Gallery Hopping in NYC

From Nicholas Party "Swamp" at Hauser & Wirth

I often wish I could magically transport myself to another city where an exhibit is on that I'd like to see. Happily, I had the chance earlier this month to visit some galleries in NY showcasing artists on my radar. Even better, my friend Wendi was by my side and introduced me to a new artist or two. 

My favorite stop was "Nicolas Party - Swamp" at Hauser & Wirth. I've seen some of Party's work at Art Basel and was eager to see more. There's something about the way he paints faces -- particularly the eyes -- that gets my attention every time. Party has noted that many of his androgenous figures have a slightly alien feel to them. He cites Milton Avery as one of his influences. Interesting. 

"Portrait with a Dog" (2023)

Seeing a lone work by Party and seeing an entire exhibit are two very different things. "Swamp" is an immersive experience, with large scale paintings on both permanent and temporary walls that create a mysterious environment. On one wall is the swamp for which the exhibit is named. On another are mountains. On a third is a forest in flames. Where exactly are we? 

I was quite taken with Party's cabinet paintings, a term with which I was not familiar. Their physical form harkens back to Renaissance altarpieces that could be folded in on themselves and safely transported. I like the contrast with his paintings, which are distinctly modern. To see more of the exhibit, click here. And if you're in NY, don't miss his exhibit on at the Frick. I did, and I'm kicking myself. To get a peek into Party's studio, click here. (I'm dreaming about the photo opps with those heads.) Finally, to read a great interview with him, click here. He's come a long way from his juvenile start as a graffiti artist.    

From "Jacob Hashimoto: The Disappointment Engine"

Wendi is a fan of Jacob Hashimoto's work, and now I am too. This work greeted us as we entered the Miles McEnery Gallery. Talk about an immersive experience!  You could wander right through what Hashimoto refers to as "kites." The reference is to the Japanese tradition of kitemaking in which paper is wrapped around a bamboo armature. Each of Hashimoto's works requires the creation of hundreds -- sometimes thousands -- of these small kites. Click here for a look at how he creates these beautiful discs. 

I'm sure you've had the experience where you learn a new word and it suddenly seems to be everywhere. I felt that same little spark when I saw Hashimoto's "This Particle of Dust" at the Tampa Museum of Art just after I returned from New York. Click here for more on that installation. The link includes a video in which the artist talks about his work. I was struck by his comment that his sculptures don't have meaning until people show up and give some of themselves to the artwork. He continued by saying that people's "voyage thought the artwork is critical to its existence." What a humble approach to his striking creations. For even more on Hashimoto and his work, click here. 

"July 1981" by Mickalene Thomas (2023)

Then there was an exhibit both Wendi and I were eager to see -- Mickalene Thomas' 'je t'adore' at Yancy Richardson. Before talking about the work, let me cut to the most thrilling part -- Thomas was in the gallery when we were there! It was highly distracting as I wanted to go all fan girl over her. (I didn't, as she was meeting with clients.) Two weeks later, I've finally figured out what I would have wanted to say. "Your work, Ms. Thomas, truly changed the way I think about art." 

I still remember walking into the Brooklyn Museum of Art with Wendi back in 2012 and seeing Thomas' "Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe: Les trois femmes noires." To say that her reimagined version of Manet's "Luncheon on the Grass" took me by surprise is an understatement. It was different than anything I'd seen before, and it gave me pause. Why was this artist turning one of the world's most famous paintings on its head? More than ten years later that work, in all its iterations, continues to engage me. To see what my introduction to Thomas' work looked like in situ, click here. And for a super short clip in which Thomas talks about the painting, click here. But on to "je t'adore." 

In this series Thomas has appropriated wholly different images -- Black female erotica from calendars issued by Jet magazine and the 1950s French pubication Nus Exotique. The works are collages, a medium for which Thomas is known, and include the customary bling. But they are strikingly different from the works with which I was familiar, especially the backgrounds that reference the era in which the source photograph was shot. Thomas is speaking to ideas of desire, memory, sexuality and the fascination of western cultures with the Black body. It's a lot to pack in to a single canvas. For more on this exhibit, click here. And for more on Thomas and her work, click here. 

Once again, the Chelsea gallery scene held lots of exciting artwork to discover. Check it out the next time you're in New York. You never know what -- or who -- you'll see.