Luhring Augustine Gallery

10/16/2013

I dragged my boyfriend to Chelsea art galleries last weekend. He doesn't love going but I always convince him if I promise that we get to end the afternoon with sushi and happy hour at Itzakaya 10. His favorite show this time was a painting show by Josh Smith at Luhring Augustine. It's basically about 30 big paintings, maybe 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide, and they are all a single color. They are really brushy. I would have to brush up on my art history but I think Josh Smith is trying to subvert the monochrome because he is obviously paying tribute to Modernism but he is using all the wrong colors--green especially. Anyways, the gallery space is huge and gorgeous and I always get a little thrill when I see so many people working for art. They have a huge office space you can peak into where there are literally 15 people all at computers doing business in the name of art. That's amazing!

Anyways, I wan't obsessed with the Josh Smith show in particular, but I think this is a great gallery and I give it a 5 for making me think.

3/29/2011

I saw an exhibit of Popilliti Rists here that was touted by all the New York rags, including New York Magazine, as a must see.
The main room was a dark maze of hanging fabric screens that caught the video image of sheep moving through lush green hills.  An emerald green curled laser type graphic, a la 60s hypno trip, quivered about the room as a moving sound track played.  

The 2nd room featured a chandelier made of granny panties.

And that was the extent of the exhibit. Surely there must have been some drawings for sale in the back or sumpin.
Even the big thick promo card was cool - a pregnant woman in a hospital bed with neon orange sensor type jellies on her belly.  The show was called Heroes of Birth.

It was a really cool stop in the Chelsea gallery district, the coolest one in fact.
I guess I would've liked more than 3 pieces of art, which included the promo card.

Dear Popilliti :  I had a similiar vision long ago equating herds of sheep with fertility and female power.  What's up with that?  The mother sheep in Alice in wonderland, on the boat, who gives her an egg is another example.  Purrrr.

• 

  Granny panty chandelier from the Popilliti Rist show

  Granny panty chandelier from the Popilliti Rist show

2/27/2012

I went to see the Tom Friedman show at Luhring Augustine and it had lots of fun trompe l'oeil conceptual art, which means familiar-looking things were made out of the wrong materials--like a pile of apples with bites taken out of them were all wood, and a TV camera was also made of wood. One guy tried to look through it but of course he couldn't see anything through the wood!

Tom Friedman is a real popular artist. There were a lot of people in the gallery and they were having a good time. When I walked past the gallery's office and the front desk the people who worked there were talking and laughing. That was nice to see because usually people who work at galleries look so somber that you feel bad for them. Maybe it was Tom Friedman's art that put them in a good mood!

4/12/2008

We came here to see the Gregory Crewdson exhibit.  The gallery is a cool space.  Actually, it was really hot, which is why I deducted one star.  A theme today, apparently.  It's very bare and has a lofted, windowed ceiling.  

The photos are huge, staged productions (literally-- a docent compared them to a movie set), and work well in the white space.  I had read the photos are like Edward Hopper paintings, and I definitely got that sense.  These mundane scenes from aging suburbs in Western Mass are accented by stunning lighting (artificial) and pensive, often ethereal human figures, suspended in time momentarily.  

Some photos evoke a sense of loneliness, others desperation, others wonder.  Some figures look at something that is just out of the frame for the viewer and you are left to wonder what they're looking at... what just happened.. what's about to happen.  If you are a writer, I think that this will be especially inspiring.  Any one of these photos is a story waiting to be written.

Stunning photos of ordinary people and places by an extraordinary photographer.  This exhibit ends May 3rd, so go quick!  FREE!!

11/7/2007

great space. very open. we saw larry clark's "los angeles" exposition here. as much as i think he's a dirty pedophile, i did really like his photography. but none of that has anything to do with luhring augustine gallery.. i mean, what really can be said about rooms with white walls other than reviews of what currently hangs on the walls? well, the space, for one, i guess. the ceilings are high here, which is real nice. it forces that museum sort of spirit over the environment - the one that makes you feel like you have to whisper about everything.

no matter what's showing here, if you're walking down west 25th, this is definitely one spot to hit.

4/22/2007

This can be a fun fun place, all depends on the current exhibition - I highly recommend adding this spot to your sunday afternoon chelsea spring walk. the gallery is very accessible and the staff is super nice.