W 21st St

Nick van Woert’s show at Yvon Lambert is full of super cool things. A sculptor with a clear passion for architecture and history, van Woert’s treatment of found sculptures will set your mind reeling in a new and wholly unique way. I am obsessed with this series of busts tucked in the back room of the gallery. The way he pours colored polyurethane over upturned plaster busts and then presents them upright in a proud display of their mutilation is just awesome…and the way the plastic is varying degrees of transparent… and the way the original sculpture is still visible through the drips from the side…wow. Plus, that’s just one portion of the show. There is much more to see.

Across the street at 571 Projects, Dorothy Simpson Krause has a more metaphysical approach to architecture. She infuses empty doorways and windows with layers and layers of images (using monoprint and emulsion transfers) leaving an almost eerie feeling. It’s that feeling of walking into an abandoned house, like, “there was so much life lived in this place.” I have to say, emulsion transfers in general are so interesting to me. The way the artist can trap solid particles in liquid and transfers that combo onto a surface to make an image. The science of that is just incredible.

 While on W 21^st, stop for a coffee and nosh at Three Tarts (I adore their savory sea salt and black pepper biscotti), and on your way there, poke your head into Anna Kustera Gallery for some greasers. The guys featured in Karlheinz Weinberger’s Halbstarke to Bikers in Color exude total commitment to their rebel culture, which is presented here as a kind of time capsule. As Ponyboy says in The Outsiders (quoting Robert Frost, of course), “Nothing gold can stay.” Hopefully, though, someone is taking pictures.  

Ingredients:

Venues: Yvon Lambert; 571 Projects; Anna Kustera

Artists: Nick van Woert; Dorothy Simpson Krause; Karlheinz Weinberger

Streets: W 21sth St, 10th & 11th Aves

Eats: Three Tarts

Map: