Michele O - First NY trip

I really enjoyed going to New York to explore the art world and some of its underground aspects. Seeing all the galleries and works and even personal art studios was a little overwhelming but extremely inspiring and informative. I learned a lot about how to get your foot in the door of New York’s art scene - you basically just have to put yourself out there, and I think that was the most important lesson of the day.
Seeing John Kings studio and home was the first thing we did and I for me the most interesting thing about that was that him and Nancy have made art a part of their entire lives. Their home felt like a gallery, and I almost felt I should have had to pay an admission. John King talked to us at length about his methods using wax and graphite that he used to create his beautiful encaustic pieces. He also talked to us about how he branched out and worked with writers to have his work published in books. John King has been involved in the New York art scene for a long time and it is not hard to see why - his networking skills are as amazing as his work.
After leaving John King’s we stopped at two galleries to check out installations by Walter de Maria. While this was not the most interesting exhibit to me, I was very impressed by the enormity and precision of “The Broken Kilometer”. I found “New York Earth Room” much more interested because the work incorporated the entire space and it seemed to affect everyone who walked in the room. It even affected the air - I found the room to be almost suffocating. It was a very emotional piece.
Paul Laster and Renee Riccardo’s exhibit, The Garden at 4am, was one of my favorite parts of the day. They talked about how they wanted to curate an exhibit in which the pieces were all cohesive in that they referenced Hieronymus Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights” and that they referenced the garden, good and evil, and the captivation of the human spirit. There was one work from each artist who were from all over the world. Julie Heffernan’s “Self Portrait as Albatross” was probably my favorite work in the show because the artist had all the talent of a classic renaissance painter, but the subject matter and hidden nuances she incorporated were very modern.
I really enjoyed just walking around Chelsea and going into and exploring all the different galleries. Louise Nevelson, Paul Morrison, and especially Tony Oursler were among my favorites. Oursler’s show was very different and to me, the most interesting, of the day. His video art combined sculpture, moving imagery, and sound, and the subject matter was hard hitting and I believe it represented human nature, addiction, and obsession.
Pulse art fair was like a whole other world. It was nothing like a traditional gallery or art show - there were so many different artists and so many different mediums and kinds of art. One thing for sure was that it was mostly very modern and tended to push the boundaries of traditional art. There was not a piece in the entire fair that did not evoke a lot of thinking and analyzing.
Overall the visit to New York was very interesting. It was quite an experience to be able to get a behind the scenes look at the New York art world, and to get tips from professionals themselves. And to top it off, a trip to New York is never complete without a trip to Mamoun’s for some falafel.