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The Lower East Side: LES
New York’s Fastest Growing Art District
By M. Brendon MacInnis
A couple of years ago, when Kristine Woodward of the Woodward Gallery told me that she was moving her gallery from Soho to a large storefront space on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, at 133 Eldridge Street, I thought; a large storefront space sounds great, but the Lower East Side? I knew that the New Museum was making a major investment in the neighborhood, breaking ground on a brand new building on the Bowery, and that the Lower East Side (LES) was already home to a hand full of hip, destination galleries such as envoy, at 131 Chrystie Street and Rivington Arms at 4 East 2nd Street. But a “gallery scene” seemed years away at best. I remember thinking, that’s a pretty bold move.
Around the same time, Moti Hasson, who had converted a small office space in Midtown into a respectable start-up gallery was looking to grow. He asked me what I thought — the Lower East Side, or Chelsea? I suggested that if you’re talking about the future, I mean the long term, then go for the Lower East Side. But if you want instant recognition, and you’ve got the money, it’s Chelsea.
Well, the future is now. While I wouldn’t call it an exodus, yet, there is definately a sea change taking place. Some of the most prominent galleries and highly regarded dealers in Chelsea (and elsewhere) are on the move, or they have already made their move to the LES. The Lehmann Maupin Gallery has opened a second space here, at 201 Christie Street; DCKT Contemporary, who started out with the Charles Coweles Gallery, opened their new space at 195 Bowery, next door to the Janos Gat Gallery (from the Upper East Side); 31Grand, at 143 Ludlow Street, came here from Williamsburg; Luxe Gallery, at 53 Stanton Street, relocated from Midtown Manhattan’s prestigious 57th Street. Hudson’s Feature Inc., which opened in Chicago, 1984, moved to New York’s Soho, 1988, and then on to Chelsea in 1999 has moved just across the street from the New Museum, at 276 Bowery.
Even Juan Puntes’ White Box, which was one of the earliest and longest running non-profit spaces to open in Chelsea (in the early days), has decided to stake its future on the Lower East Side; and they changed their name (or at least their sign) to White Box Bowery, though the address is only near the Bowery, at 329 Broome Street.
To be sure, it is not only established dealers pointing the way to the LES, there is already a naissant growth of freshly minted galleries in evidence. In a remarkably short time, the area counts over fifty galleries. Here is a list of all of the known galleries as of this writing (from A to Z): 31Grand, 143 Ludlow Street 10002 / 33 Bond Gallery, 33 Bond Street, Suite #1, 10012 / Miguel Abreu Gallery, 36 Orchard Street 10002 / Asia Song Society, 45 Canal Street (btw orchard & Ludlow) / Nicelle Beauchene, 163 Eldridge Street 10002 / Jen Bekman Gallery 6 Spring Street 10012 / Canada, 55 Chrystie Street 10002 / Lisa Cooley / 34 Orchard Street 10002 / Cuchifritos, Essex Street Market 120 Essex Street 10002 / DCKT, 195 Bowery 10002 / Eleven Rivington, 11 Rivington Street 10002 / envoy, 131 Chrystie Street 10002 / Feature Inc., 176 Bowery 10002 / Fruit and Flower Deli, 53 Stanton Street 10002 / James Fuentes LLC, 35 St. James Place 10038 / Fusion Arts Museum / 57 Stanton Street 10002 / Janos Gat Gallery, 195 Bowery, 3rd floor 10002 / Greene Contemporary, 9 Clinton Street 10002 / Half Gallery, 208 Forsyth Street 10002 / Christopher Henry Gallery, 127 Elizabeth Street 10013 / Hous Projects, Inc., 31 Howard Street, 2nd floor / Marc Jancou Contemporary, Great Jones Alley 10012 / Kumukumu, 42 Rivington Street (between forsyth st & eldridge st) 10002 / Laviolabank Gallery, 179 East Broadway 10002 / Lehman Maupin, 201 Chrystie Street 10002 / Little Cakes, 625 East 6th Street #1B 10009 / Luxe Gallery, 53 Stanton 10002 / Museum 52, 95 Rivington Street 10002 / Never Work, 191 Henry Street 10002 / New Museum, 235 Bowery 10002 / NY Studio Gallery, 54 Stanton Street 10002 / Parc Foundation, 29 Bleecker Street 10012 / Participant Inc., 253 East Houston Street 10002 / Simon Preston Gallery, 301 Broome Street 10002 / Rental, 120 East Broadway, 6th floor 10002 / Rivington Arms, 4 East 2nd Street, 1st Floor 10003 / RxArt, Inc., 208 Forsyth Street 10002 / Salon 94, 1 Freeman Alley 10002 / Sloan Fine Art, 128 Rivington Street 10002 / Smith-Stewart, 53 Stanton Street 10002 / Sue Scott Fine Art, 1 Rivington Street NY 10002 / Sunday, 237 Eldridge Street, (South Store) 10002 / Thierry Goldberg Projects, 5 Rivington Street 10002 / Thrust Projects, 114 Bowery # 301 10013 / Rachel Uffner Gallery, 47 Orchard Street 10002 / V&A, 98 Mott Street, 2nd fl # 206 10013 / Werkstätte, 55 Great Jones Street 10012 / Woodward Gallery, 133 Eldridge Street, gr. Fl 10002 / Zürcher Studio, 33 Bleecker Street 10012.
