Last week I had the chance to visit some premium Chelsea Galleries with my classmates and professors. This really helped me gain a burst of inspiration for future projects. I love to take a concept one artist started and through incorporating that with my own styles I can create my own unique and distinct work and help my art practice really evolve. I don’t look at this as stealing someone’s idea, but honoring it and expanding on both artists Ideas. Art is all abut conveying ideas so an artist should be overjoyed to have their artwork and ideas spread to another artists practice. To look at taking inspiration as a form of plagiarism is just another form of gatekeeping in the art world. All art is taken from something else.
One of the perks of HCCCs location its its proximity to the Journal Square Path Station, a five minute trip directly to Manhattan. Chelsea's galleries are some of the best in the world, where some of the most creative and artistic people show their artwork. These artists are all unique, and the same goes for their artwork. Most great artists in Manhattan all have their own flair and stand out in a crowd.
After getting off at 23rd Street, our group of 25+ students and two professors walked a few blocks to our first gallery, the Lehmann Maupin Gallery. On the first floor lobby we were greeted by bold abstract wall pieces by Liza Lou. Lou brilliantly utilizes beads to create breathtaking three dimensional forms on a two dimensional plane. Some of the most compelling art for me is simply based around a core color way that evokes a sense and teleports me to a certain place and time. The beads feel like a sea one can get lost in one color seemlessly flowing to the next propelling waves of inspiration. Lehmann Maupin describes Lous work as breaking the barrier between art and craft. The addition of crafting and extended media really brings value to artwork for me and I love to see unique projects like this.
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| Liza Lou |
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| Liza Lou |
At Hill Art Foundation currently a very different, but equally culturally rich and unique exhibition- a brilliant painting series by Jordan Casteel. Jordan Casteel displays mastery in the field of painting, making high details stand out in bright beaming colors. In many works she takes what would be a somewhat simple scenes and image and make them beam with personality, emotion, and character. The facial expressions and poses of the figures bring surely very real figures and places from the artists community to life. The paintings feel very real and invite one into the life of the artist. Art that reflects ones life is not an easy task, with each portrait likely having important meaning to the artist and the person being portrayed. Nevertheless, Casteel does it elegantly and tastefully. Hill Art Foundation is also a highly visually striking gallery with intriguing architecture, comfy chairs to rest, and an inspiring third floor view of Chelsea and gorgeous artwork all at once.
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| Jordan Casteel |
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| Joshua Greenbaum in the Hill Art Foundation |
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| Jordan Casteel |
The next stop was a gallery we had seen on the walk up to Lehmann Maupin, and it had caught my eye right away personally, so I circled back with a smaller group of classmates. Jim Kempner Fine Art Stands out from the rest and breaks boundaries as a gallery thanks to it's artist layout and design truly unlike any other, with even the shape of the building being truly it's own, standing out as a piece of art in it's own right. from the street peering in, one can see a glimpse of a perfectly sized zen garden with sculptures by Boaz Vaadia. Vaadia depicts figures of people and a dog feeling very rustic and distinguished bluestone. The ripped texture from a distance gives the sculptures an illusion of being a woven basket materials, but when taking a closer look one will notice they are rock solid. The sculptures give the garden a high value aura, and a rustic matching wooden chain makes it another great rest spot to view top knotch artwork.
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| Boaz Vaadia |
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| Joshua Greenbaum in the Jim Kempner Sculpture Garden |
Inside Jim Kempners Gallery I am greeted by highly friendly staff and more incredible architecture and artwork. This gallery feels extra cozy and inviting with a uniquely refreshing scent, making it further stand out from other galleries in New York. The same goes for the artwork inside with top artists like Jim Watt exhibiting his bribrant pink and yellow paintings, remnant of lemonade on a hot summer day. Jim Kempner Gallery also creates a webseries, the Madness of Art, which I am eager to check out. The gallery as a whole feels really fresh and makes you really want to come back to visit again.
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| Jim Watt |
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| Joshua Greenbaum in Jim Kempner Fine Art |
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