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New York City Galleries with Valerie

New York, NY – Come with me on a Chelsea walk. Last weekend, I picked the worst day to go to Chelsea. The five inches of slush wasn’t too bad, I only wish I’d waterproofed my boots. Despite the dismal weather, the art I saw for the most part was surprisingly good – that does not always happen. Here a look at some of the better work that I saw and a quick summary.

Maria Magdalen Campos-Pons
The Other Side
Feb 21st – April 5, 2008
Julie Saul Gallery

Watercolor and striking imagery is a hard combination to handle. The large size of these paintings helps and as does the way they are loosely painted. I love watercolors that look like they were painted with water. Why hide the fact? This artist shows off the drips to her credit.

Miguel Angelo Rocha
January 10 – February 23rd, 2008
ATM Gallery

These sculptures were a delight. They seemed to play with the air that surrounded them and tease the viewer at the same time. They were not all whimsy though, there is an edge to them that lets you take them seriously

Karen Arm
New Works
February 15 – March 22, 2008
PPOW

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At first glance I was bored. I was also surprised that PPOW was showing this artist’s work. Usually I see challenging work here, but dots? Okay…. finally I got up close. These are no ordinary dots. Who knew dots could be so interesting? These are dots within dots within dots that could fit on the end of a pencil eraser or smaller. Still, not particularly conceptually challenging, but very sensual.

Bjarne Melgaard
February 15 – March 15
Greene Naftali

I couldn’t tell if the woman in the installation was suppose to be part of it or if she was just doing some afternoon reading in a quiet place. So I asked her. She replied that there were some “very valuable objects” in the installation and she was there to make sure they were not disturbed. There was something humorously twisted about that statement. The found objects were of hardly any notice amongst the Basquiat-like paintings and custom printed futons. I wondered why she wasn’t sitting on one of the futons. Overall it was a disjointed installation. I didn’t get it, but thought the conversation was worth mentioning.

Chris Martin
Mitchell-Innes & Nash
January 1 – March 1

I liked these paintings. I wasn’t sure if this was a retrospective of sorts or if they were all recent works. I found out some took 10 years to paint. I like making work that has an obvious different thought behind it. I feel sorry for the artist whose show I walk into and there are 15 of the same painting. How boring to do.

Juan Usle
February 7 – March 15
Cheim & Read

At first glance I thought this painting might have been a collage of yarn. I was at a distance and was throughly amazed at the color saturation and vibrance. Upon closer inspection, the painting only became more engaging. “Now wonder this artist is in this gallery”, I thought. (Sometimes you do wonder why). The paintings were brilliant. Stripes… I never thought I could get so excited about stripes, or dots for that matter. The artist is happily engaged in this work, you can tell he is excited about what he will learn next.

I was sad to learn that I was just missing the opening of Amy Cutler’s work and the whole West 27th street galleries’ new shows. You can’t always get them all I guess. I hope you enjoyed the walk with me.

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