fltgc: juergen teller and mark price

best unintentional artist run-in's: juergen teller and mark price. shar's getting back in the gallery crawlin' saddle and happy to have today.  first up the newly opened juergen teller exhibit at lehmann maupin.  i was jazzed to be one of the early kids getting in before the opening reception tonight, and i was in for another treat when mr. teller waked in with a few black coat cronies. what got me was his german accent which i remembered from this time.  for his latest exhibit, juergen mixes photos of kristen mcmenamy, vivienne westwood, william eggleston and pics around his home in suffolk.  i enjoyed the latter best.  

sorry my head is in the glare

then, i hit up an oldie but goodie that since has been renamed kesting/ray (formerly christina ray and glowlab). the new mark price exhibit, hyper 20xx, opened last night and i sadly missed the reception.  i had some crazy mojo because mark was there with his family.   it was really sweet and i got reintroduced to mark by christina. i love the direction that his work is going.  more assemblage and text, but still playing with layers of screen print.  love it!

fltgc: amze emmons + kevin haas

happy return to a tried and true: christina ray. shar feels like she's been neglecting this art outpost, but finally popped back in. christina was in the house and as always filled with background info on the current exhibit, disintegration and sprawl. featuring the prints of amze emmons and kevin haas, the exhibit's themes are coincidentally very timely as folks just south of the gallery on wall street are living in some makeshift homes as well.  amze peppers his prints with fine lines and color, while kevin plays with monochromatic layers. closes on the 30th, so get your butt to christina ray.

fltgc: christina ray and team

much much belated fltgc: christina ray and team gallery. sorry art, shar has been neglecting you in the work hood. finally got around to hitting up christina ray for roberto molla's ricochet. also coming up for the gallery is a tag team show with jason douglas griffin and danni rash.

warner (2)

siamese twins (2)

fluffy

bahia (2)

another belated visit was to the new team gallery space on wooster. david ratcliff's portraits and ghosts was up in the spare space, which was a nice contrast to the chaos in his paintings.

fltgc: christina ray and team

return to an old fav pairing: christina ray and team gallery. shar hasn't paired the two of these lovely galleries in some time. christina ray was in between exhibits, so they had some stuff up from their recent show at next chicago. here are some snaps:

heather l. johnson

mark price

swoon

jakob kolding's latest works hit team and i hopped to it. i was first introduced to him two years ago and taken by his assemblage style. sadly I don't still have the posters. they were dispatched during from spring cleaning. :( my frown was turned upside down because there were more posters to be had today for his latest "blocks". get your's until june 18.

fltgc: christina ray and team gallery

must return to old favs: christina ray and team gallery.i haven't caught up with the lovely christina since i returned from london, so i was thrilled to finally ran into her. she was graciously as ever telling me the background of brian leo's the post ironic.
upon first glance, you are immediately struck by the colorful and playful images. look deeper and you will see the social commentaries in each piece. subtle and darkly funny. apparently, tom colicchio of top chef famed purchased several of leo's paintings to decorate his restaurant. cloned dolly anyone?


to pair the gallery crawl off, it was off to see live snakes at team gallery for massimo grimaldi's highlights. a nice pairing as massimo tackles social responsibility themes in his works, playing with installation and mediums.

fltgc: christina ray and the hole

best epic return to fltgc: christina ray. sadly, the namesake was not present but shar and jac enjoyed heather l. johnson's erasure. her careful use of needlepoint to depict the past history of asylums in hudson county, nj is inventive and harkens back to old timey maps. jac though they were prisons, and shar thought they were for "crazies". jac commented about how very p.c. shar is. despite my un-pc nature, shar was right.

from christina ray, i hit the hole solo. this was a spot that my pal mel had recommended. apparently the new gallery in soho was founded by two former directors of the greatly missed deitch projects. the hole keeps up with the fun that deitch was known for with hot glue hullabaloo. bursts of color line the walls and head to the backroom for a dayglo fun.

swoon signing at urban art projects

best meet and greet: swoon book signing at urban art projects in billyburg. the event was a prelude to her next project with uap to build konbit houses in earthquake ravage haiti. for the signing, swoon created an installation with the books themselves. mel and i were lucky enough to grab an exclusive piece of the installation right off the wall. you can get your book here.
pal christina from christina ray was on hand to help man the bandana and patches sales. proceeds all went to the konbit project. callie (aka swoon) is sporting a bandana above. mel got that one too.

fltgc: pulse and armory show

blockbuster fltgc: pulse and armory show. talk about some art overload. first up pulse, which was in the same space where the mcq pop-up (rip alexander mcqueen). shar really enjoyed the scaled down art fair size compared to the likes of the armory. here is my laundry list of artists that caught my eye:

• roberto molla at christina ray - shar met him, and he was a delight. it took him a day and half to draw the piece on the wall of the booth i-12. love, love, love. vote christina ray for the people's choice pulse award here.

• josh dorman at mary ryan, whose graphite drawing evokes a chagall-like sensibility
  

• devorah sperber at zidoun and caren golden - a strange sense of deja vu is a diy sewing illusion
  
• liliana porter at hosfelt and carrie seacrist - has a lovely play of size and craft. mini grannie's knitting life size scarves.

• valerio barruti at ermanno tedeschi - reminds me at yoshitomo nara
  

next up was none other than the armory, which seemed more vibrant than last year. shar over heard some wheeling and dealing at multiple booths. art was for sale. who said there was a recession? there were established names like:

christo at gabarron foundation

barry mcgee at ratio 3 (yay sf represent) and roberts & tiltonolafur eliasson at i8, sol lewitt at hoffman, damien hirst at other criteria and white cube, ruth asawa and john bankston at rena bransten and louise bourgeios at carolina nitsch

but some newbies to me were:

polly morgan at other criteria - balloons and taxidermy under glass

adam mcewen at nicole klagsbrun - i am curious yellow wins best use of color in a booth.

hans-peter feldman at simon lee - play of cut out and shadow really drew me in. reminds me of my banksy print of girl with red balloon.

birgir andresson at i8 - simplicity in pantone and text.