Gallery quest 2

Here's a smattering of other things that I liked during my tour of some galleries on West 57th Street last week.

Above is a still I captured from a video of a chess champion,, Jennifer Shahade, and a friend keeping hula hoops spinning around their waists while duplicating the chess moves of a game played by Marcel Duchamp, the artist.

It was part of a show at Francis M. Naumann Fine Art at 24 West 57th Street called Marcel Duchamp, The Art of Chess.

I watched the video over and over and it made me smile each time. You can catch a segment by clicking this link.

The video was done by Daniel Meirom of DimMak Films in conjunction with Shahade, who is also an author and self-defined games player.

This thoughtfully gathered and presented show is up through October 30.
This sculpture of a dancer is at Bernarducci.Meisel.Gallery, 37 West 57th Street. It is a painted bronze by John DeAndrea. She sat amid a solo show of paintings by photo realist painter Gus Heinze. The show just ended but you can still see Heinze' images at this link. While you're there you can see some of DeAndrea's nudes under his name in the artists category.

I took this photo of the dancer who is in a window overlooking the building across the street. DeAndrea's sculptures, from the gallery's booklet on his 2006 show, is a photo realist himself.

One of the most incredible things about his sculptures is that they look as if you touched them, the flesh would yield. I don't know how that is done in hard metal.
This wooden sculpture is part of a timely show at the Franklin Parrasch Gallery, 20 West 57th Street. The solo show of work by John Cederquist is called Treachery of an Economy.

Surprisingly this piece is also a functioning, finely constructed chest of drawers. I never saw that coming until Chris opened a drawer for me. It is up through October 10.
And here's a pre-installation shot I took of a photo by Peter Bialobrzeski of Germany. It drew me into the Laurence Miller Gallery, also 20 West 57th.

Called The Abstracted Landscape, the show, up until November 14, will also include photography by Stephane Couturier from Paris, DoDo Jin Ming of Beijing and New York, and Toshio Shibata of Tokyo.

You can take a look by clicking this link. You can enlarge the photos in this blog by clicking on them.

Gallery quest

This compelling photo is by Richard Learoyd, an Englishman being shown in this country for the first time at the McKee Gallery, 745 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

Learoyd's one-man show at McKee, which has never shown a photographer before, was one of the wonderful things I saw on my tour of 57th Street galleries on Tuesday.

Look at Agnes in a Striped Dress and she looks back at you. Wherever you go her eyes follow you.

You start thinking you know a lot about her from staring at the photo. But then it occurs to you that Agnes is the one taking you in. To see more of his haunting portraits at McKee, hit this link.
And to enlarge any of the photos in this blog, click on it.

Going from classy photography to ordinary, here is a self portrait in an elevator on 57th Street.

I went to New York galleries a few times five or six years ago. I didn't get anywhere and gave up quickly. I'm determined not to fold so easily this time.

Another gallery I looked at was Marian Goodman where I took this shot of a maintenance operation. The gallery is showing large scale photos by Jeff Wall, an art world star. To see my blog on Wall's show at Goodman two years ago click here

and scroll down to the March 26 post.

One thing I did discover Tuesday was this: In New York the messenger bag has replaced the backpack, despite what you see on this mannequin I photographed Tuesday.

My daughter Shannon had told me a messenger bag might be the way to go and I had bought one for my forays into Manhattan. It proved very convenient and comfortable.

PS: Learoy's picture of Agnes in a Striped Dress was taken from the gallery's website. He works with the camera obscura. Each photo is unique.

Shock and awe

This is Number 7 in my Runway series. I'm still working on it. If I can resolve a few things, I think it will turn out well.

Like the others it is 72"x48" and is acrylic on canvas. I shot it at this angle to avoid the full glare of the flash.

I like her sequined dress, which was designed by Alexander Wang. If you want to see the photo I'm using as a guide, go to my September 11 post.

In the background I have Baghdad burning during the shock- and-awe campaign undertaken to soften up resistance to our invasion, which came on March 20, 2003

To see a large blowup of this photo, click on it.

This painting is protected by copyright.