Chelsea Gallerista

The final resting place - with fellow Spot Challenger Kenneth Spriggs' "Spot Homage" reflected in the mirror TEN MONTHS  after 128 Spot Challengers (see  Am I Dotty ?) took off on a mad scavenger-hunt to eyeball Damien Hirst's spot paintings in 8 countries, it's time to collect from our local Gagosian. And now, a year later, one has even come up for auction at the venerable Phillips auction house  ( update 2/27/13: it sold for GBP 15,000 or around $22,750 USD). It remains to be seen if the owner's larger-than-life story behind the print may help or hinder its sale - there is no mention of it in the auction listing, and since Phillips are experts in the game, so we can only assume they decided not to "overshare."  SOLD! The  first Spot Challenge to go on the block  went for GBP15,000 in London on Feb 27, 2013. This is a snapshot of a tweet by the auction house, Phillips. The view of my print from below ... The unfurling of...

An albino Burmese Python - "a non-venomous constrictor." As if being creative on demand isn't already stressful enough, any party thrown by the advertising or design industries had better be an art-directed jaw dropper or you'll be sneered out of the room - from the slick promo poster down to the burlesque aerialist gyrating with an Albino Burmese Python. So all that and more was served up at the   Art Directors Club  Creative Carnival, a promo night for illustrators and their reps co-run by a portfolio company called Workbook . The loft-like Chelsea offices of the AD club was transformed into a circus space where 30 or so artists and illustrators sat ringside, engaged in a "life drawing" exercise of the slightly contorted kind ... Inside the ring, ladies in burlesque costumes (and skirts made from bananas) cracked whips, performed aerial acro-yoga and and fondled some pretty impressive creatures, like a yellow-hued  Albino Burmese Python . How do ...

A sweet show: Pamela with Gumdrops (left) and Billy's Cupcakes (right) If you glance back through this blog you'll note that I'm a huge contemporary art fan – the weirder and more subversive, the better. But I do appreciate a good still life, especially if its weird, subversive, or makes me want to eat it.  That seemed to be the gut sentiment of the enthused crowd who gathered in the lobby of a Greenwich Village apartment building to view "Sugar and Fat" by New York painter Pamela Talese . Cheese and Hermes Scarf: Had even the most vegan diehards dreaming of brie and crackers. OK, maybe not vegans ...  The paintings featured some iconic New York sweets and treats, offset by unusual backdrops to give them a this-is-Talese-not- Thiebaud twist. Plates of mini-cupcakes disappeared in a New York nanosecond (the Oreos lingered), and many people were mesmerized by the buttery slice of brie in "Cheese and Hermes Scarf." It was the first of the ...

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...

VIDEO: Dane Owen talks about the Boro, or "tattered rags" used to describe patched and repurposed kimonos. If you ever venture across the Brooklyn Bridge to Dumbo, possibly headed for the ultra-hip (in a rustic way)  Vinegar Hill House restaurant for brunch, make sure you stumble around the corner to visit Shibui . Dane recently restored this Japanese Step Tansu. From the Facebook post : "I would say it was early Meiji c1880. It was made with hand forged nails and hinges . Mortised and tenoned joinery. Hinoki wood frame. I have 3 other Kaidan on the website , one is a little smaller but they are real so they have to be big enough to get to the second floor and deep enough so you wont fall off."  It's a treasure trove of old Japan in a cavernous, cement floor garage. The owner Dane Owen, a Santa Fe native, pops up from behind a great wall of tansu (Japanese storage cabinets, no doubt the Ikea of old Japan at the time) as a walking Wikipedia of Jap...