A Walking Tour of Twelve Chelsea Art Galleries

Yesterday and today I had the pleasure of browsing over a dozen Chelsea Art Galleries, all in the area of West 26th to West 29th Streets, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues. I could spend a full week browsing the Chelsea Art Galleries, and never cover this fast growing art space phenomenon. I was joined for the beginning of my tour by Niall Conroy, Proprietor of four Chelsea restaurants, including the expansive Irish Pub, Mustang Harry’s on Seventh Avenue, between 29th - 30th Streets. We began at the Paul Kasmin Gallery and viewed Deborah Kass’ “More Feel Good Paintings for Feel Bad Times”, with colorful stripes, squares, and messages like “Being Alive”. From the Kasmin Gallery we headed to the Joshua Liner Gallery and Dave Kinsey’s “New Works”. Mixed media works were inventive and eye-catching, using acrylic, spray paint, paper, wood, and ink on canvas. The brightly created works, ranging from flowers to faces, kept our attention throughout the space.

Following the Liner Gallery, we headed to a large space shared by Sasha Wolf and the Foley Galleries. At the Wolf Gallery, two artists, James Frank Tribble and Tracey Mancenido-Tribble were featured in “Hurry Up & Wait”. It’s a photographic display of fellow truck drivers and truck enthusiasts, as well as featured works of truck tech paraphernalia. I especially liked “Dash”, which reminded me of night driving with a shiny dashboard all lit up. The Foley Gallery, in the other half of this space, showcased a variety of permanent objects and Stephen Aldrich’s “All the World’s a Stage”, with tightly configured silver-grey collages. Niall and I were especially drawn to Thomas Allen’s chromogenic prints, “Floored” and “Sugar”. The Claire Oliver Gallery was next, and the Lori Field exhibit was called, “The Sky Is Falling”. Ms. Field uses translucent rice paper and colored pencil drawings to evoke moods of figures that are part human, part animal. The drawings are layered with paint, lace, shells, and other collage materials.

At this point I was on my own and proceeded to multiple spaces for both the Friedman Benda Gallery and Barry Friedman Ltd (his own gallery). I should mention that in many galleries I was personally greeted by the gallery owners, and here Barry Friedman was kind to personally orient me. At Friedman Benda I found Gottfried Helnwein’s “I Was a Child” quite gripping and powerfully conceived. The portraits were surreal in their bleak expressiveness, and the theme of an unjust society was prevalent. At Barry Friedman Ltd. I was fascinated by Wendell Castle’s solidly sculpted chairs, exhibited in multitude, as well as an Ian Ingram self-portrait.

Next I found myself serendipitously in two galleries of Japanese art and fine craft. At Onishi Gallery, I spoke with Nana Onishi and focused on Mamoru Nakagawa’s flower vase, "Mountain Reflections", of metal and silver-gold inlay, as well as Masako Inkyo’s ink drawing on Japanese paper, called "Volcano". At Ippodo Gallery I spent time talking with gallery owner, Shoko Aono, about her mesmerizing collection of sculpted glass tea bowls and vases, many with detailed ornamentations. Ms. Aono also presents tea service events right in her gallery for clients and visitors. She travels the world, expanding her incredible collection, and her exhibit of Toru Sato’s “Phantasmal Core-Formed Glasses” is mesmerizing. According to Ippodo Gallery notes, core-forming “involves wrapping thin rods of glass around a refractory core to define the interior surface of the vessel.” Exquisite perfume bottles, with winding floral motifs, are included in this Toru Sato exhibit. On leaving Ippodo Gallery, its display corner even transported my imagination. Just when I should have taken a break, I was refreshed and kept my pace.

The MagnanMetz Gallery, housed in the same busy building as the Japanese galleries, is presenting Alejandro Almanza Pereda’s exhibit, called “The heaviest luggage for the traveler is the empty one”, with its central work of the same title, two mirror-covered stacked suitcases. “A doctor can bury his mistakes, but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines” was the lengthy name of another work, with multiple potted plants sitting on tiered shelves of fluorescent light bulbs. Seeing is believing, as "the tie that binds" is built of many heavy cinder blocks, chain, lock, and key chain. Just as engaging was Pereda’s "I was adored once too", made of joined, white plaster statues. Zsolt Bodini’s “Fehérlófia, Son of the White Mare”, is the name of the exhibit at Ana Cristea Gallery, also in the same building, which refers to the title of one of this Budapest-based artist’s paintings. The gallery notes that the paintings concern tales of an enchanted stag, and elements of mythology are mixed with eerie, unsettling imagery.

The final gallery of the tour proved to grab my imagination most, unexpectedly, as I had not had a break since beginning this tour many hours earlier. The Jenkins-Johnson Gallery is showing Lynn Goldsmith’s works, in an exhibit called “The Looking Glass”, the same title as her book, about to be released. Ms. Goldsmith, a highly experienced photographer, has photographed store window mannequins and digitally inserted her own facial photographs in place of the mannequins’, in a vast array of expressions and moods. To these photographs, she also adds a collage of ornaments and details, sometimes mixing and matching figures. The gallery describes “archival digital pigment prints” as the media, but there is literally no worthy description of these works, that must be seen, and more than once. In fact, within this large, multi-space gallery, I kept returning to one or another of Ms. Goldsmith’s works, magnetized to the moment.

