| Making it work |
[Feb. 2nd, 2008|09:01 am] |
Live-blogged photo by ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) dominicvine
Made the Chelsea Art Gallery scene last night, heading out after work to the opening of naylandblake's exhibition, "What the Whiskey Said, What the Sun is Saying." Wonderful show, 62 drawings and more than a dozen sculptural pieces. Most amazing of all was there were nearly 100 people in the gallery at its busiest (and easily over 200 came through) on a night when the weather here was near monsoon conditions. It took me an hour to get over to the show because of all the emergency vehicles responding to flooding blocking traffic.
The gallery was full of Live Journalists, hairy men, kinky people, and fellow artists (and some who straddle more than one and even all categories). The drawings were comic, sad, and autobiographical, the largely wooden pieces mounted on the far wall reminded me of some of Saul Steinberg's more playful pieces, the wire and bead pieces were delicate yet richly detailed, the mirror pieces were both cool and (no pun intended) distancing, and the larger floor pieces were a little disturbing, not the least because of stuffed cloth that looked like limbs and a box that looked like a child's coffin. I think the plastic and wire chandelier that cascaded down a wall onto the floor was my favorite piece, and I'd buy several of the drawings outright if I had the moola.
If you can get into NYC in the coming month, you should try and catch the show. Matthew Marks Gallery, 523 West 24th St between Tenth & Eleventh Aves (easy to get to via the 23rd St crosstown bus), Tues-Sat 10-6, through March 8. Don't miss the heralding pieces mounted just outside the main room, two wonderful and deceptively simple constructions. And you can get a stunning duplex poster (one side NSFW!) for the exhibition for only $10, or a lapel button Nayland created for just $2.
And if you can't get to NYC, you can get a Nayland Blake edition with just an e-mail: Visual AIDS has reissued his LOVE HAPPENED HERE sex-positive broadside sticker in hot pink, just in time for Valentine's Day. Click here for more info and to get yours. And while you're at it, click on over to naylandblake's Journal and wish him all the best, and spank-him-if-you-see-him, 'cause next Tuesday is his birthday!
photo by Matthew Marks Gallery
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| Comments: |
What a lovely recap. Thanks much, dude. And I finished the evening with a whiskey choc. So thanks also for those!
At some points I feel that it's just not fair!!! As a young lady, I feel that the idea of counter culture is conducted in just such a way that I shall never relate. At the same time I feel that you and I and Nayland and my bffs should be cavorting and eating bagels and pinkberry and loving art all at the same time. I love all of you, my NCY artists and collaborators and friends, who should be together, artists and collaborators and whatnots, lets do it together. | |
