The anticipated LUSH LIFE opened this past Thursday in nine galleries spanning through the Lower East Side. The curators of this project Franklin Evans and Omar Lopez-Chahoud cleverly used the novel written by Richard Price as a connecting thread. Each of the nine galleries represent a different chapter in Lush Life (2008), which is a psychologically gripping tale about a murder investigation and concerning the gentrification of lower Manhattan. Basically it reveals some of the ugliness behind today’s yuppified Lower East Side. This is the neighborhood where I first landed as child, so I can definitely relate to those changes first hand. Now that the bodegas, hosiery and leather shops have moved on to be replaced by pricey wine bars and boutiques, it’s nice to see a new wave of galleries coming in. Which brings in a whole different dynamic to the area, and you can feel it while walking down the streets at any time of the day, it’s such a unique mixture of energies in the LES that is unlike anywhere else, because it has gone through so many layers of changes, just like those stickers plastered everywhere.  And this exhibition is unique in a sense that these galleries have created a sort of ensemble, which attracted a flood of people, some who had never been to any of those galleries before.  Of course the artists and the work matters just as much, but what’s more remarkable is the unity of the event as a whole–the bigger picture. Perhaps it is what the downtown galleries need right now, to generate some action, especially since those hungry sharks in the bigger art market usually gets all the attention. If you haven’t seen the show yet I advise starting from Chapter One: Whistle at Sue Scott Gallery. Closing dates vary depending on the gallery, but here’s the list: Sue Scott Gallery, On Stellar Rays, Invisble-Exports, Lehmann Maupin, Y Gallery, Collette Blanchard, Salon 94, Scaramouche, Eleven Rivington. Don’t be overwhelmed, there is a free map that you can pick up at any of those galleries.  (more pics after the jump…)

Continue Reading More »

Yesterday was a big day of openings. Despite the heat and humidity, people were enthusiastic about seeing art, cooling off inside galleries, while smoozing over wine. My favorites were Jack Pierson’s gorgeous photographs (nailed into the walls) at Bartolami and The Tell-Tale Heart (Part 2) at James Cohan curated by Elyse Goldberg. I just had to check out Andy Warhol’s Rain Machine (Daisy Waterfall) at Nicholas Robinson, which was surprisingly empty but offered a moment of comtemplation. Ended the warm evening to see friends’ works at Leo Kesting in a group show featuring street art called Dead Letter Playground. It was like a mini art fair happening in Chelsea, and so good bumping into you all! (more photos after the jump…)

Frank Webster (artist)

 Continue Reading More »

(above top: Anne Eastman, Untitled, 2009.  above: Vince Rourke, 132 Hedron 2000)

Summer vacation seems to have started a bit earlier in the Chelsea gallery world than the rest of us. This past Thursday, it was nearly empty in Chelsea. The weather was perfect for gallery hopping, but I suppose that the beach is more exciting than looking at art.  I randomly walked into ATM gallery to be caught by surprisingly fresh work. The group exhibition appropriately titled Summer Survey are works by Anne Eastman, Virginia Martinsen, Noam Rappaport, Miguel Angelo Rocha, Eric Sall, Peter Sutherland, and Vince Rourke. You may already be familiar with some of the names, such as Peter Sutherland who is renowned for his photographs. Here he shows his recent video Ice Cream and Tacos (2010). The works are a dry yet interesting showing of urban minimalist grit and raw that is usually more of an LA thing than in Chelsea, NY. I really enjoyed this off-the-beaten-path of a Summer Survey.

Summer Survey at the ATM goes on until July 15.

Flyfire Team: Carlo Ratti, Assaf Biderman, Carnaven Chiu, E Roon Kang,
Caitlin Zacharias, Shaocong Zhou

An idea based gallery show with no tangible objects, everything in the exhibition SENSEable Cities: Exploring Urban Futures can be found online. The group show which is on now at GAFFTA Gallery consists of fifteen awesome and innovative projects chosen from MIT’s SENSEable Cities Laboratory that aim at posing questions and creating sustainable solutions to our rapidly evolving cities. The Copenhagen Wheel is just one solution that encourages sustainability and mobility by being a bicycle wheel that can turn your pushbike into an electric bike and communicate with your smart phone about traffic patterns and pollution levels along your route. However, the wheel was not at the gallery, in fact none of the projects had a tangible component, they were represented by wall texts, photos and a looping video. Everyone should be familiarized with MIT’s SENSEable Cities Laboratory, however, trekking all the way to GAFFTA Gallery to do so seems rather unnecessary when you can just flip your laptop open to http://senseable.mit.edu and see the whole show and much more.

Double Rainbow as Lazy Tongs: Poem on the Occasion of the 15th Annual Poetry Walk Across For Poets House

I walked across a bridge tonight,
a poet among poets, in line and abreast
east bound toward Brooklyn
with mighty bridge as pathway
Say poet, are you lonely, are you hungry
Pray poet, are you frightened, are you sorry
Play poet, dance at mid-bridge and kiss her
Stay poet, calm this gathering, this gay poetry crowd
Clasp the hand of humanity for poetry
aboard these lazy tongs
reaching with anchored heart
before the collage called city
Tell the story of elders, culture and space
tell it true without restraint
Speak of personal or general
river beneath you
loosening or guiding

This is a call to all poets… or follower of poets
to walk the bridge of poetry
then turn
and start again.

June 2010/Gabriella Radujko

Related article here
Read more on Marianne Moore’s description of the Brooklyn Bridge.

(Above photos: BenYakas/Gothamist)

Photo: Hans Schabus Klub Europa, 2010

Marlene Haring, Marlene Haarig oder In meiner Badewanne bin Ich Kapitän! (Marlene Hairy or In My Bathtub I am the Captain), 2005
Kriech- und Badeperformance / crawling and bathing performance  (Courtesy the artist)

(Geoff Marslett’s Mars, US, 2010)

BAM Cinema Fest opens tomorrow!  The new program boasts a mixture of interesting picks from marked time periods with eclectic titles such as Ben Chace’s Wah Do Dem (with Norah Jones) and award-winning director Ken Wardrop’s His & Hers, and how about Cane Toads: The Conquest in 3-D..!  Most of the selected 18 new features are also NY premieres as part of the new festival.  These along with a delightful program of Shorts (check out Clay Liford’s My Mom Smokes Weed), director/artist Q&A’s, outdoor screenings, and a nice wrap-up closing party are enough to start off your summer film marathon.

See the Program Here