Audrey Kawasaki @ Jonathan LeVine

I was fortunate enough to catch the final day of Audrey Kawasaki's NY exhibit today with The Retrospective's Gitamba, who was in NY for a few wonderful days. It's called Hajimari–a prelude, and was at Jonathan LeVine Gallery on W 20th Street.



For those who are unfamiliar with her work, Kawasaki does illustration and painting on wood. They are nearly all of beautiful girls with pouts and flowy hair, oftentimes featuring underwater themes, skeletons, and creepy little creatures.

The show title Hajimari means beginning in Japanese, and is a word often used in the introduction of a story. Although it is a theme she does not typically explore artistically, Audrey has always felt strongly rooted in two distinct cultures. Born and raised in America, with parents from Japan, she has been immersed in Japanese culture her entire life. Deeply connected to each of the two, she feels both cultures are very much a part of her personal identity.

I haven't gone through my mental list yet, but I can say with a huge degree of confidence that she is my favorite living artist (and has been for a number of years). And there were so many pieces at the show, much to my delight! Here are a few:







You can see a few more in my Flickr set, and the exhibit's page has images of all pieces + a description of the show. Hopefully it stays up for a while. Beautiful beautiful beautiful.

Fall 2009 Art in Chelsea

I went to Chelsea today intending to visit one gallery, and ended up going to more than ten. It's a really, really good time to make the trip there, and I stumbled upon a few things that delighted me so much I was hopping in place.

Luke Smalley @ Clampart

It started with Luke Smalley. He passed away this past May, and Clampart is hosting a memorial exhibit of his Sunday Drive series. I haven't been this impressed with photography since I discovered Jeff Wall's light boxes by accident. The pictures are pretty big, and the colors and lighting are beautiful. The story is that three girls are taking a road trip to a prison where their boyfriends are incarcerated, and the boys are killing time until they arrive.

[images from clampart.com]

Chiharu Shiota @ Goff + Rosenthal

I think I was in disbelief when my friend Joe and I walked by Goff + Rosenthal and I saw the tangle of black threading through the door. I just found out about Chiharu Shiota two or three months ago, and have thought about her every few days since then. Her work has a lot of thread tangles (black and red), windows, pianos, and long dresses in it. This exhibit featured some sprawling black corners and boxed-in tangled objects (my favorite was a hardcover pocket book) suspended in black tangles. This was the most pleasant surprise of the day.

[images from chiharu-shiota.com]

Dan Flavin @ David Zwirner

I visited this one a couple of weeks ago with my friend Dan because I love light installations and I love Dan Flavin. I loved it so much that I had to go back today. I might make a fake one of these for my apartment one of these days. There's a huge room with pink and gold lights, and another part of David Zwirner with multiple rooms (each for a different color or color combination). My favorite might be the white room, even though the blue one is probably the most striking.

[white and pink & gold from davidzwirner.com]

Basquiat @ Stellan Holm Gallery

Wow! Walking by Stellan Holm and seeing this made me gasp like a complete creep. It's a small exhibit of some large Basquiat drawings. Made me smile and want to pour syrup all over a tabletop.

[image screen capped from stellanholm.com]

Andy Warhol @ Danzinger Projects

Double wow! This one at Danzinger Projects is called Greatness, and is a collection of Polaroids Warhol shot of famous athletes in the 1970s and 1980s. Think Muhammad Ali, Dorothy Hamill, and (yikes) OJ Simpson. Here's a good slideshow on The Moment.

Other highlights of the day included Kim Cogan @ Gallery Henoch (really pretty oil paintings of NYC scenes); Hockney @ PaceWildenstein; and John Wesley @ Fredericks & Freiser (Googling John Wesley only to find that there was an Anglican cleric by the same name is the most hilariously ironic thing in the universe. Click through only if you dare. NSFW.)

Take Care of Yourself

Two weekends ago, I saw Sophie Calle's exhibit Take Care Of Yourself at Paul Cooper Gallery in Chelsea. When I had first read about it in Flavorpill, I was interested for two reasons: 1) I had recently put her book Double Game on my wish list after seeing and loving it in person; 2) The exhibit itself sounded fascinating.

The way the story begins may be familiar to some: Calle's boyfriend broke up with her.

The part that makes it a bit worse is: He broke up with her via e-mail, closing it with "Take care of yourself." *

And the part that makes it infinitely better: She had 107 of her friends interpret the e-mail, after which she compiled all of these interpretations into a traveling art exhibit.


It was schadenfreudian, fascinating, wonderful, hilarious, and a bunch of other things that I don't even have the capacity to put into words. All of the interpretations were so different – and done through so many different media – that this felt very far from the "shifting from painting to painting in the Nothern Renaissance room." **




The break-up letter (which was translated into English and available in a huge stack of copies at the door) was interpreted by dancers, singers, composers, writers, historians, a criminologist, social scientists, a mother, a children's book writer, a comic book illustrator, a typographer... the list goes on. Each piece was comprised of a photograph of the person interacting with the letter in some way, and their interpretation. The interpretations took the form of videos, manuscripts, layouts, and more.

Check it out. It's free, the weather is beautiful now, and it's open until 6 June. Helpful to know: The whole thing is in French. If you don't speak French, there are translations available at the door (which nobody told my friends and me when we walked in, so we spent our time there consuming this thing semi-viscerally until the absolute end. I kind of liked it that way).


* Here is a scan of the letter:

(This scan is from Polly-Vous Francais? ... I know, I said that I would bring the letter in and scan it myself, but twittish Johanna forgot.)

** Don't get me wrong. Rembrandt and Dürer and Bosch, oh my! I love all of them. But, generally (and after a few years), if you've seen one Madonna With Child...

Bold as Love

Last week, Satish and I went to an art opening for Bold as Love at Priska C Juschka in Chelsea. I was given the tip by Clay; the artist is actually his cousin, Adam Parker Smith.


The exhibition is mixed media and mostly consists of felt heads of different people (each representing a different member of society - some of them the artist's friends, some celebrities like Mike Tyson and JFK) on stakes. I'm going to cite the handout a lot now because I feel like an idiot when trying to describe it myself.

Bold as Love is a social commentary on two things: "consumerist addiction to violence and the infatuation with the high school crush." It's described as a "gory gauntlet" (definitely spot on). Questions are posed: "Why is the glorification of violence addictive, entertaining and even romanticized? Why do we continue to live our love lives in the shadows of an unattainable model of true love?" These are both very relevant questions to ask in society today, and Adam interpreted all of this in one of the most unique exhibitions I have ever seen. Probably the most unique. I've never seen anything like it.





This albino peacock was in the back of the room, and I'm sure it had some significance but I didn't find any description of it anywhere. Clay?


Guys, this thing was really powerful. It's up until the end of January, so you have a little bit of time. Go see Bold as Love. Let me know if you intend on going because I'll be returning as well.