Artworks in New York's Streets

There are many incredible artworks on "display" in the streets of New York City, besides world-class museums and wonderful galleries.  I mostly enjoyed my viewing artists' displays in street, which sipping wonderful cappuccino in Soho.  Unfortunately, I didn't see any transactions during the time.  Hopefully it was due to early hour.  The quality of those offerings of course varied greatly.  It was very familiar scene and the lady with hat made me feel that I was in Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley.









I've taken many pictures and the below are a sample of notable things:


5th Avenue


5th Avenue


Union Square


Union Square


Lower East Side


Lower East Side


Chelsea


Chelsea


Lower East Side


Lower East Side




Lower East Side


Soho


Soho


Soho, Fashion Week


Soho


Soho


Flatiron Building


Cooper Union, New Academic Building


Lower East Side



Lower East Side


Lower East Side


Chinatown


Lower East Side





New York is quite wonderful, isn't it?

>> New York City Report, September 2010, Part XXV: I "What" NY
<< New York City Report, September 2010, Part XXIII: New York Gallery Wrap Up
 

San Francisco Asian Art Museum's Trouble

San Francisco Chronicle reported that San Francisco Asian Art Museum is in dire financial straits and could be forced into bankruptcy if it can't work out a new deal with its lender by Friday, according to knowledgeable sources:

According to its board minutes, the museum had a balanced budget as recently as June 2009 and was racking up record attendance.

Since then, however, attendance has fallen sharply and the place hasn't seen any donor gifts in a couple of years.

Even a ballyhooed exhibit to coincide with the opening of Shanghai's world trade expo in May failed to draw the anticipated crowds.

That last sentence seemed have pointed out the problems.  Shanghai's World Expo was a hyped event in China and was only an amusing and baffling anachronistic vanity display by the Chinese government of multiple levels, and the preparation of the Expo was characterized by forceful evictions and demolitions in Shanghai and became the symbol of injustice.  Museum goers in the U.S. cannot find any enthusiasm to the exhibit closely associated with such bizarre spectacle.

The "Shanghai" exhibit was a jumbled mess without clear curatorial direction and had little artistic merit and was a clear pandering to Chinese government and its ardent supports.  Perhaps, Asian Art Museum hoped to sell this exhibit to the large Chinese community in San Francisco but it seemed that cynical calculation has misfired.

It was reported that San Francisco government will not bail the museum out.  Perhaps, they should have asked the Chinese government to step in.

San Francisco Asian Art Museum is a cultural jewel and it is a shame that it's facing bankruptcy.  Let's hope that it will ride out of this turbulence and present us exhibits and collections with real artistic and historical merits.

Paintings of Interiors

Self-portrait is a portal to peek into a creative mind and inspect a revealed soul, or a veiled soul. A self-portrait is the inner being, which is always mysterious.

Of course, that was only a metaphor. Inner space in its literal sense can be as intense and mysterious.

In past years, I have made several paintings with interior scenes and the probing f those domestic niceties, grandiose magnificence or forbidding mysteries gave me endless intelligence stimulation and even sensual pleasure. Below is a collage of such effort on video:



The paintings in the video are:

Awakening
Swing
Stairwell
Lamp and Firefly
Room with a Lamp
Domesticity
Cave
Limelight
Museum Interior

For more interior paintings, please visit my Flickr site: Interior

>> Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part XI: 2011 Calendars Ready for Downloading
<< Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part IX: My Self-Portraits

List of Video Presentation of My Artworks

New York Gallery Wrap Up

I am getting anxious to finish my reports of my New York trip in September. I'm afraid that my readers might be tired of them as well. I am going to wrap it up soon.

In this post, I'll address other galleries I've seen, besides those reported before -- Arslan at Dillon Gallery, Jennifer Steinkamp at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, David Antonides in Broadfoot & Broadfoot Gallery, Liao Yibai at Mike Weiss Gallery, and other important displays in alternative locations such as Tom Otterness's Life Underground in subway station, and Barry McGee's Mural in Soho.

As I mentioned before, SoHo gallery scene had pretty much dried up and only a handful galleries, such as Broadfoot and Broadfoot, together with street vendors held some interests.  Below are a few pictures I took in neighborhood in and around traditional SoHo gallery zone.


Washburn Gallery


Moe's Meat Market Art Gallery


Moe's Meat Market Art Gallery



Chelsea was still teeming with galleries and attracts much foot traffic.  I visited a few very interesting galleries and a handful quite exciting ones, such as Dillon Gallery as reported before, and also some galleries showcasing art works appealed me somewhat less:


511 West 25th Gallery








Betsy Eby: Scales and Measures, Winston Wächter Fine Art Gallery


Betsy Eby: Scales and Measures, Winston Wächter Fine Art Gallery


Rimi Yang, Stricoff Gallery, New York City,






Gagosian Gallery


Stephen Haller Gallery


Johnnie Winona Ross, Stephen Haller Gallery


Johnnie Winona Ross (two paintings at the sides), Stephen Haller Gallery


Adam Fuss, Cheim & Read Gallery


Adam Fuss, Cheim & Read Gallery


Jacqueline Mitri (two paintings at the right), Agora Gallery


Agora Gallery


Agora Gallery


Ivan Hurtado Lorenzo, Agora Gallery





Near the end of my visit, I saw a van unloading paintings to a gallery.  I would love to have my paintings unloading there some day.



>> New York City Report, September 2010, Part XXIV: Artworks in New York's Streets 
<< New York City Report, September 2010, Part XXII: Veniero's Pasticceria & Caffe in New York City