Saturday, November 20, 2010

Hopping Around West 26th Gallery Openings & Late Night Chance of Meatballs

ART- Art Openings
There were many art openings in the Chelsea Arts District of NYC this past Thursday, but 26th Street shined for me and was a good use of my two hours, the 6-8 pm openings.

Lee Krasner, student of Hans Hoffman and wife of Mega-AbEx-Artist Jackson Pollock has her beautiful burnt umber Abstract Expressionist paintings displayed  at The Robert Miller Gallery, 524 W. 26th. The show runs in tandem with MoMA's AbExNY. Krasner painted mostly at night and the yellow light threw off her sense of color, so she went with browns and cream which are not negatively effected by incandescent light. You will see curving strokes and the long dashes of her brush. Some pieces were painted while she had a broken right wrist. Then she drug her unwieldy left hand and brush around with the exposed fingers sticking out from the plaster cast on her right arm. These works are not pure non-objective art, you find hidden eyes, faces or birds wings. Overshadowed by Jackson Pollock's fame, Lee did not gain recognition until late in her life. Her legacy also includes the famous Pollock-Krasner Foundation, one of the most prominent, "art specific" foundations in America. This exhibition runs until January 29th, 2011.

My artist friends Shin Fujiwara and Kagii unvieled their solo shows on Thursday at Caelum Gallery. Kagii creates his installations, digital images of music and dancing on acetate, to form hangings. These grab your eye, your imagination and your sense of fun. Fujiwara plays with non-objective spacial illusions in two dimensions. His images are created within a computer and are made up of small swirling, black, mechanical lines. Fujiwara's mounted digital outputs on paper are very soothing and hypnotic. As you are leaving the gallery, look to the left of the door to see my painting, "Guilin Landscape" hanging in its white frame. I think it is beautiful, but that's just me! We three artists work exclusivily in digital output. View the show at 508 or 526 W. 26th. St., elevator to the third floor, Caelum is #315.

At Claire Oliver Gallery, 513 W 26th, Bronx born artist Michael Anderson has moved from collages using art stickers to 8' x 8' "Hip Hop Collage" on paper. He dissects images from print media which he collects. He creates a new statement using his x-acto knife, paste pot and paper. The gallery opening was full of young hipsters and the artist was there explaining the meaning of each detail of his images and why one image was juxtaposed to another.

Also open on 26th Street last Thursday was "VIVID, Female Currents in Painting" and "Pavers" both group shows at the newly opened, reorganized and relocated Schroeder, Romero and Shredder Gallery (531 W. 26th St.) Lots of wall space, lots of fresh art. This was one of those openings where the energy was intense and the atmosphere palpable! It was a classic "Chelsea Art Opening" full of artists, art lovers, wine drinkers and collectors. 

Chelsea Arts District has over 200 galleries. Think of it as a shopping mall for Contemporary Art (I know, it is not really a mall).  The world of art is predicted, revisited and invented here. As the gallery owners say, on Thursday nights they host the best museum level shows for FREE and serve anyone walking in wine or beer!

I DID NOT KNOW THAT!
Friedrich "Fritz" 
Christian Anton Lang 
(1890 – 1976) Austrian-American filmmaker, with at least one film banned by Hitler was born to a Jewish mother, but raised Christian in Germany. Under the Nazi eugenics laws he was classified as Jewish, so following his good instincts, he quickly immigrated to the United States.  His 1927 silent film noir classic Metropolis, a flop when first released in Berlin, was cut and reedited many times before finally being put on the shelf only to be admired years later at film festivals. Last year, an original uncut copy of the film was discovered in perfect condition and made available to the art theaters around the world. If you missed it in theaters, this two and one half hour film is now out on DVD - no scratches or noise but in the crystal clear form Fritz Lang first showed it. People who live and breathe movies say: with the previously unknown scenes being back in and the high quality print, it is a completely new experience to watch. ("The Complete Metropolis" by Kino International, in Blue Ray and standard DVD.)

FOOD
A Late Night in NYC,
With a Chance of Meatballs
Daniel Holzman, is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and Michael Chernow was trained at the French Culinary Institute. They are well educated, classically trained chefs. Earlier this year they opened their "DREAM" restaurant, "The Meatball Shop", a restaurant completely devoted to guess what? Awww, you guessed it. Meatballs! The favorite meat of Italian grandmothers and Swedes everywhere. Dan and Mike realized that meatballs actually are a delicious comfort food, loved by anyone who has ever eaten a really great one. Here, everything is made from scratch, with farm-fresh ingredients and the featured orbs are created from chicken, vegetable, spicy pork, beef, and leave room for creative originals. The meatballs are presented as sliders, heros, "smashes on brioche", or over a side with your choice of sauce, served in a bowl.  The choice of sides is spectacular, including: white beans, risotto, polenta, rigatoni, fresh greens, sauteed broccoli, and roasted veggies. The meat is paired with homemade sauces: tomato, spicy meat, mushroom, parmigiano cream, pesto and secret special sauce.  (I guess, they did learn something in culinary school.) The two chefs are old friends who went to public school together. Jokingly they offer the "FAMILY JEWELS SPECIAL" where a fried egg is added to your selection. The Meatball Shop is a part of "the city that never sleeps", they are open until 4 a.m. Thurs. through Sat. and until 2 a.m. Sun. through Wed. It is located at 84 Stanton St., one block south of Houston on Stanton between Allen and Orchard in Manhattan. Phone (212) 982-8895.  Everything except the sliders are available for take out.    http://www.themeatballshop.com/menu.html

"Let's see, I'll have a spicy pork meatball Smash! on brioche with parmigiano cream sauce and a side of fresh greens and another of polenta."   :>)

Until later,
Jack 

© ARTS&FOOD,(ARTSnFOOD.blogspot.com) All rights reserved, © Copyright Jack A. Atkinson  2010 Under All International, Digital, Intellectual Property and Copyright Laws. Images © Copyright individual Creators, Lenders or Fabricators.

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