One of our first destinations while there was to the Whitney where we viewed the jam-packed Kara Walker exhibition entitled My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love. Having only had my experience of Walker's work limited to small paintings that I had seen at the MCA in Chicago and in private collections, I was not expecting the quality and power that the artist exhibited at the Whitney. It was quite a spectacular show. We also went to the Guggenheim where we saw Richard Prince's vast retrospective, the Metropolitan Museum of Art where we viewed the Museum's complete Rembrandt holdings as well as the many gorgeous Goya's, Zubaran's and the famous Vermeer that the museum purchased for only 800 dollars! And on the other end of the scale we also saw the 135 million dollar Klimt painting of Adele Bloch-Bauer that Ronald Lauder purchased last summer for the Neue Gallerie in Manhattan.
Esteban and the Vermeer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The 135 million dollar Gustav Klimt painting that Caroline, Esteban and I viewed at the Neue Gallerie.
In Chelsea, we visited the James Cohan Gallery to attend the opening of my friend, Folkert de Jong's first New York Solo Exhibition. His show was filled with extraordinary works that were unexpectedly quiet musings on war. He used Picasso's Les Saltimbanques as a point of departure from his traditionally bombastic and horrific sculptural installations to meditate more subtly on the horrors of war. The show was amazing!
Folkert De Jong's Les Saltimbanques exhibition at the James Cohan Gallery in Chelsea.
On our last day in New York we did a gallery spree, covering as many galleries as possible within the four hours before our departure. We enjoyed the ongoing installation by Alexandra Mir, at the Mary Boone Gallery, a Paul Noble exhibition at Gagosian and an immense installation by Ugo Rodinone at Matthew Marks Gallery.
The gigantic heads of Ugo Rodinone on exhibition at Matthew Marks Gallery.
As far as sight-seeing and tourism, Wall Street, Rockefeller Center, Ground Zero, and Times Square were on our list of visits. I was surprised to see that there was still an incredible amount of rubble where one of the towers stood at Ground Zero. What I found most uncanny was that all the views of the tower that still had signs of destruction were purposely obstructed by fencing and tarps while the tower where construction had begun was displayed as if up for exhibition.
At Wall Stree they were photographing....
This.
Aside from my visits to galleries, museums, and tourist sites, I spent a great amount of time in the company of my dear friends and recent graduates from SAIC Maximillian Schubert, Caroline Askew, Bless Tive, and Wyatt Kahn. Caroline made sure to show us the impressive Commes De Garcon boutique in Chelsea where we saw the coolest pair of pants. We also enjoyed a three-hour brunch with both Max and Caroline at a cozy eatery in Park Slope. With Wyatt we enjoyed a day in the park watching fashionable young parents negotiating the terrain between hipsterdom and parenthood. Bless, who was flying in from a vacation in Florida, ditched the Metropolitan Opera for a chance to eat burgers in a log cabin burger joint nestled within a ritzy New York hotel. The irony was that we were drinking pitchers of beer and eating greasy hamburgers while on other side of the wall were such contemporary eye grabbers like Damien Hirst's infamous spin paintings. As for our dear friend Seema, who flew in from the Bay area, joined us on our Chelsea outings, a fancy Chinese dinner and introduced us to the fashionable Yuko in the hidden boutique and studio of designer Tunji Dada. In the company of our friends, our visit to New York could not have been any better. And we wouldn't have had an ounce of fun had it not been for Caroline's amazing abilities as a tour guide and know-it-all of cool New York scenes! Thanks dude.
Coffee break in the park with Wyatt Kahn and Esteban Schimpf.
(From left to right) Maximillian Schubert, Esteban Schimpf, Myself, Caroline Askew and Bless Tive.
Seema and I standing outside of the Commes De Garcon boutique in Chelsea.
Tunji Dada, Caroline and Yuko conversing in Tunji's boutique/studio.
New York was wonderful---perfect weather (at the time), beautiful people, great places, and my most treasured friends. I had a blast!
