Quick Impressions: Kara Walker, Juergen Teller, Et. Al.

Last night was one of those great nights in New York city when the whole world seems to be trawling its blocks, wearing every conceivable item of clothing and heading every which way. The people watching was great, the art was much and varied, and the wine was scant. (Recession much?) I started at Sikkema Jenkins, where new work from Kara Walker (above) and Mark Bradford was up. Mark Bradford, who I wasn't familiar with, has a stunning large piece just in the entrance.

The image above doesn't really do it justice, I recommend checking it out. Magnus Plessen at Gladstone is also worth a look.

I wandered further up, to Juergen Teller at Lehman Maupin. Unfortunately, I don't have an image of his crops of nude statues that coldly toy with sexuality and artificiality. I think I enjoyed some of those more than the juxtaposition of his muses in the galleries.


Maybe it was the show, or maybe it was the time of night--about 7:30, but the crowds really started to kick in. And a very good looking crowd it was. I had a slightly awkward moment when a middle-aged WASPy women, who had asked me what gallery we were in, got the mistaken impression that we were going off together in search of wine...but never mind that.


I lost her at the heads. This photo doesn't quite do justice to Jaune Plensa's massive illuminated sculptures at Galerie Lelong. I only wish he hadn't taken to inscribing words accross them. "Anxiety," "Wrath," etc felt overly didactic, if didactic is ever a good thing in art. By this time things were kicking, I had lost the people I was with, and I headed down to Zwirner and the Kitchen on 19th St. Both had great, fun, crowded openings (perhaps because they had booze : ). As for the art...I'll have to check it out under other circumstances.

I tried to squeeze another opening into my night by going down to SoHo, but there was a line halfway down the block to get into this exhibition! The people in front told me they had waited for an hour, and I decided to walk myself home. Somewhere along this walk I realized it was also Fashion's Night Out , with lingerie stores offering cookies and boutiques with bands.

Was anybody else out last night? Any recommendations?

Autumn in New York: Plays and Galleries, Oh My

Despite lamenting the shortening days, autumn in New York is lovely...and busy! 'Tis the season, and now there are a hundred and one things cultural offerings on the agenda. This leads to some tough choices. I have to skip a few gallery opening tonight...but I will be seeing the Woodshed Collective's The Confidence Man.

The Woodshed Collective, this genius, only in New York kind of organization, is putting on a free play. All you have to do is reserve a ticket in advance. Last summer they did a really nice job with Twelve Ophelias, a backcountry spin off of Hamlet, at McCarren Pool Park. The group focuses on site-specific installations of original new work. The Confidence Man is being performed on the Decommissioned U.S.C.G. Lilac at Pier 40 on the Hudson. As a spin off of Herman Melville's story about a 19th c. con man on a riverboat, this is more than appropriate.

Here's the kicker: the audience chooses how the performance will go. It's like a choose-your-own-adventure book. To wit:

"The audience will choose what to see and which character’s story to follow just as one selects which newspaper stories to read, which YouTube videos to screen, or which online links to click. By allowing audience members to immerse themselves in the experience, the production seeks to blur the line between performer and patron..."

They warn you not to wear heels--you'll be running all over the old ship. It's all very exciting, and a fun way to kick off a new fall season. Up tomorrow: Johnny Madsen at Denise Bibro, Carla Klein and Rita Lundqvist at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, Juergen Teller at Lehman Maupin, Chris Ofili at David Zwirner, a group show at White Columns and the Kitchen and general wandering about Chelsea to see what's happening. 'Tis the season.

Ravels in Review Friday

You'll be happy to know that dinner last night was delicious: tilapia, brussel sprouts, and potatoes; and a good time was had be all. (I know you were anxious about my entertaining abilities.)

As it is finally Friday, it's time for a Ravels in Review post. I think the week certainly started out on a good note with a long-overdue introduction.

• So if you had any lingering questions about yours truly, check out the video post in which I formally introduce myself.
  
• In another video post, I give you a glimpse into Nearly Ninety at BAM, at which Merce Cunningham, Sonic Youth, and John Paul Jones created an interesting collaboration.
  
• The performance inspired me to learn more about experimental composer John Cage.
  
• I discussed the Pulitzer Prize process (say that 3 times fast..) and Holland Cotter's win for Criticism.
  
• I shared some of my recent reading with a poem by Emiliy Dickinson.
  
