Those of us left behind, by choice or just luck, when everyone else has trooped off to Miami have lots to look at here in Chelsea. While a few galleries are still shut, due to lack of power or logically to take time re-building and showing their works instead at a nice warm booth in Miami, there is a great deal of wonderful stuff to see here.


Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, Twenty One Twelve through December 15, 2012 at Postmasters, 459 W. 19th Street. “Constructing subjective databases of film and television material and for creating miniature film sets with live video cameras.”

Diana Thater, Chernobyl through  Dec 22nd at David Zwirner, 525-533 W. 19th Street. “Framed around the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster, the 2010 video installation spotlights the consequences of manmade catastrophes on the natural world. The urgency of its subject matter resonates in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and the damage it wrought within the Chelsea art district, and beyond.”

A trio of shows featuring DALeast, Vinz and Joe Sorren at the premier gallery of Street Art Johnathan LeVine, 529 West 20th Street, 9th floor. He is featuring Invader at Pulse Miami one of the very few reasons why I regret not going to Florida.

Björn Schülke, Luftraum through  Dec 22th at Bitforms, 529 W. 20th Street, floor 2. “All three ‘creatures’ on view are suspicious, vulnerable subjects that are awakened by motion sensors as the viewer approaches.”

Paula Cooper has shows at both locations. Carl Andre through December 15 at 521 W. 21st Street and Eight Sculptors: Sanford Biggers, Sam Durant, Matias Faldbakken, Liz Glynn, Justin Matherly, Matt Sheridan Smith, Molly Smith, Rudolf Stingel at 534 through December 22.

Henry Moore, Large Forms at Gagosian, 522 W. 21st Street through January 19.

Charles Ray just to see what the hype is all about through January 12 at MatthewMarks, 522 W. 22nd Street.

Land artist, Agnes Denes Sculptures of the Mind: 1968 to Now through January 19 at Leslie Tonkonow, 535 W. 22nd Street, 6th floor.

Judy Fox, Out of Water at P.P.O.W. 535 W. 22nd Street, suite 301 through December 15, “exploring mythological references that are used to reflect upon contemporary sociological issues.”

Pace of course has Chuck Close at 534 W 25th, Michal Rovner, Topography at 508 W. 22nd Street and Kienholz: The Ozymandias Parade / Concept Tableaux at 510 W. 25th Street all through December 22.

Barbara Gladstone has Carroll Dunham at 515 W. 24^th Street and Haung Yong Ping: Circus 530 W. 21 both through January 19, 2013.

Ai Weiwei, Forge through December 21 at Mary Boone 541 W. 24th Street is an installation derived from twisted steel from a school destroyed by the earthquake that that occurred in Sichuan, China, on 12 May 2008.
 

And Gagosian at 555 W. 24th is showing books by Ed Ruscha through  December 22nd.

 

 

Hey Folks. The galleries in Chelsea are OPEN!

Come on over, see some art, buy some art and support them in these difficult times.

Openings I am looking forward to -
November 8 - DC Moore, 535 W. 22 street
November 8 - TracyWilliams Ltd., 521 W. 23 street 
November 8 - Vicky David Gallery, street
November 8 - Bryce WolkowitzGallery, 505 W. 24 street
November 8 - Johannes Vogt Gallery, 526 W. 26 street
November 8 - James CohanGallery, 533 W. 26 street
November 8 - Elizabeth Dee Gallery, 545 W. 20th street
November 9 - Matthew Marks Gallery, 522 W. 22 street

 

So I walked over the Brooklyn Bridge today and up to Chelsea to see the damage. It is horrible.  I would estimate that 90% of the galleries with a street entrance are damaged. I saw wet floors, sodden walls, wet art and ruined files. But what I also saw was an intense clean-up, art movers removing the art to safe locations and most of the wet galleries repairing and replacing the damage. Here are some images.

So saddened by the flooding that hit Chelsea during the hurricane Sandy. I have stayed home and out of the way but will be walking in today to see the damage. I have been following the devastation on the following news sites - The Times, Business Insider, Business Week , Huffington Post , Complex, Art Info and the other art blogs. See my blog roll to the left. More later.

Openings I am looking forward to next week. (If Sandy doesn't hit NYC)

 

November 1 - Al Loving at Gary Snyder, 529 West 20th Street

November 1 - Mark Barrow at Elizabeth Dee, 545 West 20th Street
November 1 - Mickalene Thomas at Lehmann / Maupin, 540 W. 26th Street

Whoo Hoo!  It is time for the gallery season to begin!
Here is a list of the galleries I would visit Thursday night in Chelsea.

