A cold weekend in NYC

We came back to NYC for New Year’s Eve.  It is ridiculously cold here.  We saw some movies, we have pretty much-seen everything out there and attempted to make our way around the city.  Unfortunately, it is even colder this weekend!

The two shows at the Whitney are the Jimmie Durham show and Laura Owens.  We saw Durham at the Hammer in LA last winter.  Completely forgot until we went to the show.  He is an American born sculptor, poet, and essayist who has lived outside the states since 1994.  His work is whimsical, almost crafty.  Durham noted that throughout his travels, no matter where he is, he declared it to be the “center of the world”.  Kind of love this.  I really like this film he did in 1996 called Stoning the Refrigerator.  It is a film of watching the stones being hurled at the fridge.

The fridge is also present on the other side of the film.

Laura Owens is on the same floor.  Her work is mostly paintings.  All so different that you wonder if it came from the same artist.  Everything is Untitled.  This is one of the first pieces that caught my eye.

There is a room that is a collaboration between her and Jorge Pardo, her boyfriend at the time.  A series of bedroom sets by Pardo paired with Owen’s bee pieces alluding to pollination as a sexual activity.

There is a group of fairy tale landscape images.

These huge acrylics are completely different.

And so is this.

When life gives you lemons?

 I wanted Chinese and wasn’t psyched to travel far and wanted something a little nicer than the down and dirty spots in Chinatown.  The thing is those down and dirty spots have superior food.  We went to Pinch.  It is fine but not that great. Although do love this saying.

Had a few things.  The soup dumplings were probably the best thing although I have had much better.

Checked out the new store, Le Mercerie.  Interesting new retail concept.  Restaurant and bakery inside a store.  Everything is for sale.  There is also a bar for cocktails.  There are some really great ceramic art pieces.  Will be interesting to see how they do.  It is a certain look and not inexpensive.

We took a little rest before making our way out to celebrate New Years.  We had dinner at Joel Rubichon.  We used to go in Paris but my last experience there was not great so we have not been in years.  We sat in the Grill room which is ok not great.  They had a DJ who played music that did not seem to connect with the audience in the place.  The food was meh.  Perhaps it was the night and maybe we will go back and try the fancier room but all the all, we were not wowed.  The lighting is also awful.

Regardless, we had a nice night and rung in the new year.