Salty Lemons

Hope Gangloff's "Land's End (Vic Masnyj)"
Chelsea Gallery District, NY from my 2011 archive

March 17, 2011

Gallery Run

The Chelsea Gallery District is home to several hundred galleries. I typically keep to 19th Street north to 26th Street between 10th Avenue and 11th Avenue. I head out to do a "gallery run" with one or two shows in mind, then weave back and forth, up and down the streets going into any gallery that catches my eye.

This time it was Hope Gangloff's show at the Susan Inglett Gallery that initially piqued my interest. There are no doubt amazing shows happening at any time of the year. However, I do find certain times more exciting (and inspirational) than others. This visit was one of those times. I caught Hope Gangloff's show on its final day so it is no longer on exhibit. The scale of her paintings are large enough to command your attention, but are small enough where you feel an intimacy to them. The subjects in the paintings have a bluish green tint to their skin and initially I thought these subjects were sad characters. After a longer look, I realized they were not. They are comfortable with themselves and what they are doing (or not doing). Gangloff's paintings are beautiful and personal, and I hope to see many more.

On the other hand, José Parlá's "Walls, Diaries, and Paintings" Exhibition is still up and will remain so through April 16, 2011. Parlá is certainly an artist I will be following. His works are richly saturated with color, calligraphic strokes flow freely throughout the plane, and some works are heavily layered with found papers. Each work is powerful in its elegance, and they are interesting to view from both afar and from close range. But the scale of his work left me wanting. His work has a strong relationship to Street Art, and I wanted to feel immersed by their scale. There is one larger than life installation in the corridor from the entry to the larger exhibition space in the back. This installation has the scale I desired for the other works but lacks the intensity and richness of those works. Go figure. Even so, José Parlá has a fan in me! If you have the chance, check out his show.

P.S. When in the neighborhood, I always try to pop into Printed Matter to check out my favorite zine and see what other interesting publications are on offer.

archives: Art