E 79th St - Braque, Condo, Farjoux

I grew up in Philadelphia where you can run up those immortalized “Rocky” stairs into the Museum of Art and gaze at (among many other extraordinary things) George Braque’s Violin and Newspaper. Inspired by those childhood memories, I ventured uptown to Acquavella for George Braque: Pioneer of Modernism.  I had no concept of what a treat I was in for!! This retrospective features over 40 major paintings compiled from international public and private collections. It is an incredible opportunity to reflect on how insanely influential his work was/is and to experience so much of it in an intimate gallery setting. Do not miss this show!      

Before moving on, let’s all come to terms with the fact that most gallery shows are not going to be museum-quality retrospectives, and thank goodness! Next door at Skarstedt there is a show of new paintings by George Condo. (Did you see his Mental States at the New Museum last spring?) Condo’s new Compression Series features massive canvases that seem abstracted through a kaleidoscope and offer more to seek out than a Where’s Waldo picture. So fun!

 

Peek your head into Galerie Mourlot to see how artist Fabrice Fanjoux uses his work to “reflect the universe through symbolism.” Then, grab a seat on the 2nd floor balcony at Serafina to enjoy a bowl of delectable homemade pasta and bask in the magnificence of this incredible fall weather. Salute!  

Ingredients:

Venues: Acquavella, Skarstedt, Galerie Mourlot

Artists: George Braque, George Condo, Fabrice Fanjoux

Streets: E 79^th Street, Fifth– Madison Aves

Eats: Serafina

Map:

Inspirational Links: Oct 30 - Nov 5

What inspires you?

Five thought-inspiring things found online last week.

Michael Pollan rereleased his book Food Rules: An Eater's Manual with whimsical illustrations by Maira Kalman.  With it, this gem: “A Land with Lots of Herring Can Get Along With Few Doctors.” 

This inventive display case for colored pencils by Felissimo makes me wonder what happens when you start using them... [via Let Me Draw You a Picture] 

Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge is obsessed with this new trend of neon bicycle frames. Right there with you, Grace! [via Design*Sponge] 

Rookie photog Heinz Maier has been experimenting with water drops. The results are baffling! If you comment on his flikr images, he'll answer all your questions. [via Feature Shoot] 

Watch here as artist Pete Fecteau makes a mural of Martin Luther King Jr using 4,242 Rubik's Cubes. Big Dream! [via illusion] 

Leave a comment and share the links that inspire you. 

Ludlow – East Broadway – Sun and Moon, PDF, Die Like You Really Mean It

From the moment you open that beautiful wrought iron gate and begin to descend the long hallway at Klaus von Nichtssagend, the many vibrant blues of Pamela Jorden’s paintings will strike you. Somehow this feels as exciting as waking up on the first day of vacation and glimpsing the cerulean water in the distance. (Maybe because the closest you’ll get to these shades on the NYC landscape is a subway car covered in posters declaring “It’s better in the Bahamas.”) The longer you look, the more things you will find to love in Jorden’s beautifully complex compositions. Like, have you noticed that giant, streaky brushstroke along the bottom left corner of this gorgeous oil-on-linen piece? It is so subtle yet so bold.

Stop in Brown Café for an autumnal soup and a side of their killer mac & cheese, and then make your way down East Broadway to Allegra LaViola for two interesting group shows. The first is PDF, which, playing off the notion of the “Portable Document Format,” presents a variety of work based on de-constructing, delivering and rebuilding. Even the gallerists admit that “at the outset, the work in PDF is strangely matched,” but it seems to gel into a feeling of overall repurposing and resourcefulness. Case in point: this refurbished cardboard box by Ivin Ballen.

The second show at Allegra LaViola, Die Like You Really Mean It, is a passionate outpouring of emotion through painting. From colorful street scenes to bi-chromatic reliefs, the show emits a fear of what is lurking below the surface. Especially haunting is Christopher Saunders’ The Long Now. It is the thrill of taking off from an airport runway mixed with the uncertainty of ominous clouds in the distance. It is anxious. It is many-layered. It is claiming.

Ingredients:

Venues: Klaus von Nichtssagend, Allegra LaViola

Artists: Pamela Jorden, Christopher Saunders, Ivin Ballen, Various Artists

Streets: Ludlow St; East Broadway

Eats: Brown Café

Map:

Inspirational Links: Oct 23 – 29

What inspires you?

Five thought-inspiring things found online last week. 

First of all, this flexible cover for the November issue of design magazine Novum is awesome. Secondly, the elaborate production process revealed in this making-of video is totally incredible. Kudos to design firm Paperlux! [via Laughing Squid]

Light drawings are made by photographing a moving light in darkness. Sounds simple enough, but how does artist Brian Matthew Hart achieve these incredible results?! Please explain. [via illusion]

Getting creative with Halloween costumes is always inspiring, especially the DIY variety. I love this newsprint ensemble (complete with logo necklace!) by Tawfik Mounayer of Tribune Standard. [via T, NYTimes Style Magazine]

The designers at HappyCentro were challenged to create a cover for Domenica (the national Italian newspaper) that was about food without using real food. I might have fashioned something with Fimo. What would you have done? HappyCentro came up with these paper fruits and veggies. They are chic and sleek and adorable, and I want them! [via Plenty of Colour]

With her series of Posters for Girls, Amanda Visell hopes to “show girls they can do anything.” Yes we can! [via oh dee doh]

Leave a comment and share the links that inspire you. 

Broadway; Houston – Prince Sts – Zak Kitnick, Fashion Pictures, ONECITY

Right now at Clifton Benevento there is a vast array of produce but nothing to eat and a surplus of shelving but nowhere to store anything. This is the work of artists Zak Kitnick, who presents us with lattices of industrial shelving embedded in the walls and uber-detailed posters of produce varieties. Kitnick’s work exemplifies the compelling beauty of OCD. His posters and shelves present so much information in such an organized, lovely way. It’s hard to explain why this show is so good, so go see it and tell me what you think it is!

Venture up the block to Staley-Wise for an exhibition of highlights from renown fashion photog Deborah Turbeville’s new book The Fashion Pictures. Turbeville has a way of staging mysteriously beautiful scenes that draw you deeply into the lives of her subjects. They are gorgeous and chic and tragic and lonely, and their clothes are haute couture. It’s indulgent and fun to be a visitor in that lush world and then move on...

In stark contrast, Will Insley’s paintings at Westwood Gallery are lacking that rich detail. Rather, his “shape paintings” are sort of like Rorschach inkblots. These fragments are tools in Insley’s ONECITY, an architecturally elaborate, ficticious place that could house millions of people. They are bold abstractions that rely on you, the viewer, to piece the fragments together. The idea is that if you see a remnant of a wall, you can envision the building and by extension the city, the inhabitants, etc. Well, I’m sorry to say that here I see a pinwheel and not much around it. Can you help me out here? 

New York holds 8 million people and Insley's ONECITY was meant for 400 million. Mull this over while enjoying the fantastic baked eggs, paninis and pastries at Café Falai (on Lafayette). If you don’t have time to sit and ruminate, grab a to-go sandwich from Balthazar Bakery. As you stroll away, delicious latte in hand, look around and think about where all those extra people would go. Personally, I’m going to need a lot more than fragments to figure that one out!

Ingredients:

Venues: Clifton Benevento, Staley-Wise, Westwood

Artists: Zak Kitnick, Deborah Turbeville, Will Insley

Streets: Broadway; Houston to Prince Sts

Eats: Café Falai, Balthazar Bakery

Map: