Thursday
night is traditionally the night for art gallery openings here.
Scene used to be along Broadway between Canal and Houston. That
changed when all the galleries moved to a god awful neighborhood on
the west Side near the Hudson River. Place used to have one cool
aspect: lots of industrial buildings with folks making good stuff.
Like, I got a bunch of custom made photo equipment cases there from a
wonderful outfit called Fiberbuilt. You could bring in a bunch of
odd sized gear there, lay it out and they would build the absolute
perfect case. The workshop was right there. They even repaired
their stuff. Very cool And like many places in the City, long gone.
So what's replaced it all is a bunch of ultra cool (or so they'd
like us to think) art galleries. And every Thursday night, thousands
of the cool and not so cool descend on the neighborhood for the
openings. Not for the art. You can check for openings on any number
of web sites or just wander around looking for people leaving
buildings with plastic tumblers of cheap wine. That's where the
openings are. Used to be if you got there early enough, you got a
crack at the cheese trays too. I rarely got there that early.
Anyway,
I haven't done this for months. Maybe not since last Fall. Here are
some snapshots of this past Thursday's offerings. I don't think I've
missed much.
 |
| "It speaks to me!" |
This
last snapshot was at the only really fun show of the lot.. It was a
bunch of stuff from Andy Warhol past: shots of his studio and parties
and some of his work. I think I recognized some of the folks in the
photos. Anyway, there were several places where you could look at
yourself in mirrors labeled “Self Portrait.” I documented the moment:
One
footnote: a few days later, I came across this piece painted on
the crumbling outside stairway of a rundown building in Brooklyn.
Artist unknown, but should be.
1 comment:
Looking at the photos, I'd have to say I didn't miss much either by NOT going. Although you did miss my former husband's single man show, Budd Hopkins, on W. 24th at Levis fine art. They seemed old fashioned, exactly as the Warhol stuff seemed "old fashioned." Isn't that amazing? Back in the day, nobody in that world would ever have thought such a thing could happen...Oh, time, you kill-joy.
Post a Comment