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Newbury Street is Right Over There
I might as well make the most of this downtime before the inevitable crunch. I hit a bunch of galleries in lieu of lunch.
Martin Lawrence Galleries:
http://martinlawrence.com/
Aha! Looking at the web page explains it all. It's a chain. This isn't a gallery, it's a store!
Not. The. Same. Thing.
The salesperson who greeted me followed me throughout the Store. Most of the stuff is "limited edition prints". I now understand why Erte was not featured in the recent MFA exhibit. His work has become too commodified. The MFA is still trying to recover from all the accusations that resulted after the Guitar exhibit. (Personally, I liked the guitar exhibit. I also understand why the ArtFags felt it was a degrading level of marketing.)
In Vegas, I visited [Procyon] at her gallery/store. Put the potential buyers in a windowless room with a particular piece, slowly dim the lights, discussing how the highlights stay at such levels of dimness. As if the value of art was measured by such things! There's so much art out there, that if you need to dim the lights to be captivated, Don't Buy It! Ugh.
Some of the artists are good. There was an original sketch by Warhol, who probably isn't whirling in his urn about being a commodity, as that was his life goal.
I hope Philippe Bertho is ok with such a fate, and that it doesn't keep his work out of future MFA shows.
Gallery Naga: Harriet Casdin-Silver's Holograms, Reese Inman's Algorithm Map Series
http://www.gallerynaga.com/
The holograms felt like I was looking at family photos of someone attending Hogwart's. The people move, the kids fidget. It was neat. A hologram image of an older woman has be distressed and damaged, making it almost look like a found hologram, of the faerie tale crone who helps the protagonists, once they figure out how to free her from the image.
The algorithms were precise. It was hard not to wonder if they depicted a decipherable code, or how I could go about solving them to get to the next level of puzzles.
Galerie D'Orsay: Dali etchings
http://www.galerie-dorsay.com/
This gallery is also a store, but far less annoying. You had to ring the bell to get in, so I guess they figure you're either a buyer or a genuine, albeit poor, art lover.
Oooooh. Dali. Not the pieces seen ad nauseum in assorted college dorm rooms that make Artfags "Sick and Tired of Dali". But sketches. Some were overtthefts tributes to Picasso's sketches, most showed amazing skill with figures, and... most of the ones depicting female nudes, uh, from behind, were sold. Dali certainly draws a nice Butt.
There were some sculptures in the store by less famous artists, which show abstracted female figures that were exceedingly pear-shaped. Like they were trying too hard to be tribal, and make up for the enormous breasts of the typical Fantasy heroine.
Mercury Gallery: American Art
http://www.mercurygallery.com/
This second floor gallery required finding and using a very small elevator. The admininstrator felt no need to hard sell, other than offer me the info sheet, which also included the price list. Daniel Robinson's work was generally great, when it featured something a little more... visually interesting? natural? than silos in the sunset. I particularly liked the scarecrow. Miranda Thomas' pottery was excellent. My favorite Phillip Jones photo, of the Zakim from Monument Square, doesn't not apppear to be on the web site.
The space used to house a Rolls Royce dealership. The back room has (decorative) fan vaults.
The Diesel does currently have a delicious Photorealist exhibition (along with a scrapbook show of the construction of the new expansion), which I think is mostly that guy from Mad Oyster. But I won't write a review until I can at least provide a name. :)
Martin Lawrence Galleries:
http://martinlawrence.com/
Aha! Looking at the web page explains it all. It's a chain. This isn't a gallery, it's a store!
Not. The. Same. Thing.
The salesperson who greeted me followed me throughout the Store. Most of the stuff is "limited edition prints". I now understand why Erte was not featured in the recent MFA exhibit. His work has become too commodified. The MFA is still trying to recover from all the accusations that resulted after the Guitar exhibit. (Personally, I liked the guitar exhibit. I also understand why the ArtFags felt it was a degrading level of marketing.)
In Vegas, I visited [Procyon] at her gallery/store. Put the potential buyers in a windowless room with a particular piece, slowly dim the lights, discussing how the highlights stay at such levels of dimness. As if the value of art was measured by such things! There's so much art out there, that if you need to dim the lights to be captivated, Don't Buy It! Ugh.
Some of the artists are good. There was an original sketch by Warhol, who probably isn't whirling in his urn about being a commodity, as that was his life goal.
I hope Philippe Bertho is ok with such a fate, and that it doesn't keep his work out of future MFA shows.
Gallery Naga: Harriet Casdin-Silver's Holograms, Reese Inman's Algorithm Map Series
http://www.gallerynaga.com/
The holograms felt like I was looking at family photos of someone attending Hogwart's. The people move, the kids fidget. It was neat. A hologram image of an older woman has be distressed and damaged, making it almost look like a found hologram, of the faerie tale crone who helps the protagonists, once they figure out how to free her from the image.
The algorithms were precise. It was hard not to wonder if they depicted a decipherable code, or how I could go about solving them to get to the next level of puzzles.
Galerie D'Orsay: Dali etchings
http://www.galerie-dorsay.com/
This gallery is also a store, but far less annoying. You had to ring the bell to get in, so I guess they figure you're either a buyer or a genuine, albeit poor, art lover.
Oooooh. Dali. Not the pieces seen ad nauseum in assorted college dorm rooms that make Artfags "Sick and Tired of Dali". But sketches. Some were overt
There were some sculptures in the store by less famous artists, which show abstracted female figures that were exceedingly pear-shaped. Like they were trying too hard to be tribal, and make up for the enormous breasts of the typical Fantasy heroine.
Mercury Gallery: American Art
http://www.mercurygallery.com/
This second floor gallery required finding and using a very small elevator. The admininstrator felt no need to hard sell, other than offer me the info sheet, which also included the price list. Daniel Robinson's work was generally great, when it featured something a little more... visually interesting? natural? than silos in the sunset. I particularly liked the scarecrow. Miranda Thomas' pottery was excellent. My favorite Phillip Jones photo, of the Zakim from Monument Square, doesn't not apppear to be on the web site.
The space used to house a Rolls Royce dealership. The back room has (decorative) fan vaults.
The Diesel does currently have a delicious Photorealist exhibition (along with a scrapbook show of the construction of the new expansion), which I think is mostly that guy from Mad Oyster. But I won't write a review until I can at least provide a name. :)