Duck Sauce - Barbara Streisand

FACT

I secretly like Amanda Bynes

@chicky and the city from Mondock Entertainment on Vimeo.

secretly ...

David Hockney at Pace Wildenstein

One of my favourite artist David Hockney has a show opening at Pace Wildenstein this week in NYC, according to this NYT article. I wish I was in town earlier to see it. But I am sure Paul and Virginia will let me know how it is, and maybe it will still be on when I get down next month for American Thanksgiving.

This is some Edith Wharton, Age of Innocence shit

Interesting article in the Style sections about Ruth Madoff's fall from New York grace. The gist of it is that she has become public enemy number one and has been ostracized by individuals and businesses alike. She can't even get her hair highlighted! I don't know why, but it makes me feel bad for her. I am torn because I understand why people, and New Yorkers in particular, demonise those who profit fraudulently on the backs of hard working people and charities. But why does a hair salon or restaurant that have no or limited personal connection to the events feel the need to vilify this woman. I mean how cruel, to her and us, she is going to have horrible roots.

I Love you Bill Cunningham

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/06/13/fashion/20090614-street-feature/index.html

Pacaya

I promise I will post more in the next few days about my time in Boston and NYC, and yes I will give details about my run in with Kanye West and his lady friend at Newark. But for now I just wanted to post this image of Pacaya, the volcano that my mum and I are hiking tomorrow. Buenos Días.

Notes from the Road

I know I have been a bad travel blogger lately, but I have been gathering material non-stop. Got into New York Thursday afternoon, and went straight to the Armory Show. The Armory was overwhelming, and not entirely satisfying. There is something about the fair, which reminds me of a flea market. And when you see a Cecily Brown in a stall rather than a museum it does something to you, makes you feel a bit cheap and dirty.

But it is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see some of those works. Galleries from all over the world bring pieces that you might never see. And there are artists who's work is never going to have a retrospective at the Guggenheim, but who are incredible. Plus the Armory VIP is chalk full of good art gossip. I got an earful about the satellite events in NYC. One of which Paul, Virginia and I went to in Long Island City. Vanessa Beecroft, the artist made famous by her works with naked models proved to be the shallowest event of the fair. There was one highlight for me, and that was seeing two works by Ryan McGinley, which a gallery from San Francisco had on offer. Not the image bellow, but from the same series. They were beautiful, and reasonably priced around 10k. If only I was in the market

Paul and I also went to see the MFA show at Hunter, which was largely forgettable, but there were a few standouts, and overall it wasn't a total bust. Afterward we went down to the meatpacking district and met the biz for dinner and drinks. We had a great time, gossiping about NYC, Toronto, fashion, art and theatre. Does it get better than that? Friday I spent the day with Virginia, we went to the MOMA, and I was totally impressed by Martin Kippenberger, who's work is not only funny and thoughtful, but also surprisingly beautiful and well balanced.

We also went to the Frick, which I had never been to, and really loved. I think it is too bad the upper levels of the house are not open to the public, but the art was phenomenal. I mean they have three Vermeer's - three. That is feet considering there are only about forty in the entire world. The house is also incredibly beautiful and makes me long for a era long gone, when property of that size and grandeur wasn't gaudy but completely appropriate.

Saturday I took the train to DC, to see my high school friend Nell. She lives at the Stanford House in DC, and while it is technically a dorm, imagine living in an embassy, because that is what it is like. The Stanford house has an in house gallery, who last show is now on at the Smithsonian, not bad eh. Nell took me out Saturday night with a bunch of her friends, and while had a good time, I couldn't help but wonder if DC isn't still a segregated city.

Sunday we did an art marathon, taking in the Louise Bourgeois show at the Hirshhorn.


I love her spiders and I know that she is extremely influential and important, but I was more impressed with the Hirshhorn's director Terence Gower's piece about Hirshhorn's plans to develop a modern utopian community in the wilderness of Canada, slated to be called Hirshhorn, Ontario. The town never materialized but the piece at the museum was unreal, and made me wonder what is in Hirshhorn, Ontario? I bet it isn't nearly as cool or efficient as Hirshhorn would have been. Next we went to the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery and the Art in America museum. The Smithsonian has a few pieces by my current favourite Edward Hopper including Cape Cod, which might be one of my favourite pieces of all times.


Her wistful expression says it all. Then Nell and I had to separate and I went to hear a concert at the Phillips, which I missed because I was so enraptured by the Rothko room. I mean is there anything as spellbinding as a room full of Rothko's? I don't think so.


The Phillips also had a special exhibit of Morandi, who I had never seen before, and who work was both whimsical and significant. Morandi makes me rethink the way we define objects, by demonstrating that nothing can be as debilitating to creativity as the eye. We are so set in our ways of viewing objects that it can be easy to forget that the only thing making a cup a cup is the word itself. Sublime

Today I am off to the Supreme Court to see if I can sit in on a hearing. It is probably going to be more dull than it sounds but I think it's a novel idea. Then I am off to the National Gallery to take a look at this. Tomorrow, I am planning on heading to Boston, but I haven't finalized my plans yet so I will have to let you know. Hope you have had as exciting a weekend? O yea did I mention, I have been wearing skirts for two days.

The Armory Show

I can't f$%#&ing wait

From my Valentine

Paul is that you?

Looks like you took your Emergen - C.

