A Dose of Art Walk Jargon.

Last week the Chelsea art scene had all us artoholics in a complete art overload of visual frenzies with the Second Annual Chelsea Walk 2011.  The Annual Chelsea Art Walk is a cooperative event organized by the neighborhood's galleries and art institutions to generate more buzz during the otherwise minimal summer flow of foot traffic. Featuring more than 125 internationally recognized galleries, the free, self-guided, public event afforded the residents and visitors an opportunity to survey the eclectic medley of art featured in the area.  Doors opened from five to eight p.m. all over Chelsea, featuring everything from exhibition unveilings, to artist talks, to live performances, to screenings and even book signings by critically acclaimed art world elite and artists.   


An artoholic, myself, I just had to partake in the highly eulogized event! One event stop, which was not on my agenda, but serendipitously broken by the site of a modernist-inspired structure of glass and Cor-ten steel that fills the space of Jim Kempner Fine Art.  Stepping outside the cliche 'white box' gallery structures of Chelsea that echo the once lived warehouses, Kempner's astute choice in commissioning the architects, Smith and Thompson, for his gallery design, always skew my path.  Lured into the open aired veranda, I found a beautifully painted nude model being photographed alongside the hyper-realistic sculpture created by the American artist, Carole Feuerman.  Visual stimulation was subsided as I took notice of a long line leading to complimentary psychic readings by performance artist, Karen Finley, who explores the spirit world as one of her many mediums.

                The scene above reveals a non-affiliated photographer, capturing his painted nude model alongside, sculptor, Carole Feuerman's life-size work, while the performance artist, Karen Finley, offers free psychic readings to visitors in the open veranda outside Jim Kempner Fine Art.

Next dose of art led me up the block to Steven Kasher Gallery, where my pupils lit up at the site of the Rude and Reckless: Punk/ Post-Punk Graphics, 1976-1982 exhibition.  Arm hairs in full flare as I was instantly engulfed by over 200 rare posters sprawled out in salon-style  - this was a show worth dedicating some time.  


A first of it's kind in NYC, the exhibition provides a thorough archive of graphically designed posters for the Punk, New Wave, Post-Punk and No Wave performers of the late 70s and early 80s era.  Featuring the likes of The Ramones, B52s, The Sex Pistols, The Police, The Damned and a plethora more, the posters' creation by American and British artists take their inspiration from the Modern and Post-Modern movements of the 20th Century.  Bold and, in some cases, raunchy, the in-your-face posters hale the walls literally and figuratively as a reflection of the 'rude and reckless' generation of music that came to be known as Punk Rock. 


For more information on this eye-popping exhibition, check out the press release on the Steven Kasher website.  www.stevenkasher.com 

            My newly inflicted artoholic friend (right) and I (left) at Steven Kasher Gallery                                                   for the Rude and Reckless: Punk/ Post-Punk Graphics, 1976-1982 exhibition.

The exhibition will conclude on August 19th - check it out, before its too late!  

As I was coming down from my natural art high and in need for more, I noticed there was a Coolhaus Truck, the ice cream street vendor, curb-side the Meulensteen Gallery.  Obviously, with the sweltering heat wave, ice cream was just what I needed to keep me gallery hopping!  It turns out, Coolhaus Truck, in honor of the Annual Chelsea Art Walk, linked up with Meulensteen Gallery to create an ice cream sandwich inspired by the forward-thinker, architect, engineer, and futurist, Bucksminster Fuller, for his ongoing exhibition, Ebb.  Dubbed the "bucksMINTster fuller", the ice cream sandwich came cleverly constructed in the uncanny likeness of  Fuller's iconic geodesic dome design with a scoop of Coolhaus' signature "dirty mint" ice cream, sandwiched between two mouth-watering chocolate chip cookies, surrounded by an edible wrapper - form and function - how 'bucking' good!  

Coolhaus Truck pays homage to the late, Bucksminster Fuller, with their, "bucksMINTster fuller" ice cream sandwich.

                                                                   This image and the coined term 'bucking' 

                                                                                 provided by www.acne.com

For more on the actual Ebb exhibition, visit the Meulensteen website. www.meulensteen.com

The show will cease on August 19th.

My dosage of art was almost filled but I still needed a bit more. P.P.O.W. Gallery was just the place to satisfy my need in viewing a wide spectrum of edgy art.  Unveiling their current exhibition, Magic for Beginners, curated by Jamie Sterns and Joseph Whitt, brings to query, man-made structures imposed onto nature, in relation to self. The ten exhibited artists reveal the origin of truths that stray away from the ever-evolving world and instead concern themselves more with the philosophical idea of solipsism, where in, only one's mind is sure to exist and nothing more.  Video, photography, sculpture, and paintings are displayed, possibly as a light-hearted celebration to arouse the audience in pondering the question; is this world all just an illusion???

For more on this exhibition, visit P.P.O.W. Gallery's website. www.ppowgallery.com 

Olaf Breuning

Color Drip 2, 2009

Mounted C-print on 6mm sintra, framed

Scott Hug

Man in the Mirror (Michael Jackson), 2007

Black mirror, digital print on canvas

The above were just two highlights of the many featured artworks in the Magic for Beginners exhibition at P.P.O.W. Gallery. The show ends August 27th. 

All presented photographs above, with the exception of the cookie, were taken by me.

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Stay tuned for the next art dose! 

Thoughts, questions and/ or concerns...drop a line in the AA meeting section.