Chelsea Galleries
Visiting the multiple art galleries
in Chelsea has given me a chance to view art in a slightly different setting
from the Museums and public spaces I have observed art over the semester. I attended
these galleries early afternoon on a Tuesday and a big difference from the
museums which I viewed artwork this semester was how vacant the spaces were. I
thought this gave me a lot of freedom to travel between art pieces without needing
to consider or have regard for other viewers. I am not sure if this is the
typical setting for Art galleries or if I just so happened to be lucky. Of the multiple
galleries I visited that day the shows that really captivated me were “NU” at the
Doosan gallery by artist Yunsung Lee and “World Eater” by Stan Narten at
Kravets Wehby Gallery. Both shows featured a really amazing uses of colors and shapes
in their artwork.
Stan Narten’s “World Eater” show
encompassed about 5 painting that struck me as having this very intergalactic,
out of space theme. Each painting almost seemed to depict a landscape different
from what someone would imagine earth to look like which I think is why I
automatically assumed these scenes were taking place somewhere other than
Earth. The title “World Eater” also encouraged
the idea of an intergalactic setting. One detail I thought was striking was the
artists use of these small white dots which were present in all the paintings.
It is almost as if the dots were painted specifically to be in the foreground and
the actual content of the painting just seemed to be out of focus due to the
placement of these dots. Looking at the paintings it was often quite hard to
actually interpret what is specifically being depicted, there were many times
where I was unsure if I was looking at a person, object or some element of the
landscape. But I think that unsureness is what I liked about the paintings, I
was free to imagine if the white dots were eyes on a creature or specks of
debris falling after an intense explosion. 
Yungsun Lee’s Show “NU” at the
Doosan gallery featured anime styled paintings of females. Majority of the
paintings depicted females without limbs, it was almost as if their bodies were
exploding at their knees and elbows which I thought was interesting. I think
the artist intentionally did this to put emphasis on the rest of their body,
which I believed he wanted to be focal. What
I really enjoyed about these pieces was not the foreground but the backgrounds.
The paintings all featured these really bright, graphic backgrounds that
incorporated all these cool inorganic shapes. The colors utilized in these
backgrounds weren’t specifically complimenting each other but still creating
really strong contrasts which gave them a lot of vibrancy which I enjoyed.
I thought experiencing artwork at
the Chelsea galleries was a very new interaction with art for me. Prior to this
assignment I think I had very little to no experience with art galleries so
getting the opportunity to visit Chelsea, also a place I had very little
experience with, and visit these galleries was something I enjoyed and plan on
doing again.
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