New York Magazine (Art) - See Here Now

SOURCE: New York Magazine

TITLE: See Here Now

Three art-rich neighborhoods, 25 new galleries.

DATE: Oct 4, 2009

AUTHOR: Rachel Wolff

MAP BY: Jason Lee

 

Every gallery here has opened since the start of 2008, and all are exhibiting art that’s startling, affecting, or just plain fun. Since most (though not all) of them show emerging artists, the barriers to buying—financial and otherwise—are low. If you like what you see, you just may be able to take it home.

 

Downtown

 

Jonathan VanDyke at Scaramouche.

(Photo: Courtesy of Scaramouche, NY)

1. Scaramouche

53 Stanton St.; 212-228-2229

Stand back! This little gallery’s first fall opens with Jonathan VanDyke’s minimalist sculptures rigged to spurt out brightly colored paint (through November 1).

 

2. *Sue Scott

1 Rivington St., second fl. 212-358-8767

Scott’s sizable space, known for group shows and curatorial projects, is presenting an installation by Franklin Evans, who has transformed the gallery into a weird riff on his own studio (through October 24).

 

*= Jerry Saltz Recommends

3. Nicelle Beauchene

163 Eldridge St. 212-375-8043

Beauchene—who represents a nice mix of emerging and emerged artists—is showing Brooklynite Rachel Foullon’s wall-mounted sculptures of cedar and stained fabric, evoking the textures and details of life in rural America.

 

4. *Rachel Uffner

47 Orchard St.; 212-274-0064

Uffner’s September opening for Sara Greenberger Rafferty—who’s showing her murky manipulated portraits of seventies comedians through October 25—was packed to the rafters. A definite up-and-comer.

 

 

Saltz's Fall Gallery Tour

5. *Lisa Cooley Fine Art

34 Orchard St. 212-680-0564

Cooley represents a small crop of eclectic (and critically well-received) artists, and with the exception of a Texan and one West Coaster, all are local. Up now: a two-man show by painters Jon Pestoni and Zak Prekop (through October 18).

 

6. Collette Blanchard

26 Clinton St.; 917-639-3912

Blanchard made a splash last October with “Belle du Jour” (images of the female figure as imagined by E. V. Day, Mickalene Thomas, Shinique Smith, and others). Feminism is on the roster this fall, too, with Nancy Friedemann’s unexpectedly dramatic enamel paintings of lace and embroidery—a confluence of traditionally male and female media (through October 26).

 

7. Satori

164 Stanton St.; 646-896-1075

Like Blanchard, Satori is farther east than most local spaces, and both are worth the trek. This month, see one of the area’s few sculpture shows: Benjamin S. Jones’s wooden models inspired by not-so-stable urban architecture and planning (through October 18).

 

Lilla LoCurto at Sloan Fine Art.

(Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Sloan Fine Art Gallery)

8. Sloan Fine Art

128 Rivington St. 212-477-1140

Alix Sloan worked as a private art dealer in Los Angeles before opening here in 2008. In November, look for a series of anthropomorphic digital animations and prints by Lilla LoCurto and Bill Outcault, which look like high-tech medical illustrations run amok.

 

9. *X Initiative

548 W. 22nd St.; 917-697-4886

A one-year project in the old Dia space, this is a not-for-profit spearheaded by dealer Elizabeth Dee. Phase two of its three-part season is on view through the end of this month. In addition to seeing the three artists within the building, don’t miss the roof installation made of swimming-pool noodles.

 

10. *Horton & Liu

504 W. 22nd St.; 212-243-2663

This gallery specializes in painting and is located on the parlor floor of a Chelsea brownstone, giving it the pre-white-cube vibe of an earlier age. It debuted in September with a show of brightly colored, densely structured, faintly Cubist paintings by Michael Berryhill (through October 10).

 

11. *David Zwirner

524 W. 19th St.; 212-517-8677

Mega-dealer David Zwirner—who’s showing Chris Ofili and Raoul De Keyser across the street through October 24—will open his fourth Chelsea storefront early next year, expanding his retail space to an immense 40,000 square feet. The new building, a.k.a. Shigeru Ban’s Metal Shutter Houses, is almost an exhibit itself.

 

Joe Fig at Hendershot Gallery.

(Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Hendershot Gallery)

12. Hendershot Gallery

547 W. 27th St., Ste. 632 212-239-3085

James Hendershot represents commercial as well as fine-arts photographers, giving him a cash buffer in tricky times. He also reps a wide range of up-and-comers like Joe Fig, whose witty paintings and sculptures of artists’ studios—reproducing in micro-detail the worktable of, say, Ross Bleckner or Chuck Close—go on view October 15.