Art Matters

It has been a whirlwind here in New York. Last week I saw three shows and did a tour of the Chelsea galleries. Then over the weekend Paul and I did as much as possible of the big art shows around town. It was tough to coordinate because we only had Sunday and Monday to do everything. I realized that the gallery world is just like the theatre, in that when you have a job you can never actually see any other work, because of the schedule. But we did our best. So Sunday we went to the Whitney to see the Eggleston show.

These are some of the images from the show. I was very surprised that I found so many of them online. Eggleston was a real highlight of the art this weekend. After Eggleston, Paul and I raced through the Calder show. This particular show is from his Paris years, and are not my favorite Calders. From there Paul and I hurried over to MOMA. The Pipilotti Rist installation, was so major. I could not describe it if you payed me but it was riveting. Both Paul and I thought it was very successful, and will probably be a monumental moment in her career. We went through the contemporary show and just as we were leaving realized that we had missed the Joan Miro exhibit, so we went back up stairs and did a quick walk through. I am not the biggest Miro fan, but you can not deny his influence and aesthetic achievements.


We didn't see the Van Gogh exhibit because it was sold out for the day, which both Paul and I thought was a good thing. I had no particular interest in seeing that show anyway. Although if there had been tickets we probably would have gone through. And then we would not have had time to get down to the New Museum. As it was we left MOMA and rushed down to the Lower East Side/East Village. We didn't have a lot of time, so we concentrated our efforts on the Mary Heilmann show. Heilmann is an interesting case, because she has always been called a painter's painter and only recently began to get the credit she deserves. Her show at the New Museum is phenomenal, and was another highlight of my art cram session. After that we needed to take a break for eating, which has been another constant occurrence on this trip. It was still pretty early so we decided to make an event of it, and went for oysters in Tribeca. We were really close to La Pettie Abielle, which was featured in "The City" and happens to be Ben's bar. I gave Ben a call and made him meet us for a drink. We were in a rush so we didn't stay long. Paul and I decided that we wanted to take it easy so we went to see Quantum of Solace. There is not much to say about that, other than the tall boys were key and Paul fell asleep. We got home relatively early, although we were both exhausted.
Monday Paul took me on a tour of Forest Hills Gardens, which is a pretty desirable neighborhood, with lots of nice property. Then we took the train into the city and went straight to the Guggenheim. They have a group show up, which is all about being in the art, in fact one of the pieces is a hotel room in the museum, which people were actually able to rent out for the night. And like all good New York shows is sold out. The Guggs also has a show of Catherine Opie's photography. I loved the Icehouses and the Surfers. Bellow are some of the images from her show, including one of the surfers. They were really striking, particularly when you see the whole series.






Overall though I thought the show at the Guggenheim was ... um, oh. Yea.


Next Paul and I decided that we had to have dim sum in Chinatown. We went to the Ping Seafood Restaurant, which Paul assured me is the best in the City. It was pretty darn good, but I reserve the right to say that it is not the best. From there, Paul and I got on the train to PS1. The PS1 show was another one that was um, ok. Although the Robert Boyd piece, a video instillation with conspiracy theory clips set to the Kylie Minogue song I Believe in You was pretty incredible. The video I linked above is not the actual piece although some of the clips in it are featured in Tomorrow People. Paul later did some research about Boyd and it turns out that he is a bit of a crazy. Apparently he was a one time the spokesperson for the Green Party in Britain, but was asked to resign because he was a loon. Just to give you a taste, Boyd thinks that George Bush is a reptile. Anyhoo, there was also a another Pipilotti piece at PS1, which we almost missed because it was installed in a crack in the floor, pretty cool eh.

Whoo, even writing all this down is tiring, so I don't think I will add much from my day yesterday except to say that I took the bus up to the Cloisters, which is the Met's medieval extension uptown. I had never been and it was something Blackie and I talked about before she passed, so I really wanted to get up there. After the 2 hour bus ride, which would have been shorter on the train, but less scenic, I arrived. The Cloisters is a really beautiful building, in a even more beautiful park, atop a hill that over looks the Hudson. The stuff inside ain't to shabby either. The Met is one of those museums that is so rich that they just bring entire buildings from the 12th century and put them inside the Cloisters. It is something else. After I got back downtown I met Shawnte, we had planned to go see Richard Prince at Gogosian but we had a long meal instead. I might try to stop by Gogosian on Saturday.

Today I head out to Connecticut for Thanksgiving. I'll update you when I get there.

Beyond the Canon

Last night Paul invited me to the opening at Robert Miller Gallery. The show was beautiful, and we had an ok time. Grace Hartigan, who sadly passed away over the weekend was in the show, and had planned to attend the opening. It was really too bad, the timing of her death. Although I was speaking with a lot of people at the gallery who didn't seem to know that she had died. That aside, we had a great night. After the opening Paul, Shawnte, Vinny and I went for drinks, and then later Paul and I met up with Sasha and Alina, and some Gents for more drinks on the East Side. At least I think that's where we were, it gets a litter blurry about that time. There is more to tell but Paul always gets squirmy about mentioning the gallery

I saw Gypsy yesterday afternoon, which was amazing. I am planning on writing a revue for the EAP blog. As well as one for South Pacific, which I took Paul to on Tuesday night. I am sure I could say more now, but I wont.

"The City"