Chelsea Gallerista

5 down, 11 to go in the Spot Challenge! Thanks to the extraordinarily cool security guards at the Britannia St Gagosian Gallery for taking this attempt at a tripod inversion (hmmm ... I should have fixated on a spot. But which one?) Read my complete Spot Challenge chronicle From the chic, sunny sidewalk of Rodeo Drive to the icy, sleet-whipped streets of London: many have said, why on earth did you backtrack, from New York to LA to London? Why not keep flying in one direction: New York, LA, Hong Kong (as many Spot Challengers have done)?  Simple: since the Beverly Hills show closed in 3 days, and the London show in the coming week, getting those two out of the way first would save me a mad scramble through Europe. The Spot Challenge is thus threefold:  do it on a budget, do it in the dead of a particularly severe EU winter, and do it before each of the galleries closed their respective shows. The Davies St Gallery showcased the wee little spots The staff at Gagosian Lon

Fabulous Santa Monica seaside architecture Read my complete Spot Challenge chronicle I've been "flat out like a lizard drinking" since winging my way from NY to LA to London on the Damien Hirst Spot Challenge. I'm about to head to Paris on the Eurostar first thing tomorrow (and Brits roll their eyes when you call it the "Chunnel" - apparently that's the term for the car ferry). So let's do a quick catch up: 8 countries with one  Traffic Cone Bag First, I'm traveling impossibly light on this 8 country, 2 week global jaunt with just my signature  Traffic Cone Bag ,  I'll bore you with the full equipment list at end of this post (but it might have to wait til I'm paused in Rome).  That's the small one at the right, and I've got it inside the slightly bigger one, so in a pinch I have two ultralight, under-armpittable baggies. Already in the short hop from NY to LA I've managed to lose my inflatable pillow and Smar

For the love of a sliced shark in formaldehyde ... can you stand another pic of me in front of another  Spot Painting and my special Spot hat? (In case you missed the start of all this, here's Day 1 ) I'm doing it. I just decided, 3 days before the opportunity goes "pfffftt." I'm doing the admittedly carbon-belching, fanciful, "join the dots" Damien Hirst Spot Challenge . This is a round-the-globe whistle-stop junket spotting his 11 gallery shows in 8 cities, and getting a card stamped and apparently, a signed print by him for all your carbon emissions. Fun mapping tool gcmap.com did this. Why backtrack across the states from LA to London? LA closes first, London in a week, so I wanted to get there faster and save *some* stress. Map saved  here . It's granted me the perfect excuse to visit friends in the UK I haven't seen for 10 years, and, erm, some hostels in Paris, Geneva,  Rome and Athens where I don't have anyone to c

That was easy: I knocked off the first three spots in NYC by zipping around on my Pantone Honeysuckle folding bike - a Bike Friday Speeding tikit - and my special spot hat! Read my complete Spot Challenge chronicle If you're an art lover, it's very dangerous to come off an intense filming project  and stumble around the gallery district. You're liable to slap down plastic just to reward yourself for your blood, sweat & tears, then utterly regret it when the charge hits the bank. You're probably safe if you're a 99%-er like me, killing an afternoon in places I love, like Christies, Sothebys, Phillips de Pury or Gagosian. I was never in any danger of being hammered at a recent Phillips de Pury auction  I attended (I made sure not to register for a paddle). But if someone tells me I can buy a Damien Hirst print with the frequent flyer miles languishing in my account ... tie me down quick! The Complete Spot Challenge , happening simultaneously in seve