What’s this, ’Meister? I went for the visual arts this week—the opening of two different shows.
On Thursday April 6, I was at the opening of at the Carter Burden Gallery at
548 West 28th Street, #534.
Examining Movement and Gestures: Jonathan Bauch and Francie Lyshak
Remixing Dreams: Cheating the Status Quo: Nieves Saah
On the Wall: Bruce W. Greenwood
Full disclosure, I worked with Mr. Greenwood back in my theater days, me as a performer, and he was in stage management. And that’s all the disclosure you get. The four artists presented very different styles of work. The first were mostly figural, I guess, sculptures of various sizes, mostly of metal. Some were mounted on the wall and some were freestanding. The second was, if I’m remembering correctly, oil on canvas, with modern uses of mostly linear spreads of color. The third, in the smaller ‘Wall’ section of the gallery, was a combination of line drawings, including smaller versions of the source material and culminating in the large-scale finished product. It was produced on sheetrock as a medium, as was a companion piece on the opposite wall that was, again if I’m remembering correctly, acrylic on sheetrock. [Woody, feel free to contact me if something needs to be explained more fully—or if I just got it completely wrong!]
Saturday, April 8 found me at the Ukrainian Institute of America, housed in a beautiful mansion at Fifth Avenue and East 79th Street. The exhibit was titled Petrykivka, A Ukrainian Folk Phenomenon & Living Tradition – The Natalie Pawlenko and Yuri Mischenko Collection. The art was definitely in the folk art vein, sometimes reminding me of Amish or Pennsylvania Dutch Americana. I really didn’t focus on dates or specific titles of the close to fifty or so pieces. I was almost overwhelmed by the use of red and orange, so that when I saw the occasional brown and green and blue, it was a welcome sight. And there were a couple of pieces with darker backgrounds—one that was almost a midnight blue. What was interesting about that one was that the church building featured in it was also featured in two other pieces in the same room. Some of the groupings of people were strongly familiar, as well. The paintings were mostly tempera on paper, including a few oils or acrylics on canvas. Flowers and roosters were big themes, as were the aforementioned churches with groupings of people.
Some pleasant wine was served, and I was also able to visit other galleries (i.e., rooms in the mansion) and see other exhibits, too. Not a bad way to spend an early Saturday evening.
Both events were free. I’m not certain whether the Ukrainian Institute is always free, but the Chelsea gallery (and many more in the area) is free, as are most others in the neighborhood. I often forget to explore ‘art-on-the-walls’ as opposed to ‘art-for-the-ears’—time to broaden my horizons.
ArtMeister
I was intrigued.....
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