Monkdogz Artblog

I climbed the stairs to the Highline on 20th Street in Chelsea today and wandered amongst the dried grasses watching the winter sun set over New Jersey. I found myself alone along the southern most stretch and marveled at finding solitude in Manhattan. It was a serene experience.

Descending onto Washington Street as the lights started to twinkle in the stores, restaurants and bars of the Meat Packing District, I wondered where Chelsea ends and the Meat Packing District starts these days. Originally it was supposed to be 14th Street, but galleries are starting to migrate southwards and restaurants and fashion houses (anchored by early pioneers Balenciaga and Comme des Garçons) are starting to move northwards. In 2007, The State Register of Historic Places determined 16th street to be the boundary which encompasses the indoor Chelsea Market, so you can understand why it’s starting to get a little uncertain.

Gansevoort Market was the original official name of the area which housed 250 slaughterhouses and packing plants at the start of the last century. Today, the cleaned up and very fashionable area has 8 galleries (as far as I can work out) as well as the third major auction house in New York, Phillips de Pury & Company which states on it’s website that it is located in the Meat Packing District in Chelsea. You may be getting the drift.

Wherever I was I came to see Leo Kesting Gallery at 812 Washington Street on the corner of Gansevoort Street. Tonight was the opening reception for Donna Cleary’s first solo show “The X Spot”.

Donna Cleary’s charcoal drawings are on paper are a walk through of human emotions expressed through the physicality of the human form.

“For me,” explains the artist, “these images explore modern relationships in the context of contemporary communication, which plays havoc with the notion of identity and intimacy. In an increasingly digitalized world, communication is instantaneous, fragmented, illusory and often anonymous. It is free of the body language and interpersonal engagement present in these images. While celebrating the classic techniques of cross-hatching and sumi ink painting, these images live in the present. United with contemporary issues and technology, they remind us that despite the frantic pace of technological discovery, some things transcend time.”

The bodies are strong and well defined with expressed vulnerability more than sexuality despite being more or less undressed. They reach out for a human connection and yet seem to be just out of touch.

Enjoy the show which continues until February 7th while you also explore the Meat Packing District/Chelsea Neighborhoods.

One of the unsung heros of the art world are the good gallery receptionists. They are an extremely rare breed. When they are good, they are enthusiastic, welcoming, warm but unobtrusive, approaching only when needed and it doesn’t hurt if they are good looking.

Let me introduce you to one of the best in Chelsea, one of the receptionists at Mitchell-Innes & Nash, a gallery on West 26th street.

His name is Bear.

The latest and most interesting shows in Chelsea are not so easy to see. They are not in the best known galleries in Chelsea or Soho, they’re not in private galleries or collections, you don’t have to know the right people and move in the right circles. They’re not in the museums or schools or in the homes of people you don’t know.

You just have to look extra hard and they’re everywhere. Street art in Chelsea is proliferating. Paintings and drawings, sculptures and collage, photographs and mixed media. It’s amazing what’s out there.

Perhaps the closing of numerous galleries in New York and the reduction in funding for non-profits is driving emerging artists into the streets. I would obviously prefer the economy to be in a better state, but having said that if this is the result with artists being creative in how and where they show their work as well as being creative in their creations, it has to be the silver lining on the heavy grey financial clouds that we’re wading through right now.

Talk around town continues to be in the vein of “things are starting to move” or “we’re seeing some movement” whatever that means. However Bob and I were invited to a round table breakfast discussion today in mid-town and the prognosis from the commercial realty and recruitment industries was that things are likely to continue to go downhill for much of 2010 and any “movement” not going downwards would likely to stagnate for a while into 2011.

The silver lining on those grim statements were that there appear to be a significant numbers of clients with deep pockets around and very cheap realty and really talented recruits were being snapped up by these people. I think we’ve also seen this in the recent contemporary art auctions in New York where collectors have been aggressively bidding and spending in the millions for well priced works. It has become a buyer’s market

Being creative in how artists, dealers and galleries catch the eyes of savvy buyers and collectors is going to be key over the next few months. Ingenuity added to integrity, hard work and creativity hopefully will be what drives the market now.

The team who man the reception desk at Paul Kasmin gallery on 10th avenue in New York are unusual in Chelsea.  They’re knowledgeable about their exhibition, the artists and the individual works.  They’re also up to date with what other galleries are showing.  Most gratifying is that they offer intelligent insight and educated personal opinions about the art world.

So I was very surprised to come across a receptionist at one of my other favorite galleries, who answered my question about how she felt the mood of Chelsea was changing with “I don’t know things like that.  I’m just a receptionist”.  This was after having looked down her nose at me when I asked if the works had sold.  Ignorance married to arrogance is a lethal combination! 