• Yesterday, I left you with a To Do list of great gallery openings.

If anybody had a chance to check things out in Chelsea, let us know. Hopefully I'll follow that gallery list myself! Today is 70 degrees and sunny--what could be better?

Happy Friday all!

Q: What is Thursday in the art world?

A: A night of gallery hopping; i.e. openings, wine, people watching, mingling and more.

I have a great list of exciting openings for tonight. I have a great new raincoat and umbrella just in case. Great, right? Except I'll be hosting my boyfriend's dad for dinner, which is, of course, lovely, but does not leave time for gallery hopping.

There's no reason that the list should go to waste though. Enjoy and report back if you can. If not, hopefully I'll be out there on Friday. Also, if you ever want to check out some openings and aren't sure where to go, check out Artcards for a great and wide-ranging list of exhibitions. Openings are from 6 to 8 p.m.

• Maja Lisa Engelhardt, image right, at Elizabeth Harris Gallery , 529 W. 20th St., Through May 30
  
  


• Alex Katz at Pace Wilderstein, 545 W. 22nd St., Through June 13
  
  


• Hannah Starkey and Phil Collins at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery , 521 W. 21st St., Through June 20

This is my short list of things to see tonight. The long list occurs as you're strolling through Chelsea and spot a crowd or a work that catches you're eye. Hopefully, I'll catch those shows and the ones listed below tomorrow.

The shows listed below are not to be missed, at least so I suspect/heard through the grapevine. Except for the last one, an installation, this list provides a very painterly tour of Chelsea. There are galleries outside of Chelsea (and I do want to write about them soon) but you can only fit so much into a day, right?

• Pablo Picasso, image right, at Gagosian Gallery, 522 W 21 street, Through June 26




• Kaye Donachie at Marianne Boesky Gallery, 509 W. 24 St., Through April 25
  
  


• Graham Gillmore at Mike Weiss Gallery, 520 W 24 St., Through May 2
  
  


• Louise Fishman at Cheim & Read, 547 W 25 St., Through May 2




• Michael Wetzel at John Connelly Presents, 625 W 27 St.,Through May 16
  
  


• Penny Hes Yassour at Stux Gallery, 530 West 25th St., Through May 2

Am I missing a good show? Is something cool coming up? Tell me!

Ravels in Review Friday (already!)

Has another week really passed? It seems so here in Art Ravel's land, which has been hopefully busy despite a recurrence of hangovers.

Reasons to be hopeful:

1) Spring has returned to Manhattan and gallery hopping can commence again, as I document here. Sure, in between then and now we had some freezing days, but a thaw is coming. *Could also be a reason to be hungover.

2) YouTube's content gets more fun by the minute. See Richard Serra shovel Vaseline under Mathew Barney's direction. Not to be missed.

3) A new play by Moises Kaufman shows us how to make time stand still, in addition to its other good qualities.

4) In another exorbitant claim, a man has discovered the secret of beauty. *Could also be a reason to be hungover.

5)I said goodbye to Culture Pundits, and hello to cool art magazines.

6) Asking questions about Kara Walker, rather than critique, in a further positive, hopeful effort.

And so what do I think sums up this week, its hopes, its hangovers?

Lobsters, obviously. Why? Ask the Surrealists, or read Signs of Spring.

Signs of Spring: LES Galleries

A thing of beauty may be a joy forever, but that's not enough to drag me out after work in 20 degree weather to explore the nether regions of Chelsea. Gallery hopping is not so pleasant when you get frostbite.

The first sign of Spring emerged Wednesday night, when I, like a rabbit poking its twitching nose out of its hole, decided to stop by a gallery opening. I confess, it was only a subway stop away from home. On Stellar Ray's opening This-Has-Been was mentioned both in Artcards and MyOpenBar, and certainly some event was necessary to mark the passage of bunny-eared TVs. See how bunny similes keep popping up--another sign of Spring.

At On Stellar Ray's opening devoted to the end of analog broadcasting, which had a full, rather French crowd, was a TV repurposed as a stove, some videos installations, a large blue wall painted on newspaper (which had little to do with TVs) and a lobster (which I'm certain was the Surrealist key to the whole show). Unfortunately, I never got Surrealism and the great mystery of how the lobster marks the switch from analog is lost on me. What can I say? I'm hopeless.

