W 36th St; W 39th St

Who knew there were not one but two galleries on the 500 block of W 36^th St? (Thanks to AQ Kafe there’s good coffee around here, too!)

First stop, Hosfelt Gallery. Luckily, you can still get your Jim Campbell fix here.  (His super cool Scattered Light installation in Madison Square Park just ended.) I don’t know what it is about Campbell’s extraordinary (and extraordinarily simple) light-based sculptures. They are just the perfect amalgamation of Times Square at 2am and the Montauk night sky. They’re mesmerizing. 

From LED technology to basic math, my next stop is Exit Art’s Geometric Days. This feels like such a vast and varied show, but I guess when you start by quoting Galileo on the Universe that’s probably what you’re going for. Geoffrey Owen Miller’s detailed dot paintings are riveting. They do a remarkable job of drawing your entire focus in amid the expansive gallery space. One of my favorite pieces in this show is Charles Koegel's White Lotus. Go see it up close. The crackled texture is pretty remarkable. Plus, it reminds me of my mom who doodles in cubes like these while she’s on the phone.

While I’m in the ‘hood, I want to stop by I Like the Art World and the Art World Likes Me at EFA because I clearly like the art world, and this show (an ArtCat top pick) ends on Saturday. It’s a show chock-full of artists who clearly had fun with their assignment. What's not to like?

Ingredients:

Venues: EFA; Exit Art; Hosfelt

Artists: Jim Campbell; Rico Gatson, Peter Hildebrand, Charles Koegel, Geoffrey Owen Miller, Driss Ouadahi, Paul Pagk, Nathlie Provosty, Dannielle Tegeder; Conrad Bakker, Marc Bijl, Jennifer Dalton, Eric Doeringer, Nancy Drew, Bill Drummond, Alex Gingrow, Grennan & Sperandio, Aneta Grzeszykowska, Charles Gute, Nate Harrison, Pablo Helguera, Dan Levenson  / Little Switzerland, The Matthew Higgs Society, Loren Munk, Filip Noterdaeme Laurina Paperina, William Powhida, Ward Shelley, Jade Townsend

Streets: W 36th St; W 39th St

Eats: AQ Kafe

Map: