Freedom Tower

It’s nice to finally see construction of the Freedom Tower and the World Trade Center moving forward. Ever since post-911 I’ve been obsessed with its reconstruction. I often drive to lower Manhattan from Brooklyn via the West Side Highway to sell furniture. Sometimes I take pictures of the site when I’m stopped at a red light. I am amazed at how long it took to even start construction. It’s such a bittersweet feeling when I drive by, I think of all the stories and all the tragedies that occurred. This city is full of wonderful sights, I look forward to having this added to the collection. Anyway, that’s it for now.

Mustang or BMW?

His Mustang?...

Last fall I was driving around Columbia County in Upstate New York, and I came across this gas station on Rte. 82 with vintage cars for sale. A client of mine said he was looking for a red Mustang convertible. Boom! There it was. I had suddenly come across someone else’s mid-life wish. Not knowing exactly how serious he was, I thought, is he going to go for it? I took a few pictures for him, but he never followed through. As the old saying goes, you snooze, you lose.

...Or my BMW, bitches?!

Personally, if I came across my vintage dream car, I would have sealed the deal. But my car wouldn’t be a Mustang. It would be a BMW like this sweet 1967 Bavaria!

Warm Your Winter Guests with Freshness and Style (and Booze)

From my assistant, Blaise:

Recently, I invited a few friends over for dinner on what turned out to be one of the most frigid nights of the month thus far. They bundled up and braved the cold, trudging to my place knowing that a free home cooked meal was waiting for them. To help everyone feel nice and toasty I decided to make a special after-dinner apéritif. It’s called a Hot Killer, and it is so easy to make and so delicious. Here’s how:

All you need. Plus a juicer. And some booze.

All you need is a juicer, lemon, fresh ginger, and a bunch of green apples. About 4-5 green apples will fill an 8-10 ounce glass or mug, but don’t hold me to this because I’m really bad at measurements. There were 4 of us and I bought 16 organic green apples and that was enough for one Hot Killer per person.

1. Peel a big hunk of ginger (bigger than what’s shown here, especially if you like a bit more of a warm kick) and cut up all of the apples, leaving them unpeeled.

Slice it all up.

2. Shove the apples and the ginger in the juicer. After everything is juiced, squeeze one whole lemon into the mix.

3. Heat it up on low to medium, stirring occasionally. When it’s boiled it’s basically done…

This looks weird, I know, but trust me.

4.  …Now add a shot of whiskey. (Or two, depending on what you’re going for.) You can also add a drop of natural sweetener like Agave syrup orhoney, or top it off with a few cloves. (In my household, as you can tell from the photo below, we tend to use up the whiskey faster than the honeyor the Agave.) Also, if you want to get fancy and go for a nice presentation, add an apple slice to the side of the glass.

Three optional ingredients. But you'll want something sweet like the agave or the honey. Clearly, we enjoy the bourbon.

With a warm, rich spice and the perfect blend of sweet and tart, Hot Killers are so rejuvenating and perfect for winter, your guests won’t care how they look (did I mention they’re green?) …especially when they’ve had a few rounds.

PS. Clean up’s no fun, but it’s worth it. Maybe in gratitude for your generous hospitality, your guests will do the dishes.

Surf's Up

Last Thursday evening I went to the Faculty Visual Arts Exhibition at The Packer Collegiate Institute from where my firstborn, Axel, is graduating from this June. (So proud.) Two of the faculty members in the show are Axel’s teachers this semester — you guys better give him A’s (just kidding… not really) — and two of them are artists I happen to represent: Mike Miller and Risa Glickman.

Michael Miller

Miller is currently working on a project for the MTA at the Beach 90 Station in Far Rockaway, New York, an area known for its surfing. Five of his gem like paintings have been transformed into faceted glass and will be installed as windows at Beach 90 sometime in the late summer of 2011. Miller’s psychedelic images of surfing and waves is a perfect match for this project, not to mention he is an avid surfer. Go figure!

Glickman is another one of my artists whose landscape drawings have been evolving over the years into a more painterly, looser feel. The introduction of color may have been what freed her. She is looking forward to attending a drawing workshop which she organized next week at Packer.

Ken Rush

I also got a chance to meet and speak with Ken Rush to whom I introduced myself as Axel’s mom. We immediately went to look at his work and I discovered a print that I fell in love with — a beautiful “Solarplate” etching. The process was explained to me but naturally I can’t remember it exactly. It’s basically like intaglio etching without the acid, and with ultraviolet light. (I hope I didn’t butcher that.) Rush said he teaches the process to his students. I wish I could sit in. It sounds so romantic.

If you want to go see this show it’s at The Carol Shen Gallery at Packer Collegiate, 170 Joralemon Street in Brooklyn. The hours are Monday – Friday, 8am – 4pm. The show is up through April 8th.

Making it Out Alive: All in a Day's Work

Sometimes I just can’t believe the journey I go on just to get some furniture refinished. I’ve been to several industrial parks in this city before (all business trips, of course) like the ones in East Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Long Island City and somewhere in The Bronx. But these days, about twice a week, I find myself in Sunset Park at the Brooklyn Army Terminal paying a visit to my refinisher and upholsterer.

