Art Party

I went downtown to a small party/cocktail sort of thing last night. There was wine and cheese and it featured the work of the artist Spencer Tunick. Moby was there for a while and here he is talking to Spencer. The works on the table in front of them are 8" x 10" color photos of various installations around the world.

Times Square Mural

Times Square Mural is a massive artwork by Roy Lichtenstein that is installed in the 42nd Street Subway. It's 6 feet tall and 53 feet long. If you're a fan of his work, tere's also another enormous Roy Lichtenstein artwork on 7th Avenue around 51st Street installed in the lobby of the AXA - Equitable building. There's actually a lot of public artwork installed all over New York City. You could spend a whole day looking at it all for free. I ought to develop a free artwork tour of New York City. I could charge $20 a person. Of course there are plenty of museums that have great collections and if you know when to go, you can get in for free or next to nothing. Friday night at MoMA and the Whitney are Pay What You Want nights and you can go to the Metropolitan as their admission is a suggested donation at all times. If you don't mind getting a dirty look from the person who sits behind the counter you can give them a nickle or a dime or whatever you think is appropriate. The Guggenheim doesn't offer any sort of discount ever. Some smart corporation that appreciates art ought to sponsor a free Thursday or Friday night at the Guggenheim.

It's really hard to believe that nearly a half a million people come through the 42nd Street subway station every day. That's a lot of people.

Deep in Contemplation

Totally lost in the art. One of my favorite moments at The Armory Show 2010. Last Friday night.

Mouth to Mouth

I went to the MoMA museum branch PS1 in Queens last weekend. There was an exhibition featuring 45 years (since 1965) of performance video and it was comprised of many, many art works made specifically for video. I expected that the TVs would be higher quality, but it sort of fit in with the video since many of these were probably shot on VHS. I had seen a lot of the videos before, but there was also some incredibly captivating works that I had only read about before that were definitely worth seeing.

One of the works I liked was by the Glasgow based artist duo Smith/Stewart. I wasn't previously familiar with their work, but typically use their own bodies as the source for their video installations and single-screen works which allow them to explore gender interaction, and the works often have a threatening sense of imminent violence. In Mouth to MouthStewart lies in a bathtub fully clothed and completely submerged in water while Smith kneels at the tub's edge. Each time he signals that he is out of breath, she bends down and exhales into his mouth.

Big Seed Drawing

Today was my third time cruising through the Compass in Hand exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. My approach is just to walk around until something catches my eye. It's great to have a membership to the museum and live so close because I don't feel any pressure to see everything and I can go back any time I want. I see something different that I like every time I check out this exhibition which runs until early next year. It's a good thing because there's plenty of time for me to go back several more times and find lots more art to like.

The work on display is from the Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection, and was acquired by the Museum in 2005. It is an extraordinary collection of over 2,500 contemporary works on paper though only 250 or so are on display which kind of sucks because I am sure there are so many more great pieces that will never been seen. I guess that's what the catalog is for. If I had a couple million dollars I'd love to acquire a huge collection of art, but I don't so I'll just have to pretend. I do have a couple of excellent pieces of art by Ian Burns and Fred Tomaselli in my small art collection. I just looked and found that Tomaselli piece has increased in value almost 20 times. I need to buy more art.

Anyway, at the MOMA today I decided to pick out one work and it's one that has been catching my eye on every visit. It's called "Big Seed Drawing" and is by an artist I really like, Mark Grotjahn. He made this one with ballpoint pen, color pencil and linseed oil on marked paper. It's fairly large at 29 x 23" (73.7 x 58.4 cm). Grothjahn usually works with colored pencils and makes work that's geometric and fairly formal in composition. This ones a bit looser than other pieces I've seen, but I like the messy surface and personal touch to his work. The colors remind me of some of Frank Stella's colorful work from the 1960's.

Lucky Draw

My friend Mame and I went to the annual Scupture Center Lucky Draw event on Tuesday night in Queens.

The Sculpture Center is, in my opinion, this totally underrated boutique art museum located outside the city just three subway stops. Every year they host a fundraiser/event where 160 artists donate work and the museum hosts a raffle sale to raise operating funds. It's a good idea, but even more so, it's a really cool event. I think I've gone four years in a row. My friend Rob used to go with me, but he dropped out and Mame has gone with me the last two years. It's got to be one of the most fun things I can think of attending. They provide a nice spread of food, free drinks and lots and lots of great art.

What makes the evening so exciting is that they sell exactly 160 tickets (it always sells out) and then they throw all of the tickets into a bin and spin it around. Meanwhile, before they call the names you walk around the museum looking at all the art that fills every wall space and make a list of all the art you might want to choose. Some of it is awesome and other pieces you might think are crappy. You try to make a list in order of priority, but it's really hard to choose exactly what you might want if your name is called early. The guy who hosts the raffle (it's more like a funky auction) is funny and captivating. I love listening to him. As they select the names out of the spinning bin randomly one by one, you wait for your name to be called so that you can select a piece of art that you want. However, because you never know when your name is going to be called, you basically sit there on pins and needles waiting, waiting, waiting. Meanwhile the assortment of art gets smaller and smaller as people who are chosen before you select pieces that you may have wanted. A lot of the art is quite valuable and other pieces less so, but all of the art is from relatively known or upcoming artists and are exceptionally well-conceived.

I really wanted a piece by Christian Tomaszewski, but it was one of the first ones selected and I ended up taking home a nice wooden sculpture instead. (See picture of Mame with my sculpture in a box.) Mame snagged a cool painting for herself.

All in all, another really fun night in New York City.

Chelsea

An incredibly busy evening for the art world tonight in Chelsea. There must have been two dozen openings.

Here is the scene at my friend, the scuptor, Robert Taplin's opening at Winston Wachter Fine Art on 25th Street. Pictured: "Thus My Soul Which Was Still in Flight (The Dark Wood)", 2008, Wood, polychromed resin, edition of 3, 50 x 48 inches x 42 inches.

Headless Mao

A 5.5 ton, 10-foot tall metal sculpture of a Mao jacket on the median of Park Avenue in front of the Asia Society at 70th Street. The sculpture, by Chinese contemporary artist Sui Jianguo, will be on display through mid-November in conjunction with the Asia Society Museum exhibition "Art and China's Revolution."

Hello Kitty

Tom Sachs' 21-foot tall painted bronze sculpture of Hello Kitty at Lever House. If you look closely you will see the artist standing beneath his sculpture.