pieces chosen for this show. I loved them and thought they were beautiful. (and somewhat affordable by Chelsea standards)
Lehmann Maupin
We did a 30 second pop-in for this show, but had to make a quick escape. I am not feeling any pressure to go back to see the somewhat banal videos by Jennifer Steinkamp that looked like a cross between snakes and the DNA strain you studied in high school.
Reaves Gallery
This new gallery has two shows currently up. My favorite was Interior Situations by New York-based artist Kenneth Browne. The paintings he created were beautifully tacky on purpose. They paint a scene of modern-day Brooklyn with a yuppie white couple living in their new condo complete with West Elm décor and accessories. However beautiful and manufactured the apartment might be the artists gives us a very different impression of their relationship as it starts to unfold in the selected works curated for this show. I thought it was a really great selection and with the backup story, loved the execution of these works.
Nicole Klagsbrun
Thank god for nice gallery girls! Although everyone is accustomed to the gallerist who does not look up from her Mac Book when you enter the gallery (and if she does its to give you a nasty look), I was happy to chat with one of the team members at Klagsbrun about LA-based Patrick Jackson’s Tchotchke Stacks. I always loved these pieces for their use of absurd and horribly tacky household sculptures creating something so delicate and fragile. Upon discussing with the team there, I fell further in love when she spoke of how everyday Americans see these tchotchkes as art. That statement totally transported the pieces to have a whole new meaning. They are really great and I might have to make a trip back before the show closes. (In full disclosure I did mention to the gallerist that I had seen and remember the pieces from ABMB, 2009 – which might have given me more street cred)
Mary Boone
Superstar gallery Mary Boone’s newest exhibition from artist Liu Ziaodong was unique in the way the artist created portrait paintings of people pulled from other paintings on the wall. It was curated in a way that the group paintings were the focal point with the portrait works adjacent. I liked the show, but was not transported by the paintings; others in my group though loved this show.
Price Street
This group show had some hits and some misses. There were some things I really wanted to like but with further investigation couldn’t appreciate for reasons that included color choice, objects that didn’t belong in the piece or just general hot messes. However, I was dying for Elizabeth Higgins’ beautiful simple landscape that was Hopper-esque and really lovely.
Linda Smith’s convoluted pool paintings at first seemed playful and an intriguing way to show the human body in a swimming pool, but as we circled the gallery, it became increasingly creepy and otherworldly. The shift occurred with the group shot that looked to be set in a 1970s commune on the western coast of Florida. The oddity continued with a few angel-like paintings of children in flotation devices in mid-air. Still not sure if this was to convey the joy of childhood, but it made me think of a creepy kid-toucher. Not necessarily a bad thing – but not my taste, maybe it needed to be more literal for me.
Noho Gallery
There were three openings, all on the same floor of 530 West 25th Street. Noho Gallery was the most adventurous. The work was mostly sculpture and all had a playful spirit as the tile “branded” suggested. The artist here is von Schmidt. My favorite piece was a wooden male fountain sculpture that appeared to be peeing on the gallery wall. I didn’t love the execution of the body sculpture, but I loved the visual play of the man literally peeing on the wall.
Michael Mazzeo
We did a quick pop in to Mazzeo’s space as it was nearing the end of the day. The show is in two parts Dave Jordan’s seasonal landscapes and Eric William Carroll’s dreamy landscape prints that were ethereal – the trend of the day – and also somewhat somber. The show was small and interesting, but a week later, I hardly remember these pieces – not a good sign that the trip up was worth it.