On my way from On Stellar Rays to my dinner date, imagine my surprise at running across two more galleries. One was forgettable, bu the other, Bridge, had an installation called Swarm that drew me in from across the street. Suspended from the ceiling were black or white geometric mobiles that formed a nebulous cloud slinking down toward a video installation at the end of the gallery. The artist Peter Macapia, who has a PhD in math, created the complex, angular designs of these small mobiles based on geometry and algorithms so that no two are alike. The effect of the installation over all was entrancing.

Then yesterday Heist Gallery on Essex had a new photography show by Andrea Tese up called Boats Against the Current, and on East Broadway I finally popped into LaViola Banks gallery. Signs of Spring on the Lower East Side--hopefully signs of things to come.

Seth Price at Reena Spaulings Fine Art

Art’s commercial aptitude was apparent last night in the unlikeliest of places—my block. I’ve written about the spread of gallery hopping in Manhattan, but it’s officially reached the last stop of the F train in Manhattan. Seth Price had an opening at Reena Spaulings Fine Art last night. I googled the location, 165 East Broadway. I knew the google map was wrong because there was nothing on the block it showed but a Chinese restaurant.

How wrong was I, I discovered when I climbed the old stairs after a crowd of mid-20s folks who seemed to know where they were going. The floor above the Chinese restaurant is Reena Spaulings Fine Art. Instead of 4 people milling about, there were over 40 drinking, smoking and chatting around—oh yes—the art.

Sitting around the corner from said gallery now, having coffee, watching Chinese people practice New Years dances in the park across the way, the scene of the neighborhood just gets better now that I can include galleries. I understand why Renee Spauling and the LaViolaBanks Gallery, also on East Broadway, are here. The spaces are enormous. There are many tiny gallery spaces in the area immediately north of here, but these are massive. Based off last night, I’d say they draw a good crowd.

But where was art’s commercial potential last night? That takes us back to the art; Seth Price’s works are so polished and intelligent they might sell themselves even in this market.


Stressing the importance of dates, Price has created a series of calendar pieces where he has painted older paintings in a square in the top of a canvas and a calendar locating them in time along the bottom. For me, works like the one featured above, where molded objects or faces break through a flat, plasticine surface were less explicit and more appealing. I didn't stay for the video, which I suspect was the best part.

The Spread of Gallery Hopping

It's snowing outside in Manhattan, which makes one want to curl up with a hot cup of tea rather than trudge outside to galleries. Sure, all I have to do is take the subway, but sometimes that seems like a lot of effort. Nowadays, I don't have to go far though. Galleries have been mushrooming outside my apartment almost as much as trendy boutiques. The explosion of galleries has been pleasant to watch as a sign of a strong market, yet counter-intuitively it doesn't mesh with a favorite activity of mine: gallery hopping.

I don't live in Chelsea, already saturated with galleries, or even some hipster corner of Brooklyn. I live below the Lower East Side and its crazy nightlife, surrounded by Chinese immigrant on one side and Hasidic Jews on the other. I haven't been able to understand what the Chinese are saying about the galleries popping up with their big installations taking up the entire tiny storefront and the crowds they draw on random nights. I find it...odd.

You'd think I'd be delighted, and I am, but who goes to see these out of the way galleries? The far west 20s of Chelsea still packs galleries like sardines in a can, but the scene has been decentralizing for so long that gallery-hopping in Chelsea is no longer so cool as it once was. Even so, for gallery hopping, Chelsea can't be beat. I suppose serious art collectors or people who are already fans of the artist would travel to a different area of town, but personally I need some incentive.

Let me explain the premise of gallery hopping: you hook up with a friend or two, you hop from gallery to gallery (thus the necessity of a centralized location), you look at art while drinking free wine and looking at the people. A good time is had by all, even if you don't see works that you care for. Chelsea still holds major galleries like the Gagosians and Zwirner, but they are more established. For cutting edge galleries, you'll likely tempted out to Brooklyn. Of course, the quality of art is uneven, but the scene is much better. So Chelsea and Brooklyn for gallery hopping, but my neighborhood? Only recently has it joined the ranks.

The recent proliferation of galleries strikes me as very much a by-product of a inflated art market, a market that is not around to support the tiny art spaces in 2009. On an individual level, this is unfortunate, but on a larger scale seems like a long overdue correction. For my gallery hopping purposes, Chelsea and Brooklyn aren't going anywhere.