Cold winds and hot boilers

A cold day on the island, a precursor to the snow to come...

I met up with my friend Sky to go visit the galleries in Chelsea, trying to catch a lot of the shows before they ended that day. Some really worthwhile shows out there, just be prepared to freeze on the streets (with the cold wind blowing off the hudson) and boil in the galleries (with overactive radiators)...

The best of:

Our favorite show was clear and away the Bill Viola show at James Cohan gallery. He has once again captured all that is good about video art. His pieces explored the elements and human interaction. All of the works were incredibly sharp digital videos (the crispness just made them more tactile) run at very very slow frame rates. The colors and shapes were delicious, there were many pieces, and it is worth spending about half an hour watching the various pieces, I won't give away too much though :) go see for yourself!

We also enjoyed Mona Hatoum's show at Alexander and Bonin - playful and sometimes disturbing sculptural creations. I especially liked the woven lights in the 3rd floor space. Just a couple of door's away, Bellweather had *another* good show, this time it was Marc Swanson - he was showing some visually stunning sparkly deer heads and antlers. In the back room he had constructed, as Tyler Green (Modern Art Notes) calls it a "post-apocalyptic forest." I hadn't really thought about that when we were there in the space, but yeh, I guess I could go with that. The striking thing about the work is that it was truly engaging. We spent a lot of time walking around looking at things, trying to construct a story about what it was, and we all had different opinions on what things might be or mean. Thats good art in my opinion.

We happened upon some fabulous drawings at Mixed Greens by Joan Linder, and enjoyed seeing Tara Donovan's "Untitled (Paper Plates)" at Pace Wildenstein. We dropped by ZieherSmith to see what Tucker Nichols is up to - always intriguing. Nancy Spero's Cri du Coeur at Galerie Lelong was lush and intriguing. (Favorite gallery spaces: Mixed Greens, very neo japanese noodle bar, and Spike, old world bank style).

Things that were a pass: Tracey Emin at Lehman Maupin. The work was typically self involved, and completely uninteresting other than trying to figure out whether it was handmade or machine sewn. And her neon light tube just looked like a weak version of Monica Goetz' work at James Nicholson gallery (which I blogged here and here). I was looking forward to Polly Apfelbaum's work at D'Amelio Terras, but was dissappointed, her colorful floor works are far more appealing.

The day was just another wonderful reminder of why I moved back to NYC. And it culminated with rubbing elbows with Woody Allen at an opening, and running into the always fun and fabulous Scott Keating 22nd and 10th ave.

Sorry it took a while to post this, we have had internet issues. Also, for those leaving comments, I haven't figured out how to respond to them :) so thanks for the notes, and Joy- definitely send pictures!