Four Artists in Concert
June 29, 2009
Filed under Fashion, Art, Culture, Reviews
I rode the entry express line, aka I skipped a whole bunch of people so that I didn’t have to wait with the masses and once I was inside I was served a magnificent feast of delectable art. It was a creative extravaganza at The Chelsea Art Museum for the opening night of The Four Artist in Concert. The exhibit was a fusion of emerging music ensembles and visual artist and featured the works of Morgan Russell, Mark Weiner, Fedele Spadafora and Stephen Folwkes and music by Konrad Kaczmarek, Red Hooker, Tristan Perich, Build, Now Ensemble and William Brittelle. The works of art emulated the themes of a concert series held by the Museum. Two of the artist were chosen by the curators of CAM and two were chosen by the people via a voting system hosted by the art networking site artlog.com.
Excited by the premise of the Four Artist presentaion, I was however pleasantly surprised to see that another exhibition was being held titled Iran Inside Out. It was a compilation of 56 Iranian artist whose point of views touched on all aspects of life Iran. There is only one word that can be used to describe it, PHENOMENAL!!! And it couldn’t have been a more socially current exposition.
Due to the visual overload, I didn’t really know where to begin but finally stumbled upon the Project Room for New Media that housed the Four Artists. It was a room dressed in black paint that gave me the feeling of Alice traveling down the Rabbit Hole. My attention was first drawn to Russell’s paintings. But while they possessed a great sense of movement and color they did not captivate me for long. I was however very intrigued by Weiners images which were done in Sumei ink with thin white pen strokes in no particular pattern that seemed to stand alone, almost as though they were floating off of the wall. Weiner expressed that the white was a total last minute decision and I think it served him well. There were also booklets with Rorschace-esque images that embarrassingly enough made me think of the comic The Watchmen…I’m a big kid I know.
Ward’s You Can’t Go Home Again – Shrine to the Good Old Days definitely stood out, but I must admit I didn’t get it. It was a cluster of wooden sculptures that reminded me of skyscrapers. And maybe this is primarily due to my primative view of art, but I couldn’t help but think of it as a fancy looking Jenga set.
My absolute favorite piece and the hands down winner in my opinion was Fedele’s Midtown where two bright orange rain coats jumped off the canvas amongst the darkness of a gloomy day. The artist explained that he was inspired by his love of rainy days and the reflective quality of the wet city streets. From now on whenever the showers fall over NYC, I will think of that painting and it will make the day seem a bit sunnier, however cheesy that may sound.
I continued to explore what felt like an art maze, with surprises at every turn. Although the contemporary art on the 3rd floor was kind of a bore. But the infectious good energy of the crowd made no one to want to leave, other than the security. I guess they weren’t being paid overtime. I have to say that the Chelsea Art Museum definitly knows how to throw a party. What a night!!
-Jenaya
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