Maia Ruth Lee & Peter Sutherland - Ground Score - VIP Gallery

 I met Charlotte Kidd, an excellent photographer and gallerist.

 Maggie Lee was recently featured in Paper Magazine as one of the young artists shaking things up here in NYC.

Peter Sutherland, seen here with what appears to be his understudy.

VIP Gallery is a new spot on the 4th floor of a nondescript and somewhat bummy-looking commercial building at 181 Broadway. The space itself is very raw but has great energy and they couldn’t have chosen a better fit for their first-ever exhibition.

Ground Score, by Maia Ruth Lee and Peter Sutherland, is a collection of found object sculptures collected and constructed by the pair as they made their way across the deserts of the American southwest in early 2011. The pieces include a variety of materials: loosely assembled collections of small totems and stones, a faded and tattered chunk of an American flag, a digital-camo print prayer book, Styrofoam, cassette tapes, and even a Jeep roll-bar.

The nature of the exhibition lends an archeological quality to each object, making them feel less like sculptures than artifacts plucked from some parallel post-apocalyptic universe. The exhibit dove-tails with a booklet of photographs that documents the trip that yielded all of these forms as well as some of the people they met and sculptures they constructed along the way. All told a great collection and a really fun show to explore.

When I first moved to New York I wished there were more spaces like VIP Gallery, so I wish them well and I am excited to see whatever they do next. If you want to check out the exhibit, email them at vipgallerynyc@gmail.com to make an appointment. 

Zefrey Throwell - I'll Raise You One - Art in General

 I stopped to check out the scene at Art in General, where Zefrey Throwell’s new performance work “I’ll Raise You One” is being staged.

From 10 am to 6pm,  seven people sit around a table in a storefront window and play strip poker until they are all naked. Then they get dressed and immediately repeat the process “creating a meditative repetitious action that continues over the course of a workday… allowing the casual onlooker to participate in a guilt-free voyeurism, while teasing out a different outlook on our personal interactions and day-to-day routines.”

I usually find this kind of titillating exhibit easy to dismiss, but I have to admit Throwell’s staging has something going for it. As the game progressed, the empty corner accumulated more and more onlookers, raising the stakes (pun intended) for those playing the game and growing the spectacle. The crowd was surprised and delighted and there was a sense of disbelief and fun that you could feel.

I started off taking photos of the exhibit, but what became much more interesting to me was the behavior of the people watching. When I would take pictures of people’s faces you could see sudden panic and embarrassment. When the girl in the window took out her own camera to take pictures of the crowd, several peeled off and scurried away. One man left and came back with a bottle of vodka to “Stay all night, got nothing else to do. I been here for two days watching.” There was shock, laughter, cheers. A truck circled the block and its crew got out to inspect more closely. Men in suits took pictures on their blackberries. An old Chinese man stood on the trunk of a car to take a picture. Strangers talked to strangers. In a city that shrugs off so much, Zefery at very least got people’s attention.

The games at “I’ll Raise You One” continue from 10am to 6pm through November 19th.

Terry Richardson - Mom Dad - Half Gallery

 Bill Powers and James Frey

 Terry Richardson as Terry Richardson

 Lake Bell and Scott Campbell

 Charlotte Free

 Bill Powers

 Glenn O'Brien and Terry Richardson

 Meeting Glen O'Brien was a real treat for me.

 Nicole Nadeau from Work of Art - Season 1

 Lindsey Wixon

On Friday after work I went to Half Gallery for the opening of the Terry Richardson exhibit “Mom Dad.” I was impressed by the exhibit and surprisingly touched. I have heard people deride Richardson’s work as one-note or sensationalist, but the man makes striking pictures at which you can’t help but look. I’ve seen a great deal of Richardson’s stuff before and I’ve enjoyed it, but the intimate and personal subject matter featured makes this show powerful in a way that I hadn’t expected. There is love and humor and compassion in these portraits that leaps out at you, and perhaps exposes what is sometimes lacking from his other work.

From the Half Gallery website: “My parents split up when I was four. It feels good for me to have them back together again, even if it's in a gallery and only for a little while. It's something I'm doing for me and in a way, for them."- Terry Richardson 2011.

As you can see the opening was an all-out madhouse. The Half Gallery is the size of handicap bathroom stall and everyone was trying to cram in all at once. The sidewalk and street were crowded with a mix of models, art stars, C list celebrities (or Sub-lebrities ) hangers on, hipsters, sycophants, wannabes, aspirings, rich kids, rich adults, rich olds, musicians, publishers, moguls, and even a couple paparazzi.

It was a party atmosphere but there was a pervasive feeling from the unfamous that they (we) were hoping to be swept up into Richardson’s life-image of sleazy, glamorous soft-living and hard-partying. The crowd tingled with ulterior motives.  Like any drug, proximity to fame provides a contact high but also has the potential to turn dark. Being in a room of semi-famous people is a great way to feel like somebody and nobody at the same time. I loved the chaos and jockeying and gawking and was stoked to be there and be a part of the mayhem but equally happy to head home to my sleepy little family. There I am working on my own ‘Mom Dad’ exhibition daily.

Terry Richardson’s “Mom Dad” is up through December 4th at Half Gallery.

Tom Sachs - "Work" - Sperone-Westwater Gallery

These are hot glue and foamcore.

There is a small pile of quarters on top of this sculpture. Pop one in the slot and voila!

 The homie Peter Sutherland

Tom Sachs

Tom Sachs “Work” opened on Friday night at Sperone-Westwater gallery on the Bowery. 

The show will be up through December 17th and I strongly recommend that you check it out while you can. It’s great!