Ahh, Hot Time Summer in the City

Ever wonder what all the gallery assistants are typing when you walk into a gallery? Very busy people. I don’t get to Brooklyn as often as I would like, but there is a lot going on. Real estate is going wild and galleries are having some great shows.

Unfortunately, the mantra for me this day was “closed for installation,” as was Pierogi, which looks like it will have a nice exhibit entitled Reconfigure, with 28 artists included. The figure is king for most of the summer shows around town. Also in Brooklyn, Sarah Bowen Gallery, a very nice converted garage, is showing Phong Bui’s installation called Hybrid Carnival for St. Exupéry #2. Phong is also curating Paint It with Black at Betty Cunningham Gallery in Chelsea. This guy doesn’t sleep much: he also publishes The Brooklyn Rail, and he’s also a nice man.

Back on the L train to Chelsea. Clementine has a fun show up called Summer Camp. Camp is the key word here, especially Wayne White's kitsch on kitsch paintings and---- playful constructions.

Melody Weir Gallery has Peter Tunney’s Paradise Garage, literally in an open-space garage, complete with Wild West theme. It’s a great idea. Paul Kasmin is showing what seems like Audobon on crack, with the beautifully rendered but bizarre work of Walton Ford. Will the woodland owl devour the cute squirrels?

Atomica: Making the Invisible Visible is a large group show in memory of the sixteenth anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, at Esso Gallery and Lombard-Freid Fine Arts. Thirty-five artists including the late great Leon Golub, Robert Longo, Nancy Spero, and Joy Garnett (AKA the mistress of Newsgrist).

Speaking of mavens of the blog world, Tyler Green of Modern Art Notes has curated a very nice three-artist show entitled In My Empire Life Is Sweet, at DCKT Contemporary. My favorite piece is Dan Steinhilber’s Duck Sauce, literally comprised of packets of duck sauce. The color variation as the light passes through the packets is beautiful, and very funny. The delicate, lighter than air drawing with scotch tape, pinned to the wall, by Rosana Castrillo Diaz definitely gave me a sweet feeling.

Off to the great state of Maine to open the Ionarts Summer Camp. My watercolors and paper are packed, and visions of lobster dance in my head.