Bitforms, 529 W 20th Street, floor 2
Howard Scott, 529 W. 20th Street, floor 7
Tanya Bonakdar, 521 W. 21 Street
Larissa Goldston, 551 W. 21st, Street
Churner and Churner, 205 10th Avenue
P.P.O.W. 535 W. 22nd , floor 3
Leslie Tonkonow, 535 W. 22nd , floor 6
Yancy Richardson , 535 W. 22th, floor 3
James Danziger, 527 W. 23rd Street
Pavel Zoubok ,533 W. 23rd Street
Bryce Wolkowitz , 505 W. 24th Street
Bruce Silverstein , 535 W. 24th Street
Betty Cuningham , 541 W. 25th Street
Nancy Margolis, 523 W. 25th Street
Pace, 510 W. 25th Street
LeLong, 528 W. 26th Street
James Cohan , 533 W. 26th Street
Kathleen Cullen , 508 W. 26th Street , floor 605
MagnanMetz ,521 W. 26th Street
Mixed Greens, 531 W. 26th Street
Vogt, 526 W. 26th Street, floor 9
Accola Griefen , 547 W. 27 Street, floor 6
Joshua Liner , 548 W. 28th Street , floor 3
Cristen Tierney, 546 W. 29th Street
Martos, 540 W. 29th Street

Hey Folks - As you see I have slowed to a stop here at Blue Eyed. I have been so busy making art and working my other blog that this one has gone unattended. So I am taking a break for awhile. I may post once and awhile this summer. But for now I am going quiet. See you this fall.

DETAILS OF WORKS FROM THE ARMORY SHOW.

I walked the Armory Show Friday afternoon, contemporary then modern sections. Except for the “Norway” aisle the booths are set-up-to-sell. I tend to focus in on particular works in the booths and the details of those works. Here is what I saw.

Galerie Forsblom had a great black and white Jacob Hashimoto.

Galerie Forsblom showed a  tiny multiple video Tony Orsler.

Sean Kelly Gallery had Leandro Erlich’s, Cloud Collection. Simple old fashioned idea done wonderfully. Stiegliz equivalents in 3-d.

Max Wigram Gallery had tricky sweet Barnaby Hoskin butterflies.

Galerie Ron Mandas had droopy plasters by Daniel Asham.

Eleven Rivington Gallery has a marvelous positive/negative Katrin Sigurdardottir landscape in a box.

Ronald Feldman Gallery had a whole booth of transparent All Leon Golub works.

Richard Heller Gallery had a gaggle of Devin Troy Strother dancing black figures

Richard Heller Gallery had Charlie Roberts’ Florine Stettheimer-ish depiction of the art world.

Cardi Black Box Gallery was showing a great Ashley Bickerton.

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Pi Works Gallery had a whole booth of Susan Hefuna figure/text works. They work better small.

Bruce Silverstein Gallery had a sweet Andre Kertez work I would cherish.

Leila Heller Gallery was showing a Cheshire Cat and Rabbit video that kept me there for 10 minutes.  Rabbits hopped all over the work until eaten by the feline.

JGM Gallery had a lovely Ricardo Rendon lace punctured work. Robert Morris attached by a hole punch!

J

Jack Shainan Gallery was showing a huge Radcliff Bailey sewn canvas with a sparkly boat.






Jack Shainan Gallery had two Nick Cave wall works.






Jack Shainan Gallery had lead works by Carlos Vega of sand cast bird outlines details with postage stamps. 

Gallery Continua was showing Poupees Pascale by Pascale Martine Tauou. Glass African power figures bound with contemporary bilongo.

And upstairs in modern Fleisher / Ollman Gallery had a whole collection of works by the outsider Philadelphia Wireman.

Running the Chelsea Gauntlet Thursday night, February 9

Two great collage show openings at Zoubok and Markel.

Pavel Zoubok has two solo exhibitions of collages and mixed media constructions. In the front works by Gail Skudera and in the back Marina Forstmann Day. Skudera draws from a combination of old family albums and anonymous collections of found imagery woven together on top of old wallpaper samples (not my favorite part). Interestingly the more Duchampian are by the self-taught Day’s. The huge multi-panel collage A Handmade Life represents the artist’s travels over a 100-day period, with photographic sleeves filled daily with a single object.

Kathryn Markel is the go to gallery for work that is easy on your mind and big on pretty. She has a show by Marilla Palmer titled Nature Burlesque which was not about sexy but about the reveal and the sequined outfits that an old fashioned stripper might wear to enhance or cover over the everyday or regular person beneath. She uses twigs and branches and covers them in shiny cloth and sequins. Funny and silly all at the same time. Take it all off baby!

Danese has a show of the work of Anne Appleby’s 2, 3, 4, 6 paneled works with oil and wax on panel or canvas. I rather prefer the canvas works, while the panel works do have great drips on their sides belying their creation on their backs, the bang bang of the hard surface is too apparent in the media handling. The softer canvas sucks in the paint and light reflecting it back. I usually skip this type of minimalist work. I consider them kind of a snore but this show made me stop and look and smile. Titles like – Faded Sweet Pea, Late Summer Aspen, Magnolia, Winter Honeysuckle, Crocus, Sycamore, Highline Cottonwoods make me think of walks through Kentucky and Michigan forests. Don’t retch. They’re nice.

Pace has Huge Museum Show on the late 1950s early 1960s Happenings in New York. Everyone who was or is anybody in the art world was there. And it was packed. And I panicked and ran away. Better to see the show later during the day. Great discussion of the show in the Times.