Too often we are subjected to seeing street art in the galleries sanitized and framed and hung on the walls in a white box typical manner - which slaughters the work. Street art should be seen in the urine soaked alleys of the city, slapped up and yelling at us as we walk down the street, or tucked in a corner as a welcome surprise. And since Freemans Alley is in ruins because of the weather and if you have to show it inside - not in the wild - this the way to do it. Invite 50 wheatpaste artists - old and new, veterans, newbies, and flavors of the month - and instead of asking for display works have them bring the real stuff, provide a bucket of glue, and let them paste them up, floor to ceiling. And they get to meet each other at the same time. (And I got to meet them too. I came away after shaking a few hands all sticky.) Provide a cash bar and you have a party and The Most Illegal Art Show (Wheatpaste Edition), a SacSix Speakeasy & Street Art Pop-Up, from January 28 to February 2, at that revolving exhibition space at 198 Allen.

Great works by oldtimers @CityKittyStreet, @DylanEgon, @DirkArtNYC, Al Diaz, @DirtCobain, @Hektad._official, @ConsumerArt, @Sean9Lugo, @WizardSkull, @Janzwork, @TurtleCaps, @CurbYourEgo, Blue Dog, @Clown_Soldier, @KafkaIsFamous, @ACool55, @BelowKey, @FluidTunes, @El Sol25, and of course @SacSix . There are others who I've been seeing in the streets and look forward to seeing in the streets, @AjLavilla (or Dream Big), @Android, @1penemy, @AngryElephant, @Antennae, @Baston714, @BigRonnieHustle, @CaptainEyliner, @D7606, @Dos_Wallnuts, @nycHooker, @JeffHenriquezart_, @MadVillan, @_Marco_Santini_, @RaddintonFalls, @Ratanic_Pestilencia, @RawRaffe, @ReneExors, @SaviorElMundo, @Synapse65, @UncuttArt, and the perfect gathered debris of @WhatYouWillLeaveBehind, among others. 

Yes, it is a bit male heavy - but effort was made to show the women of the movement - @JillyBallistic, @PhoebeNewYork, @WheatpasteWoman, @BianicaDoesNYC, @ButterflyMush, @MyLifeInYellow, @SoulThundre, @MarzipanPhysics, @LoveMKM, @Lik_Mi, @Kies, @Isabelle_Ewing_ and more.

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I shutter to realize that the wall was scraped down at the close. Maybe I'll hover around the garbage cans later this week and gather a few remnants. But what we had here - with the art and the documentation - was a little snippet of time and a record of the pasters up (mostly) and working now. I learned a lot. 

So, new (old) plan, see all the galleries in Brooklyn. Decided to see a few Red Hook galleries before the cold temperatures hit. Stopped off at the Kentler International Drawing Space at 353 Van Brunt Street. The front door is not that inviting with its black façade but it has history - built by "1877 by the Kentler family it housed a men’s haberdashery serving Brooklyn seaport business workers." They were "founded in 1990, as a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing contemporary drawings and works on paper by emerging and under-recognized artists to the public and they include a flat file and exhibition submissions," - who does that these days?! When I stepped in I was greeted by a very nice young woman who told me all about the show. They are exhibiting an intense, emotional, nostalgic exhibition titled Spotlight on the Flatfiles: Meridith McNeal, A Portrait of My Mother up until February 10. The artist states, "Included are portraits of objects that belonged to my mother depicted in my own Brooklyn home; in their new surroundings they become both memorial and useful objects." While her watercolor technique is spectacular, what I felt and wanted to do with MY mother's belongings was to catalog them just as she has, gather a work, arrange it, meticulously render it, and mourn over the loss of such an important woman in your life. So often still-lifes are cold and removed - just a reason for an artist to practice their craft - and while the objects are often there for personal reasons we are not privy their meaning. This show is the opposite and made me so sad, I smiled and thought of my mom.

So, new (old) plan, see all the galleries in Brooklyn. Decided to see a few Red Hook galleries before the cold temperatures hit. Walked over the tunnel and down to 352 Van Brunt to Peninsula Art Space (love the name, love the logo)  -  a perfect white box, street level one room gallery with large windows on all sides. I could see the show from the street. I walked in and greeted a miserable woman minder (yes it was cold in the space) there was only a price list and no material on the show so I had to wing it - act like you know. The show titled A Strange Form of Life, curated by Johnny Mullen, is up until Feb. 9. The theme, "A collection of contemporary New York-based works that acknowledges (incorporates) the unfamiliar, the foreign, the strange." And it is guided by the lyrics of a song of the same title by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy (a song writer from Louisville - go figure - that they call an "Appalachian post-punk solipsist.") Most of the paintings were crisp cubist or ash-can inspired and de Chirico imaged, and a huge yellow shield-like shaped canvas work by Jim Lee dragged me into the space. But the work that epitomized the show and made me smile was Trash Pail Ball, 2016, a nickel-plated steel sculpture of an inflated garbage can by the local Red Hook artist Lars Fisk . He's is inspired by NYC detritus, cobblestones, subway stations, and makes them into ball shapes - large and small. I had walked into the area watching untethered debris winging by due to the heavy winds of an oncoming storm front so this just rolled up trashcan was appropriate.