 

13. Slag

531 W. 25th St.; 212-967-9818

A passion project from Romanian-born collector Irina Protopopescu, Slag (named, symbolically, for the unwanted but recyclable by-product of ore smelting) opened last summer to showcase Eastern European artists. Right now, she’s hosting Romanian artist Mircea Suciu, whose bleak paintings look like fifties ads stripped of all their chipper optimism.

 

 

Kenji Hirata at Joshua Liner Gallery

(Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Joshua Liner Gallery)

14. Joshua Liner Gallery

548 W. 28th St., third fl. 212-244-7415

Liner, who built up respect at his now-defunct Philadelphia gallery Lineage, shows contemporary illustration and work with street-art influences. Up next: Kenji Hirata’s incredibly cheerful acrylic abstract paintings, riffing on Southeast Asian billboards, nature, and Italian Futurism (opens October 17).

 

15. *ZieherSmith

516 W. 20th St.; 212-229-1088

Inaugurating its huge new ground-floor space, ZieherSmith kicked off the season with a big group show celebrating its roster. Highlights include Rachel Owens’s sculptural jabs at consumer high society—junky found objects painted gold, sculpture incorporating Manolo Blahniks—and a rollicking mechanical-bull chair by Javier Piñon.

 

16. Silvershed

119 W. 25th St.; abcyz.org

The indoor/outdoor, artist-run space brings that grassroots Bushwick vibe to Manhattan. On October 23, it will host the launch of the collaborative “ABCyz,” with projects and installations from some 40 local artist-run spaces and collectives.

 

17. *Hauser & Wirth

32 E. 69th St.; 212-794-4970

The Swiss mega-gallery finally gets a home in America, and though it’s way off the Chelsea rounds, it’s also too big to skip. The gallery’s first show, “Allan Kaprow: Yard” (through October 24), is William Pope.L’s restaging of Kaprow’s 1961 tire-pile installation—which the mid-century dealer Martha Jackson mounted in this very house in 1961.

 

 

Brooklyn

 

18. *The Boiler

191 N. 14th St., Williamsburg 718-599-2144

Joe Amrhein and Susan Swenson, who run the nearby Pierogi gallery, use their huge space (yes, in an old boiler room) to foster bigger projects from Pierogi artists like Douglas Henderson, who (on November 7 and 8) will stage a live musical composition of contractors hammering on-site.

 

 

Julien Gardair at Eyelevel BQE.

(Photo: Courtesy of Eyelevel BQE)

19. Eyelevel BQE

364 Leonard St., Williamsburg; 917-660-4650

Devoted to Brooklyn and Queens artists, this gallery’s season highlights include Julien Gardair’s show (opening October 17) of surrealist felt, paper, plastic, and cardboard cutouts, which look like cartoony 3-D riffs on Man Ray photograms.

 

20. Capricious Space

103 Broadway, Williamsburg 718-384-1208

Founder Sophie Mörner, a Swedish photographer, gives artists and curators the run of the space with each installation: Currently, Dutch artist Melanie Bonajo has the windows tricked out with candy-colored paper. Look for her tiny finger sculptures, lined up like minuscule versions of China’s terra-cotta warriors (through October 31).

 

21. Camel Art Space

722 Metropolitan Ave., Williamsburg; camelartspace.com

Open only on weekends, Camel has a promising three-artist show (opening October 9) that includes Elisa Velazquez’s crocheted sculptural wall hangings and Lauren Gibbes’s Poppy, slick oil-and-diamond-dust paintings.

 

22. Horse Trader Gallery

519 Grand St., second fl., Williamsburg; 646-247-8042

Six days a week, this space is Chris Uphues’s apartment. On Saturdays from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., it exhibits—this month, a show of drawings by William Brovelli, Scott Wolniak, and Joy Drury Cox, who makes fun, oddly elegant pieces by precisely redrawing death certificates and other standardized forms, sans relevant information.

 

 

Factory Fresh.

(Photo: Courtesy of Factory Fresh)

23. Factory Fresh

1053 Flushing Ave., Bushwick 917-682-6753

Artists Ali Ha and Ad Deville cut their teeth as dealers with the late, lamented Orchard Street Art Gallery. Factory Fresh has a similar emphasis on street art and culture; starting October 23, in a meta twist, the gallery is showing works by 28 graffiti artists “in disguise”—i.e., using their real names.

 

24. Eastern District

43 Bogart St., Bushwick 718-628-0400

Stylish owner Michael “Tido” Cabrera has smartly forged an alliance with his widely loved former neighbor Ad Hoc Art. Their first collaboration is a trippy tape-and-mirrors installation by street artist Aakash Nihalani (through October 25).

 

25. Possible Projects

68 Jay St., No. 510, Dumbo; possibleprojects.com

Married artists Trevor and Rachel Reese show work more challenging than you might expect in Dumbo—Dada, ready-made, lo-fi new media. Its hours are likewise perverse: It’s open only on Mondays.

Done