Chelsea Gallerista

CLICK ON PICTURES FOR A BIGGER VIEW A sweep around Columbus' temporary living room courtesy of the free Photosynth iPhone app There's nothing like visual juxtaposition to tickle the human psyche ... witness he of the giant soft hamburger, fan and wall sockets fame - Claes Oldenburg  (yes if you scroll down, that link does show a piece by Claes Oldenburg). The latest art stunt in New York City is Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi's Columbus on the Coffee Table , smack bang on a traffic island in Columbus Circle. OK, that's not the title of the work. It's actually called Discovering Columbus , playing on the fact that the man - actually a scoundrel and a butcher - discovered America. I like my title better. I must be the zillionth person to pose like this in front of the statue  The entrance was free, and ticket holders who booked online patiently waited to climb size flights of scaffolded stairs to get to the mock "living room." Naturally, the...

It's been my lucky week. I've been to two galleries where the artists were present and unmobbed. First, Wendell Castle  with his sensuous "repurposed trees" at Barry Friedman. Then, the maestro of ephemeral sculpture, Andy Goldsworthy. Andy is renowned for his transient sculptures constructed largely in nature - woven blades of grass forming a mesh with the sky completing the spaces; sticks marching in thin air;  petals arranged as a solid blaze of color on a pond before lazily dispersing. Quite simply, he's taken the simple rock cairn to the n+1th degree. The documentary "Rivers and Tides" brought his work to the ADHD attention of the masses. So it was intriguing to see him execute his shtick in the decidedly unnatural environment of the world's most celebrated city. The exhibition consisted of sequences of photographs and real time video. A single water splash photographed over time; a serpentine mark on pavement gradually obliterated by...

New York never fails to redeem itself" - E.B. White in "Here is New York" A lot as already been written about the inhabitants of an apartment that rubs railings with the recently opened Highline Park in Chelsea . You can google "Renegade Cabaret" in the blabosphere and land on their Facebook page, webpage and a lot of citizen cyber-ink. Prior to the $152m, "no binoculars needed" viewing platform unrolling outside her window, it appears resident Patty Heffley "lived in obscurity for 31 years in her building on West 20th St", sashaying from bathroom to bedroom without having to duck 'n' run in a towel as you do, and ecologically hanging out her laundry on the exposed fire escape without hassle. On June 9, 2009, things changed, when this soon-to-be world famous public park knocked on her window box. Her sporting response was to grab a couple of friends with talent, string out the paper lanterns and put on a show. Since the...

My Photos | My movie (5 min) I've been a bit remiss in posting to this blog, but this gave me a reason to kick start it. The Highline is a repurposed, elevated railway trestle running from around 17th St to 30th St near Manhattan's western shore. It was slated for the scrap metal yard but an avid supporter group, Friends of the Highline, managed to convince people with deep pockets that it was worth developing into an elevated park. New York Times posted a nice overview, as did New York Post , so I won't re-swoon the swoonable. Suffice to say it's an intriguing execution merging public landscaping with art. Some of the choo-choo-inspired detailing seems a little cloying on first toe stub - like the raised bits suggesting uneven ground? - but when the plants - or rather, intentional weeds grow through the stylized railway runners, subtlety will prevail. It's a terrific place to watch the sun sink over Jersey. Some random personal observations: * ...