Chelsea Galleries

It was recommended to me to go and check out the hot new emerging artist galleries. I went to 3 of them today. I will continue to go but the work that I saw today was a bit too alternative for my taste.

We started out at Oliver Kamm at 504 West 22nd Street. The photographs were of tough men, men with weapons and angry men. I did not care so much for the content but at the same time I found the photography very flat.

We happened to wander downstairs to the Bruce Silverstein Gallery. Bruce could not have been nicer. The current show is from Kathy Suder called Knockout. She has taken large scale color photographs of boxers in the ring. They truly capture the moment. The colors shoot out at you and the sweat sparks off the boxers foreheads. You feel the drama of the ring in her pictures. Bruce was happy enough to take us into the back where he represents many famous photographers from the 40’s, 50’s and onward. He actually had discovered a young photographer who had taken pictures, in his cab, of the passengers, over the past 10 years. The next show will be in March where he will show portraits of cab drivers. The portraits that he showed us were excellent. Really captured the person. There will also be quotes of the cab drivers. I am really looking forward to that show.

En route to our next stop, we were struck by a diptech in the window at Kashya Hildebrand Gallery. What a find! The exhibit now is from the artist Thierry Feuz, the first New York show. The paintings are huge lacquers on canvas. Some of the paintings are works of abstract flowers and other organic materials. They are beautiful to look at. The flowers actually bleed into the canvas so they look as if they are glowing. There are also horizontal striped paintings. The enamels are so layered that the stripes almost look as if the wood grain is coming through but these paintings are done on linen so the wood grain look is from layers of color. We poked our heads into the back and struck up a conversation with the owner. He represents artists from different countries. One artist which was interesting was Russian. All his works are done on large canvasses with ball point pens. Very interesting. The other artist, Tianbing Li, who they refer to at “Bing” looks extraordinary. His exhibit will be in early March. This artist is incredibly prolific. Not only has he done beautiful oils on canvas from flowers to buildings to self portraits, he has also used human hair to create images of places and people on linen. I have never seen anything like it. Bing has developed these “hair” pieces without any drawings underneath them which is incredible because from afar you would think they were intense sketches from either charcoal or pen. Glad we stepped in here and am looking forward to this next show too.

We found ourselves in 2 more of the young galleries next. Daniel Reich Gallery who was showing Tyson Reeder, a mixture of paintings, drawings and objects on canvas from this young artist out of Milwaukee. The subject matter did not “wow” me and the pieces had a juvenile look to them. But, I will continue to g back and see the next artist shown. I liked how the show was represented. The third one, John Connelly, on West 26th street, isn’t even worth mentioning. The art represented was a jumble of a variety of artists that appeared to be very underdeveloped.

One last note, we stumbled into Pace Wildenstein that had a photography show from Richard Misrach. I almost bought one of his photographs last summer so I recognized the work. I still love them! He has captured the images of swimmers and sunbathers at the beach. You can see the sand moving, the water is beautiful. How he captures that movement from so far away is his best kept secret. Absolutely worth going to see.

Tonight, I am off to the LREI Art Auction. Our kids school is having their 25th year Art Auction this week. It is always a treat. They get fantastic artists and the prices go from $50 – $20,000. If you are in the area on Thursday night, when the final bids come in, go check it out. We are always thrilled with the pieces we bring home from this event.