However what was even worse was the large gallery which was staffed by obviously a senior member of the the gallery who couldn’t be bothered to look at me while he tried to persuade me that all galleries scheduled at the same time.  Stupidity, arrogance and bad manners combined is quite scary and then when you top it off with  “The Emperor’s New Clothes” type exhibition as well, all I can do is shake my head in wonder!

They say that there is no such thing as coincidence, but it’s intriguing that many of the new shows in Chelsea are much more dynamic, colorful and in some cases whimsical. After the dark somber works in many of the season openers, it’s quite refreshing to see these new exhibitions which match the first glimmers of hope and recovery that I sensed today.

Gallery programs and schedules are determined at least 8 to 12 months ahead and in some cases up to 2 or 3 years ahead. So nobody could have timed these shows to purposefully coincide with the financial recovery, or if they did, I want to know where they bought their crystal ball!

One of the first shows that caught my eye was Andreas Kocks: Current Events at Winston Wächter Fine Art gallery on 25th Street. At first glance, it looks like someone has thrown water balloons filled with grey paint at the walls. The splatters look spontaneous and dramatic; as if you’ve just walked in at the moment the perpetrators have struck. My amazement turned to awe, as I realized that these very fluid and explosive splatters are created by cutting, folding, curling graphite covered watercolor paper resulting in an architectural structure of a splatter in an instant of time. It seems to allow the viewer luxury to examine movement frozen in time, at the leisure.

The work is very meticulously designed and constructed, yet it has a wonderful feel of frivolity and excitement. It helps to underline a concept in fine art that is often neglected or dismissed; it’s ok to have fun with art!

The show continues until November 28th, 2009.  Andrea Kocks also is featured at the Museum of Art and Design New York in a group show entitled Slash: Paper Under the Knife which continues until April 4, 2010.

It was really refreshing wandering around Chelsea this afternoon. There were sadly very few people, but it really made me realize how much we miss when we attend openings. When there are hoards of people, it’s hard to see the work; hard to get close up and hard to get a good view from afar. And that’s if you see the work at all.

We’d been in Sikkema Jenkins & Co on 22nd Street, but due to the crowds, we hadn’t ventured into the back room, where today we found the videos by Kara Walker. She uses silhouette puppets or shadow puppets to create her videos covering subjects of misogyny, racism and violence.

Having read recently that people only stand in front of videos for an average of 6 seconds, we certainly put a dent in the statistic by watching the full 9 minute lengths of each video. The stories were well put together; execution was good and most interesting was the backgrounds that they had created. It made the rest of the show which included sculptures, paintings, wall installations and works on paper much more cohesive. It’s a trend that I’ve seen more and more; the true use of mixed media, i.e. several different media used in one show.

Most people also suggest that they go to openings in order to talk to the artists, which I am sure can occasionally happen, or to meet friends and acquaintances, or to be seen by the right people! Well today we managed to casually bump into Chuck Close who was doing his own gallery hopping. You can’t really get better than Chuck!

I suppose the one thing you do miss if you don’t go to openings is the energy and creative buzz that you do often get when surrounded by masses of art loving people. Oh well, it looks like I won’t be giving up art openings any time soon!

Kara Walker is showing in conjunction with Mark Bradford at the Sikkema Jenkins & Co gallery at 530 West 22nd Street, New York.  The show runs until October 17th 2009.

As we wondered down 26th street in Chelsea, I looked into the window of the Stephen Haller Gallery. A piece of work on a far wall caught my eye; a riot of beautiful colors defined by many variations of circles. As I walked in, I wondered if it was shibori, a Japanese form of tie-dye that not only gives cloth distinctive patterns and colors but can also give three dimensional structure to the cloth.

It turns out that the work of Nobu Fukui whose work this is, is mixed media on canvas over panel. Magazines are layered to create a collage with overlays of circles and are painted, but what gives it the three dimensional texture that I mistook for shibori was hundreds of pearl-like beads that had been glued to the work and then daubed with paint.

The result is a very dynamic kinetic power that looks ready to be unleashed from the canvas. What is also quite intriguing, is that although from afar, it looks like non-objective work, but on closer inspection, the theme of each piece becomes apparent.

The exhibition continues until October 17th 2009. Fukui’s work is also currently on exhibition at the Haggerty Museum at the Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI in “Jump Cut Pop” until October 4th.

After the crowds of last week, Chelsea was very much more subdued tonight. The one exception was Gagosian on 24th Street which was a zoo. Anselm Reyle and Takahashi Murakami’s work just couldn’t be seen for the hoards of humanity milling around. I had to escape.

In sharp contrast, I found serenity and inspiration at Gallerie Lelong on West 26th Street, where Jaume Plensa is exhibiting his sculptures until October 24th. “In the Midst of Dreams” is a skillful and elegant exhibition.

