Chelsea Galleries

          The four Chelsea galleries that I saw included Amy Cutler: Fossa at Leslie Tonkonow Gallery, Karen Arm "Light + Heavy" at PPOW Gallery, Rashaad Newsome "Stop Playing in My Face" at DeBuck Gallery, and Yorgo Alexopoulos "Act of Nature" at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery. I've rarely been to galleries so I honestly didn't know  what to expect but after visiting the first one I enjoyed it. Each one was surprising and it was amazing to see things very different than you would expect in the art world.

            The first gallery, Amy Cutler: Fossa at Leslie Tonkonow Gallery, was very surprising when I saw the bundles of hair all around the room. There were drawing hung on the wall made by Cutler. The picture depicted these women living in these tree like huts, with hair surrounding them. You see them doing various activities like bathing, sleeping, washing clothes or just hanging out in this tree of hair. Then also in the gallery is this main interactive art piece. It's like a real life hut full of hair, just like in her drawing. There you have this hive of hair in the middle, with 4 chairs made of hair, and headphones also surrounded by hair. The tracks playing through the headphones are pieces composed by Emily Wells. Beside music, this artist also used sounds of her breaths , layered and extracted from intimate conversations between herself and friends. I was the contemporary audience, able to interact with the make shift hair hut. 

 

            

                  The second gallery, Karen Arm "Light + Heavy" at PPOW Gallery was also interesting. As stated on the gallery information page, Arm's displayed in her paintings 'infinite spaces which

focuses on surface and depth. . . . . her meticulous process of layering and glazing is essential in creating the dynamism in these meditative works.' When you get up close to her pieces of art you can see ever dot and every line made. Arm's work gives of that meditative/ hypnotic vibe due to the fact, when you walk past a certain painting, its moving with you. It has rippling effects. And the colors that she puts together, gives the art work even more beauty. Her work shows a sense of originality. 

            The third gallery, Rashaad Newsome "Stop Playing in My Face" at DeBuck Gallery was my favorite. Newsome explores his interpretations of feminism, transgender, and cisgender women of color through his collages and videos. Newsome use pop culture and mass media as sources of his art work. His collages include 'abstract baroque-esque designs, human faces, and bodies.' I love how he sheds light on the roles of gender, sexuality, and race that are in today's society. Newsome definitely disrupted traditional ideas and expectations about art and society for the fact his topic of art were on transgender women of color. That's not something you see often. I loved how he used digital media to display a video of transgender 'vouging' to music while parts of abstract baroque-esque patterns are going on around the dancer.

            The fourth gallery, Yorgo Alexopoulos "Act of Nature" at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery, was absolutely beautiful multimedia sculptures and video installations of various places he has visited. According to the gallery information sheet, the art work I have seen 'explore ways in which ancient cultures have personified nature in order to understand the origins and elements of the natural world.' The Act of Nature galley is made by Alexopoulos filming in 4k video, made use of translucent LCD video screens, Kuka robots, 3D printers, motorized dollies, and multiple cameras synchronously shooting time-lapse photography. He definitely integrates our new technology within his artwork.

            To conclude, I really enjoyed the few galleries I have gone to. I plan on going to see more when I have the time because these work of art were fairly different and interesting to see. These contemporary artist mess with the boundaries of what we can call art in today's society, and I'm loving it.