Suddenly, I knew it was truly time for late lunch, and, of course, I re-joined Niall Conroy at Mustang Harry’s, where they have a brand new menu including “Bruschetta Milano”, with goat cheese, plum tomatoes, roasted red peppers, basil and olive oil, “Tex Mex” Quesadilla, with bacon, corn, roasted red peppers, cheddar and pepper jack cheese, “Seared Sesame Salmon Salad” (my choice), with sesame crusted salmon, baby greens, cucumbers, and more, and “Penne a la Vodka”, with classic vodka sauce. See the entire new Mustang Harry’s menu here. I highly recommend Mustang Harry’s as the before or after lunch-dinner-nachos-drinks destination, when visiting the Chelsea Art Galleries. I highly recommend Mustang Harry’s as the before or after lunch-dinner-nachos-drinks destination, when visiting the Chelsea Art Galleries. Ask for Niall or Emma, and tell them you saw them on RobertaOnTheArts.com.

Deborah Kass at Paul Kasmin Gallery
More Feel Good Paintings for Feel Bad Times
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower

Deborah Kass at Paul Kasmin Gallery
More Feel Good Paintings for Feel Bad Times
After Louise Bourgois, 2010
Neon and Transformers on
powder coated aluminum panel
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower

Dave Kinsey at Joshua Liner Gallery
"Continuum I, Continuum II,
Continuum III"
Mixed Media on Canvas
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower

Dave Kinsey at Joshua Liner Gallery
"Terminal Velocity"
Mixed Media on Canvas
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower

Tribble and Mancenido at Sasha Wolf Gallery
"Dash"
Pigment Print
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower

Thomas Allen at Foley Gallery
"Sugar", Chromogenic Print
"Floored" (self portrait)
Chromogenic Print
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower

Lori Field at Claire Oliver Gallery
The Sky Is Falling
"Elizabeth"
Colored Pencil and Encaustic
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower

Lori Field at Claire Oliver Gallery
The Sky Is Falling
"Some Like It Hot"
Colored Pencil and Encaustic
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower

Left Image:
Gottfried Helnwein at Friedman Benda
"The Murmur of the Innocents" 20, 2010
Mixed Media (Oil and acrylic on canvas)

Right Image:
Gottfried Helnwein at Friedman Benda
"The Murmur of the Innocents" 18, 2010
Mixed Media (Oil and acrylic on canvas)
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower

Gottfried Helnwein at Friedman Benda
"Head of Child" (10), 2004
Mixed Media (Oil and acrylic on canvas)
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower

Wendell Castle at Barry Friedman Ltd.
"Mrs. Faust", 2010
Bleached Mahogany
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower

Wendell Castle at Barry Friedman Ltd.
"Night on Earth", 2007
Bronze
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower

Wendell Castle at Barry Friedman Ltd.
"Reaper Rocker", 2010
Lacquered Walnut
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower

Wendell Castle at Barry Friedman Ltd.
"Iris", 2010
Stained Ash
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower

Michael Eastman at Barry Friedman Ltd.
"Red Car in Arches" 1999
Digital C - Print
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower

Wendell Castle at Barry Friedman Ltd.
"Calypso" 2010
Stained Mahogany

Background:
L: Michael Eastman at Barry Friedman Ltd.
"Palazzo, Rome" 2010

R: Michael Eastman at Barry Friedman Ltd.
"Portici Doorway" 2010
Digital C-Print
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower

L: Wendell Castle at Barry Friedman Ltd.
"Willy Willy", 2010
Stained mahogany with oil finish

R: Wendell Castle at Barry Friedman Ltd.
"Fiery Angel", 2010
Stained ash with oil finish

Background:
Ian Ingram at Barry Friedman Ltd.
L to r:
"1951" (2008), "The Wedding Quilt" (2008),
"Self Portrait as Father" (2009)
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower

Mamoru Nakagawa at Onishi Gallery
Flower vase, "Mountain Reflections" (2009)
Metal, inlay of silver-gold alloy
Courtesy of Onishi Gallery
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower

Masako Inkyo at Onishi Gallery
"Volcano" 2010
Ink on Japanese paper
Courtesy of Onishi Gallery
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower

Toru Sato at Ippodo Gallery
Phantasmal Core-Formed Glasses
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower

Ippodo Gallery Display Corner
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower

Alejandro Almanza Pereda
at MagnanMetz Gallery
From series, "A doctor can bury his
mistakes, but an architect can only
advise his clients to plant vines".
Fluorescent light bulbs, plants, steel clamps
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower

Alejandro Almanza Pereda
at MagnanMetz Gallery
"the tie that binds"
Cinder blocks, chain, lock, key chain
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower

Alejandro Almanza Pereda
at MagnanMetz Gallery
"I was adored once too"
Plaster statues
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower

Zsolt Bodini at Ana Cristea Gallery
"Fehérlófia, Son of the White Mare"
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower

Lynn Goldsmith at Jenkins Johnson Gallery
"Pandora's Box", 2000-2010,
archival digital pigment prints, 30"x40",
edition of 6; 40"x53", edition of 6.
Copyright Lynn Goldsmith;
Courtesy of Jenkins Johnson Gallery.

Lynn Goldsmith at Jenkins Johnson Gallery
"Blame It On Fragrance", 2000-2010,
archival digital pigment prints, 30"x40",
edition of 6; 40"x53", edition of 6.
Copyright Lynn Goldsmith;
Courtesy of Jenkins Johnson Gallery.

Lynn Goldsmith at Jenkins Johnson Gallery
"Dancing Marionettes", 2000-2010,
archival digital pigment prints, 30"x40",
edition of 6; 40"x53", edition of 6.
Copyright Lynn Goldsmith;
Courtesy of Jenkins Johnson Gallery.

Lynn Goldsmith at Jenkins Johnson Gallery
"Snow Queens", 2000-2010,
archival digital pigment prints, 30"x40",
edition of 6; 40"x53", edition of 6.
Copyright Lynn Goldsmith;
Courtesy of Jenkins Johnson Gallery.

For more information, contact Dr. Roberta E. Zlokower at zlokower@bestweb.net