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?
Oh I am so jealous 🙂 I so miss popping into New York, but hey at least I can get a peek through your blog. I can get a little dose of people watching here, but well New York is something else and all those fabu exhibits.
oops – let me guess; the hour long wait was for the A Book About Death opening. The consequence of the viral and ultimately egalitarian nature of the project unfortunately led to long wait lines at the opening. Emily Harvey gallery is open Tue – Sat. 1-7pm and pages of the book will be available until they “expire”
Nights like that, rather than the commute and expenses et al, are why I love living here. : )
Yep, you guessed right. A Book About Death was the hour long wait. And I thought I got there rather late…