As you walk into the gallery you are faced with a block of alabaster; one of three in the exhibition. As you walk around it to the front, a face cut into the stone starts to emerge. It is a beautifully serene face. The effect of the stone and lighting gives it a holographic effect; somewhat ethereal, that despite being a large solid object it feels as if it could just suddenly vanish into thin air.

The artist’s vision is for a universal and global humankind, where race and nationality are superseded by a common need for spirituality and dreams.

At the back of the gallery are three large polyester resin heads standing over 7 feet tall in the middle of a sea of marble stones. They are lit from within with white neon light which brings them to life. The heads are facing in towards each other so that it is not possible to see the whole face from any one angle, making it necessary to move around the perimeter of the sea of marbles in order to see all sides of the faces and the text which are overlaid on the foreheads and cheeks.

It left me with a feeling of gentle frustration, a feeling of not quite grasping a concept but knowing that understanding was not too far, just a stretch away. I initially sensed my mortality and limitations as a human being, but as I stood there I started to feel hope grow. The hope that wisdom and serenity were but a step or two away; that I only needed to be open to learning and new experiences.

When was the last time that a piece of art made you feel that way?

It was great to be back wandering around Chelsea tonight. Mother Nature smiled on both the art and fashion worlds by holding off on the rain that had been forecast to be heavy this evening.

People were out and about in reasonable numbers, but it wasn’t a heavily attended season opener compared to years gone by. The frantic craziness with people rushing from one gallery to another with their long lists of gallery openings was not evident tonight. In fact all in all, the atmosphere was relatively subdued with few galleries pumping out high octane energy. The fact that there were many galleries that were closed for the evening, whether because they were installing for later openings or were still showing their summer shows, didn’t help.

The impact of the recession was very much evident, with many shows presenting mono-chromatic, dark or washed out colors with subject matters that were equally subdued.

Having said all that, there were some excellent highlights that I will be going back to see in the next few weeks, so that I can make a really detailed study of the works, something that opening night is never really conducive towards. The following are in no particular order.

Pace Wildenstein is showing Maya Lin’s large- scale installations “Three Ways of Looking at the Earth” at their 22nd Street location. She has recreated scaled down natural topographies within the confines of the gallery allowing you to walk around and through the environment, giving you a different perspective and experience of the natural world. The main piece “2 x 4 Landscape” was created by a team of 12 people working for a month assembling 50,000 pieces of vertical wooden two-by-fours. It is an imagined terrain that swells from a skirt of four to six inches to a peak of 10 feet occupying 2,400 square feet. The work has a Zen-like purity and simplicity yet manages to instill awe in the viewer.

Another installation was Chen Qiulin’s “Sincerely Yours” at Max Protetch also on 22nd Street, although this is the tail end of a summer show that closes on September 19th. Moved by the earthquake that hit Sichuan Province in May of 2008, she has created a show incorporating papier-mâché human figures that resemble Pompeii’s last day, videos and photographs of the still devastated urban infrastructures that sit amid landscapes that are renewing and recovering faster. Interestingly, the overall image is of hope.

At the Axelle Fine Art Gallery on 25th street Philippe Jacquet’s exhibition of what sculptor Charles Schindler describes as “unlikely landscapes” was on show. The artist’s background in architecture is very much evident in the landscapes, buildings and boats. A blend of super-realism and surrealism executed with impressive skill, Jacquet builds scenes that pop out from the canvas and also deceives the viewer with landscapes and seascapes that are not quite what you expect on closer inspection. The rich yet soft colors gently draw the viewer in to appreciate the beauty that even the rusting old hull of a barge can provide.

At Kim Foster Gallery on 20th Street, Sherry Karver is exhibiting “Private Stories / Public Places. Karver has taken the excellent pastime of people-watching and into art with a wonderful combination of oil painting, digital imagery, oil glazes, resin and text. The images of people are intriguing, but it is the addition of her very witty and often poignant commentary of their intimate personal details which are placed over the people and dogs which really draws you in. She explains “I superimpose biographies on top of figures about the person; their hopes, their dreams and often something personal that they would rather not reveal.” You cannot fully appreciate her visual art without reading the text. This exhibition definitely requires some additional time in the schedule.

Finally if you haven’t been to see it yet and can get there by September 19th, “Naked!” at Paul Kasmin is a summer group show featuring an illustrious roster of artist and their contribution of figurative work. Included are Pablo Picasso, Kenny Scharf, David Lachappelle, Duncan Hannah, Cecily Brown, Man Ray, Tom of Finland, Mel Ramos, Andy Warhol and many many more.

Wishing you a new season of great art discoveries.

I’ve been saving this one for a while.  It appeared in the New York Times back in August….but I know that while I wander the streets of Chelsea later this week, I’ll be on a secret unconscious safari looking for the Gallery Gobbler.  Their habitat has been severely reduced and compromised, so sighting them may be more difficult this season.  Let me know how many you see!