Chelsea Gallerista

Beware of the cheap wine - and don't forget to look at the art  For those of you chasing around after Banksy's latest meticulously orchestrated stunt, his month long "New York street residency/scavenger hunt,"   the artist's Oct 18 edition is smack in the backyard of ChelseaGallerista, on W24th St at 10th Ave.  Typically, it pokes fun at someone, in this case the gallery scene itself.   Read/listen to Banksy's own cliff notes on W24th You touch de art, I break your face - but perhaps you would like me to take a photo for you?  Under the Highline, on a pebble-strewn private lot, are two paintings hanging in an impromptu "gallery space" that are apparently collaborations with Brazilian street art twins,  Os Gemeos  (you might have trouble reading Portuguese so just Google image them). A dorning an  80-foot wall of PS1 on 21st St    is one of the twins' signature pants-yanked-up-to-the-armpits big yellow men - itself a collabora...

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 ...