My relaxing day...

It's been a while since I have been able to go to New York City, but with NJTransits "students ride free" deal for this week, I figured it was time. I skipped my Sociology of Politics class, but I think that it was worth it. I hit most of the galleries between 9th and 10th Avenue and 19th and 29th Street, even the ones in the high-rises (547 West 27th Street, you know what I'm talking about) and here are some pictures:


This was by far the best Basquiat I've ever seen in person. The colors and divisions in the canvas remind me of a great Cy Twombly piece I saw in Germany. It's currently on view at Tony Shafrazi Gallery.


Mark Bradford is currently showing "Nobody Jones" at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. and I must say it is one of the best exhibitions that I have ever seen. The works are unbelievable. These goliath sized collages, which use found materials and paint, are dazzling to the eye. Abstract city road maps, or arteries, or skewed checker boards emerge and illuminate the materials underneath with such simple abstraction that I felt drawn into them like few other works I have ever seen. Perhaps it is because I am a collagist before anything else, but if I could recommend one exhibition for anyone to see in Chelsea, it would be this one. The show is over on February 23rd.


This is from Rauschenberg's new collage series entitled "RUNTS" at PaceWildenstein: 25th Street. I was pretty impressed by the work, but was REALLY happy to find that he had taken a shot with a work by Judith Supine in it, who is my favorite street artist. As I was walking around later, I happened across the spot where his photo was taken, and decided to take an updated shot:


Then I stopped for lunch at my favorite restaurant in Chelsea. It's a hole-in-the-wall Punjabi place on the corner of 9th Ave. and West 27th Street. The lunch buffet is AWESOME and they have bottles of Stella Artois, which I treat myself to when I got to New York. If you've never been there, I believe it's the best deal in the area for quality versus price. Check it out.


After that I went to a gallery (I don't remember the name!) that had a bunch of Bernd and Hilda Brecher photographs. I've been a big fan of theirs for quite a while. I love how personable and human they are able to make machinery appear.


Other than that, I saw a book at Printed Matter I really wanted ($37! Too rich for my blood at the moment), and saw some other cool exhibitions - or parts thereof - which were:

Jan Kopp, "The Missing Image", Martos Gallery

Anne Collier, Anton Kern Gallery

Paul Pagk, Untitled (On Paper), Moti Hasson Gallery

Johannes Girardoni, Stephen Haller Gallery

Jade Townsend, "YARDSALE", Priska C. Juschka Fine Art

Michael Slater, "Are You Sure", Jeff Bailey Gallery

Dan Perjovschi, "You Remember My Pin?", Lombard-Freid Projects

Isoje Chou, "Salome Salome (You Must Not Look At Her: Look Too Much At Her)", M.Y. Art Prospects


Other than that, I saw a man not much older than myself on the New Brunswick NJTransit Platform this morning drinking a bottle of Orange Juice. Not odd or worth remark you say? When he pulled the bottle of Vodka out of his bag to refill the Orange Juice container it was. An older hispanic woman and I were the only two people who saw this and we exchanged looks of pity with one another. It was 11am on a Tuesday for god'sake! At least wait until noon before you start drinking screwdrivers willy-nilly! Also, as I boarded the train, a woman sitting in front of me found an unpunched ticket on the floor. She put it in the place where the conductors usually place a ticket and pretended to be asleep when they came around to punch tickets. Ugh... I can't argue I guess. I wouldn't have taken the train today either unless it was free. Anyway, that was my day. I really enjoyed myself and can't wait to go to openings tomorrow evening after classes.