So, new (old) plan, see all the galleries in Brooklyn. So, across the canal, down 7th street, next to The Bell House is Site: Brooklyn Gallery a large well lighted space with two exhibition rooms - one large, one small - ringed and backed by studio spaces (which I am finding is quite common in outlining galleries - a way for the owner of the space to provide a community and make money). There is a large roll-up window in the front and a door to get buzzed through to the left. This is how they work - based on my chat with the owner or minder of the gallery and their website. The shows are done by open calls and curated / juried from the caFE website - one of those listing sites where artists put up images of their works, and look for shows to enter, like the one at The Drawing Center's "viewing platform or artist archive," etc. (also a way for organizers to make money). The gallery runs in good curators - folks I've heard of or folks affiliated with places I've heard of - the artists pay to enter a show, the curator chooses works, the artists ship them in, and they get to show in NYC - yay. They get reviews, the openings are huge, and it's a way to network. It's the way folks have been showing their works in the rest of the country for years - and sometimes the best way to get your stuff out there - different from the usual / but rarified NYC system of a curator seeking out artists and promoting them and their works. But, hey, whatever works. But when someone asks the artist to pay them to show their works it bothers me - just saying - I'm that kind of snob. The two current shows were interesting - if only curated by media. The first is titled Art on Paper and consists of just that, various media - watercolor, chalk, print, photography, etc. on…paper hung salon style. Standouts include - The well-composed photography by Ben Cricchi titled Switchman, Julia Justo's America (Patricia Stephens Due), Lori Crawford's Brown Paper Bag Portrait, and Khalil Charif, American Flag (To color) that had me giggling. I really wanted to query the artists about the work - as there were no informational labels. The second, better show, is titled Contemporary Sculpture and the like the first is a bunch of…3-D works. Brandon Smith's Outrage II: Indulge the Other paper mache figure with false teeth was jolting and Jill Bell's ceramic with glass beads titled Always with Me was touching and lovely. The gallery has been there for five years and I look forward to their future openings and exhibitions.

So Paris gets Ice Watch by Olafur Eliasson and geologist Minik Rosing, a "circle of icebergs with a circumference of 65 feet arranged like a clock face, to indicate the passing of time; and, in real time, observers will be able to watch the ice melt." We get ATOMIC3 and Appareil Architecture's Arterventions @nyc_dotart Iceberg by Jean-Sébastien Côté and Philippe, a selfie trap, "an immersive interactive installation that follows the life cycle of an iceberg. While walking through it, visitors set off an enveloping symphony of light and sound that varies with the pace of their transit. Trickling water indicates that the human presence is transforming Arctic nature into a fragile landscape. The metal arches emit sound and light, varying with the presence and behavior of people, thanks to motion sensors concealed inside the structure." So I found the work on a noisy city street - yay public art - and walked through it viewing the gentle blue lights and listening to the sound of trickling water…and that's it. No extra lights, no change when I and many others at the work walked through it. Hmmmmm…OK?...almost like watching ice melt. [Last image, what it should look like.]

So every semester I visit the MET just before class starts to see if all the stuff I want my students to look at are in the same places where I left them. In the past, this means visiting the works and ticking them off the list. BUT, this time I found they had moved TONS of stuff around - to great new places - and they provide new and exciting labels. Good work you guys.

Here are a few things I saw on this trip -

So always go to the MET on Mondays early in the day. In 2013 they started opening the museum 7 days a week, but many folks (including myself) forget this and don't go. The galleries are very quiet and serene. The tourists are few and are mostly polite, and they speak languages that I don't understand so I don't have to listen to them discuss the artwork. And the guards and café folks are happy to see you - they have emerged from the shell-shock that is the holidays.

Go see the Charles and Valerie Diker collection show consisting of, "116 masterworks from more than fifty cultures across North America, ranging in date from the second to the early twentieth century." The MET has never had a great showing of North American, Native American works. They mix it all in with stuff from Africa, Meso and South America - in the (ahem) primitive wing. This fixes this - if they get this promised gift. I saw great - katsina / kachina figures, Arctic snow goggles, a "Maria" pot, marvelous North West Coast masks, and the labels are terrific! It's up till May 13, 2019. Get there.

They moved the statue of Ganesha into a case. According to the MET, "The potbellied, elephant-headed Hindu god is venerated throughout India bestowing success and abundance through his removal of obstacles. Before any important task is begun, an offering is made to Ganesha." So whenever I went to see him I would check his pedestal for "offerings" - coins, subway tokens back in the day, folding currency and there was often a lot But, I guess the curators had enough and put him in a glass case.

The reinstallation of all the abstract works up on the second floor is GREAT in a section called Epic Ab-straction - Pollock to Herrera, including our favorite Pollock - moved to a new location, Noguchi's Kouros, several Rothko, and a gigantic Louis Nevelson called Mrs. N's Palace. Stunning.

On this Monday Winter morning and afternoon - the light was raking and beautiful in the Dendur, American, and Greek and Roman courtyards.

I found the European Galleries a mess…but I understand. Leaky roofs and the desire for natural light is a plus. Can't wait till 2020?

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Dumbo on Saturday, January 9, 2019

So, new (old) plan, see all the galleries in Brooklyn. Started by wandering down under the Brooklyn Bridge yesterday. Several galleries were closed, some were not worth it, some I need to check out again. Klompching Gallery had the best show of the day. Maybe I'm biased, but this just opened, exhibition by Max de Esteban and Doug Fogelson made me smile and laugh. The Fogelsons were brightly colored well done, tight, multiple exposure photograms, that first attracted my attention, but the de Estebans were what yanked me in - visually. They are, about "technology and its impact on social engagement," according to the press release - sigh, yeah yeah. But visually they are complex photo assemblages of the inner workings our cellphones, Gameboys, whatever - in black, white and grisaille, according to the gallery again, "concerned with a reduction of three-dimensional objects into flattened graphic shapes." Visual Doritos - you look and look and munch and munch. Nice.