NYC January and February
Christopher Chambers
Have you seen those awful horse-y sculptures made out of driftwood and garbage by Deborah Buttersomething on Park Avenue? Gawd! I can’t stand that stuff! Worst of all, I think my mom has a picture of one of ‘em in her bathroom. But across the street is the best show in town. Orchestrated by Richard Marshall, Lever House has several enormous artworks on display along the avenue: a gigantic, 40 foot-tall bronze of a pregnant lady by Damien Hirst titled, Virgin Mother, that had to be maneuvered into the courtyard over the front portion of the edifice with a crane; the three best Harings that I have ever seen; and a couple of mural scale, excellent canvases in the lobby by Barnaby Furnas, a very talented young painter of stick figures from Philly cum Brooklyn/Columbia U./M. Boesky Inc. that magnificently answer the question, "who actually buys this stuff, anyway?"
~Across town, the New York art season opened up with several new comings and goings. Cynthia Broan opened her new space on 29th Street last spring after a two year hiatus at the art fairs. She participated in eight Scope fairs and I forget what else. Her new gallery was designed by the firm, Lot-ek (pronounced Low Tech) who take a novel approach to designing art spaces: exposed aluminum studs and movable walls that still don’t overwhelm the art being presented, because, uh, that’s what they are there for. Ms. Broan started off the season this year with a group show organized by gallery artist Michael St. John. Well, actually, he invited others to participate in what otherwise would have been his solo show.
~ Baird Jones is back in action with a vengeance! His celebrity art shows were a fixture at the nightclubs throughout the 1980s, and now, once again he seems to be throwing an event almost every weekend at venues such as Avalon and Club Select. Baird always rounds up a colorful crowd, and his motley assortment of would-be artists is guaranteed entertainment.
~ Harris Lieberman is a new gallery on the Lower West Side, or maybe you call it West Soho, or the Far West Village–take your pick, it’s around the corner from Gavin Brown’s second or third enterprise. Jessie Washburn-Harris used to be the director of Friedrich Petzel, and Michael Lieberman was director at Lombard Freid (both in Chelsea), but they coupled while both were employed by Larry Gagosian. When I stopped in they were installing their second exhibition, which was a first solo painting show by 35 year-old American, Tommy White. What makes all this interesting is that it seems emblematic of the second or third Chelsea wave, which now includes galleries moving to the peripheries in search of alternative locations so as to stay one step ahead of the pack–just as real estate developers are luring even more international gallerists (stay tuned) into the neighborhood. [It’s been a longstanding fantasy of mine to open the "Empire Gallery," in guess which famous building?] And the show itself is indicative of just how multifaceted the artworld is nowadays–Tommy White paints neo-expressionistic, large oils on canvas; definitely not rote trendy stuff. The image of bloody crimson toes floating is hospital whites and turquoise is my most vivid recollection. It’s heroic painting in the grand twentieth century tradition. And the gallery stable is across the board from video installations to whatever. Over the last few years it was getting so that I could have taught a class in, "Paint like this if you want a show." But it seems to be stylistic mayhem these days as to what is or isn’t fashionable art. And that’s good.
