Orchard St - Harnischfeger, Adamo & Shpungin are mixing media

Run down to Orchard Street this weekend before these shows close!  When you get there, stop in 88 Orchard for their peanut butter, banana and honey sandwich. (You’re welcome!) 

Hilary Harnischfeger’s work at Rachel Uffner Gallery is as exciting as hunting for buried treasure. Her practically 3D canvases suggest topographical maps and fragmented portraits in combinations of paper, plaster, clay, ink, rock and even quartz! Her freestanding sculptures are richly layered, vibrant adaptations of classic clay vases and ashtrays. With Father’s Day coming up this Sunday, you’ll wish this gallery had a gift shop!

Next, head down the block to UNTITLED and see new work by David Adamo. Now, I am always conflicted about reading a gallery’s press release before seeing their show. Sometimes it’s helpful to know what you’re looking at. Other times, I would rather feel things on my own and have a raw, uninformed reaction. In this case, I read the release. It has all kinds of info about how Adamo left New York and moved to Berlin and is expressing his feelings of “personal diaspora” through this work. An elaborate Oriental “rug” hangs loosely tacked to the ceiling in the form of a precisely painted canvas. Massive wooden blocks are furiously hacked into revealing delicate spindles. Woodchips abound. I don’t know about a “personal diaspora,” but the show in undeniably unnerving and intriguing. I’m not sure what to make of it, but I’m so glad I saw it!Just across the street at Stephan Stoyanov Gallery is a deeply personal solo show by Diana Shpungin called (Untitled) Portrait of Dad. Through sculpture, animation, drawings and potatoes (I’ll explain), Shpungin grieves the loss of her father in a remarkably genuine way. Warning: bring tissues, this show might make you cry! As you work your way through the gallery, you encounter the portrait, the shadow and the absence of the man. The quietly powerful I Especially Love You When You Are Sleeping is an uprooted, graphite-covered orange tree resting on stacked newspaper obituaries.

Before you leave, Shpungin invites you, through the installation 1664 Sundays, to take a potato and a custom-printed paper bag (signed, numbered edition) with her father’s recipe, which he cooked for her on Sunday. Pick one up and let me know how it turns out!

Ingredients: Venues: Rachel Uffner; UNTITLED; Stephan Stoyanov

Artists: Hilary Harnischfeger; David Adamo; Diana Shpungin

Streets: Orchard Street

Eats: 88 Orchard

Map:

 

Orchard St

When you think of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, do you think about art galleries? If not, your perception is about to be altered (in more ways than one.)

Grab a cup of Stumpton coffee from Babycakes (good luck resisting their array of tasty treats), and head down Orchard Street to Rachel Uffner Gallery. At first glance Gianna Commito’s paintings are just the kind of architectural lines and patterns a control freak like me finds smoothing. Look closer, though, and you’ll start noticing the way Commito’s layers and textures trip your eye, adding a sort of clumsy gracefulness to her work. It’s as if she’s balancing on the curb between control and chaos, and it’s totally exhilarating.

Next, stop in to see Frank Haines' show at Lisa Cooley Fine Art. From the vaguely specific title of the show, Under the Shadow of the Wing of the Thing, to the somehow darkly light pieces in it, Haine’s is testing your acuity, too. Take a look from afar and then step closer. What did you think before and what do you feel now? I swear you can almost sense the tension and energy in the layers.

Just before you hit Canal Street, stop in INVISIBLE-EXPORTS. Paul Gabrielli’s sculptures speak directly to how we perceive the most familiar objects in our lives. You might even look past Untitled (Pole), a steel intercom behind what looks like a heating pipe belonging to the gallery space, or Untitled (Camera), a surveillance camera mounted with a flashlight on top. Gabrielli’s work is the kind you’ll be thinking about and referencing, consciously or subconsciously, for a while after experiencing it, so look again and look anew. Then, look around. You’re in the epicenter of New York’s emerging art scene. And you’re practically in Chinatown. 

Ingredients:
Venues: Invisible Exports, Lisa Cooley, Rachel Uffner
Artists: Gianna Commito; Frank Haines; Paul Gabrielli
Streets: Orchard St
Eats: Babycakes
Map: