A Chelsea Swing

In addition to the Brice Marden exhibit at MoMA, I also got to see Anish Kapoor’s Sky Mirror, at Rockefeller Center, before it was removed on the 28th. Public art is a most difficult process. The journey from design, funding, and installation can be a perilous one; especially if the funding falls through at the last minute, or the public revolts.

In the case of Sky Mirror, everything has gone smoothly. The public loves it! It’s a crowd-pleaser: I liked it, too. I’d go further but Tyler @ Modern Art Notes has a great take on it.

Thursday night Andrew Edlin Gallery graciously hosted a gathering of NYC area friends of the American Visionary Art Museum. Edlin is also currently exhibiting work by Henry Darger; some small drawings from the family estate not seen before.


There’s always something to see in Chelsea. Lisa Yuskavage has new work at David Zwirner. The paintings look great: big, voluptuous, lusciously painted; even the fruit seems ready to give birth.

Some new construction has debuted this season: Marianne Boesky has unveiled a beautiful big new space, Gagosian Gallery has launched a new airport terminal on 21st street, and there is a new facade for Gladstone and Metro Pictures.


Paula Cooper has a nice selection of Dan Flavin, the original painter of light, and there are gorgeous video projections by Jennifer Steinkamp at Lehmann Maupin, of undulating and cascading fabrics.

Charles Garabedian’s images have grown on me. It took a while, but his latest show, up now at Betty Cuningham, one of my favorite galleries to visit, looks quite good.

The images I saw of Keith Mayerson’s paintings online didn’t look anywhere near as good as they do in person at Derek Eller: some solid paintings, renditions of photos of movie stills and popular culture. Also on 27th Street at Winkleman/Plus Ultra you’ll find Rosemarie Fiore’s very cool fireworks drawings, made by controlling the blast, resulting in some amazing colors and other residual effects.


Ending on a sad note, my favorite place to have lunch in Chelsea, the Wild Lily, will close at the end of December. It was a lovely place to sip tea and organize my notes. Crap!

Mark Barry (www.markbarryportfolio.com) is an artist working in Baltimore.