Chelsea Gallerista

Mixed media artist Rodney Durso, founder of Artbridge Last week I found myself in a couple of small, personal Chelsea art events that signal the alternative ways art is being "done" these days - largely due to the economy. The traditional way: An established gallery in a prime location which is never open Sundays, and in fact, shuts promptly at 6pm weekdays, thus winnowing out the artless tire kickers. Staff, of whom you see only the very top of their heads behind the high reception desk, basically ignore you if you wander in without an appointment, because they are busy dealing in cyberspace ... unless you're an art target of course. The new way: slap up, pop up, art up. Let's look at three different "recession suppression" happenings I stumbled on in the same week: THE POP UP Rodney Durso  and  Blair Bradshaw : Together Again  Press Release Blair Bradshaw flanked by "Burr" and "Hamilton" Rodney Durso (

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 collaboration with

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