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Heavy Light: Recent Photography and Video from Japan
International Center of Photography
By Natane Takeda
Curated by Christopher Phillips and Noriko Fuku of the University of Art and Design in Kyoto, this show features the works of thirteen Japanese artists; some of whom may be familiar such as Miwa Yanagi, Naoya Hatakeyama, Makoto Aida but for most of these the artists this exhibition introduces their work to a new audience. The show is neatly divided into four sections: Surfaces of the World, Transformation of Tradition, Costume and Self-Display, and The Children as Icon. There is a clear focus on the historical and artistic movements in Japan from 1990's through today, as expressed in the photograph. On the whole, however, the theme of the show can get a little blurry, in its striving to be inclusive.
A large photograph, School Days, by Tomoko Sawada overwhelms the viewer’s eye, placed at the museum’s entrance. The work depicts a typical graduation photograph of students wearing traditional uniforms. The students and teacher, Sawada, appear in various characters. There is the stereotype “A- student,” shy types, Kogal, bad ones through variations of make-up, and facial expressions. Like Yasumasa Morimura or, Nikki S. Lee or Shindy Sharman, Sawada’s sharp and cynical observation of human character and the different roles in Japanese society is stands out. There is no central character in the picture, as this is a group photograph; this aspect of the work conveys much about Japanese society’s group culture. It is comical to the point where the faces of each are identical, yet the image presents a telling comment on Japanese society; it reveals the underlying rebellion against custom in Japan and poses the question: Where is the individual?
There is a sense of fragility in the installation of Kenji Yanobe and Asako Narahashi. Yanobe’s central focus is about the idea of survival in an apocalyptic world. In Blue Cinema in the Woods, he creates a child-size movie theater on an elephant sculpture. Next to it, there is a ventriloquist's dummy called Torayan who wears a yellow radiation suit. The movie in the cinema is about an atomic bomb threat. The work acts as a kind of nursery rhyme to teach difficult history to a young generation. The childike innocence here contrasts with the heavy subject matter. The installation by Yanobe is also a poignant reminder that Japan is the only country to date where atomic bombs actually fell on real people.
Asako Narahashi further underscores this tension betwen heavy and playful themes with a deadpan “fish-eye-perspective”. Narahashi photographs costal city-scapes; a forboding city with only skyscrapers is contrasted with the human scale of a fishing village in Japan. In each photograph, the coastal city-scapes are sandwiched between the sky and ocean, which looks absurd. It appears as if the land were about to sink into the water. These works remind us that Japan is indeed an island; and that in the familiar theme of nature versus human engineering, we still have a long way to go.
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Sharon Weiner
Allen Gallery >>
By Mary Hrbacek
Conjuring abstract tableaux populated by rounded organic forms that reconfigure the artist’s conscious and unconscious experiences, Weiner mines, alternately, dramas and tension that arise in her everyday life in dream imagery. By juxtaposing her subjects in various spatial settings, she reveals her feelings about their importance. Some shapes loom large, clearly defined, while other forms with softened contours gradually fade from view.
Weiner uses information she has gleaned from a family of psychoanalytic practitioners, as well as her own direct knowledge of the process, to explore her conscious and unconscious impulses. Her heightened self-awareness lends clarity to these visual explorations. As she gives pictorial form to her relationships, some interactions are resolved; the shapes that represent resolved interactions blur and dissolve, while more pressing dynamics appear.
To create a visual equivalent of the deep space of the mind, Weiner employs layer upon layer of transparent medium, sanding each layer to produce a smooth ethereal finish. She applies the paint with an air gun for maximum softness. The mottled atmospheric ground provides a convincing platform upon which her life dramas unfold. The lushness of the format hints at an absence of excessive angst. This lack of anxiety lends a universality to this work, encompassing roles and relationships typical of her generation.
By avoiding illustrative description, the artist achieves a purity of form and rhythmic movement akin to classical musical compositions. Her use of clear, symbolic color within a limited palette conveys emotional clarity. The striking luminosity is intensified by the smoothness of the layered surfaces which provide a real material depth to the illusion of deep infinite visual space.
By restricting extraneous detail, Weiner ultimately makes a minimalist statement. Her open-ended process is intuitively suggestive rather then specifically articulated. Within the spectrum of abstract art, ranging from color-field minimalism to abstract expressionism to geometric hard-edge painting, Weiner takes her place as an artist who brings the classical techniques of modeling and glazing into the province of contemporary abstract art.
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