We went to the New Museum yesterday and saw some incredible work. I bet that is how most of these posts are sounding. But for real, we saw work from Albert Oehlen’s Home and Garden. I’m not usually a fan of abstract painting but there was some of this work that I kind of liked! I don’t know if I was just in a good mood that day or what, but I liked it more than I thought I was going to. The real star at the museum though was photographer Sarah Charlesworth. Her work was moving and a good example of what I think good photography is and should be. I have been getting bored recently with photo and 2-D work and it was very refreshing to see someone use the medium so well and it restored a little bit of faith for me in the medium. I needed that. I loved this photo the best.
The Lower East galleries were pretty cool too. I liked being in that area of town because there was a lot of cool fashion stores that I wanted to go into and look at the clothes. Not enough time to shop but I want to try and go back. What wasn’t cool was China town. I am usually stoked to go to China Town in different cities but this one was absolutely rancid. Disgusting smells could not be avoided and people kept hitting me with their umbrellas. Not to mention the toxic waste that I found in the street.
I’ll leave it at that.
The drawing center was also pretty chill. I liked the series by Natalie Frank called The Brothers Grimm. Some cool reinterpretations of old fairytales that were both playful and horrifying at the same time. I really liked the drawings that were downstairs too by Rachel Goodyear called Restless Guests. They were small beautifully rendered drawings with some kind of scary subject matter that I couldn’t really tell what was going on in most of them, but they were beautiful to look at and I can always appreciate that.
The last place that we visited that day was the Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art. Definitely appropriate with the passing of Equal Marriage and the Pride Parade being this weekend. There was some great art there including some more nice photos. I had to laugh at this painting titled Totem Pole by Japanese artist Naruki Kukita. NSFW.
-Beaudry Allen