When I’m driving south down 1st Avenue from 39th Street to 58th Street towards the entrance of the terminal it’s like I’m trapped in a Mad Max movie. No driving rules apply on that 20 block stretch. Not only is the surface of the street a minefield of potholes, train tracks, and cobblestones mixed with black top, but semi’s are always parked along the streets–on the wrong side. Some truck drivers are trying to back up into loading docks with only 2″ clearance. There is usually a sanitation truck convention at all times with vehicles lined up for 3 blocks waiting to take off. As my picker friend Frank Daley would say, “Every time I go down there I lose a year off of my life. It’s a war zone!”

One day when I finally arrived at the gate of the Army Terminal to drop off a Knoll credenza I met a new challenge: a battle with a freight train. Was I really in New York City? Were my other women friends having this same type of encounter getting to work? Was anyone ever going to believe this?

Good thing I had my  trusty camera with me that day. Watch the video. You can’t make this shit up.

My Favorite Living Room

I often find myself sipping white wine and eating shrimp cocktail in the living room of my good friends Susan and Rich Lobel of Brooklyn Heights. It is one of my favorite places. Not only are the Lobels (and their two very charming and talented children) so hospitable but they occupy three stories of a brownstone that was masterfully renovated and designed by architect Brendan Coburn and Joseph Smith of Coburn Architecture in 2005.

Both Susan and Rich have a great eye for furniture and art. One evening when I invited myself over once again–sipping on vodka this time–I discovered a new painting adorning the wall above their piano. I knew it had to be something special. I felt even more excited than when I’ve scored at a flea market or at an auction.

Sure enough, the painting which is plastic and oil on canvas, was an original mid-century piece done in 1959 by Herbert Ferber. Ferber is known for his sculpture but was also a serious painter. His work was part of the early Abstract Expressionist movement in post World War II America and was exhibited alongside the work of de Kooning and Pollock, among others.

The piece was purchased by Susan’s mother (who still goes antiquing at Brimfield every year, you go girl!) from Knoedler Gallery in New York. When Susan’s mom recently moved to a smaller place the painting went to Susan and Rich.

So now my favorite place is even more special. It’s like having your own private museum without paying the price of admission.

PS. They have two of Ferber’s outdoor sculptures on their property in Woodstock, New York. Guess who’s coming to visit this summer!

Modernism in Brooklyn's Public Housing

From my assistant, Blaise:

Ilya Bolotowsky's first study for the Williamsburg houses mural, 1936.
Photo: www.artnet.com

Photo: www.nyc-architecture.com

I’ve walked by this corner several times in Williamsburg. It’s hard not to notice this striking structure — so different from neighboring buildings — but I never knew its significance until Jim Clark, one of the artists represented by Corinne Robbins Art & Design tipped us off on the history.

The term housing project often brings to mind disregarded, depressing, style-less concrete structures that are simultaneously sprawling and confining. But in 1936 William Lescaze, a Swiss-born modernist (who later taught industrial design at Pratt Institute), teamed up with Empire State Building architects and, in collaboration with the Federal Public Works Administration and the newly formed New York City Housing Authority, embarked on creating the Williamsburg Houses. It was the first instance not only of modernism in American low-income housing, but a demonstration of innovation and care devoted to a gravely overlooked and underserved population. The result was a revolutionary 12.8 million dollar design bringing European aesthetics and International Style architecture to Brooklyn and the U.S. at large.

The Williamsburg Houses is a 4-story, 1,622-apartment complex covering 23 acres that transformed 12 extremely bleak slum blocks bordered by Bushwick Avenue and Leonard, Maujer, and Scholes Streets. The buildings which house roughly 6,000 people are angled at 15 degrees to the grid to allow for more sunlight in the homes and breezes through the courtyards. The housing is adorned with tan brick and blue tiles and stainless steel canopies over the doorways, and boasts landscaped parks, playgrounds, commercial storefronts, a community center, and a junior high school. The New Deal-era Federal Art Project also integrated art into the collaboration and commissioned two murals, one by Francis Criss who created a marouflage of the L train, and the other an abstract work by Ilya Bolotowsky.

By the 1960s the Williamsburg Houses were in steady decline. While hailed by many critics, it was also criticized for its shoddy construction and problematic design mechanics. In the mid-1990s extensive revivification began at the behest of NYCHA.

The restoration project was deemed “the best public housing project ever built in New York” where, reportedly, the quality of living has drastically improved. By 1993, the Williamsburg Houses were designated a city landmark.

Historic aerial view. Credit: www.nyc-architecture.com

Pick 6 Review

By Piri Halasz, June 16, 2010, TWO EXTREMES; THREE OTHER PRETTY SHOWS

...We have mdh fine arts, a pocket-sized gallery located at 233 West 19th Street, down the block from where Marlborough Chelsea used to be. 

Its proprietor, Michael Henry, doesn’t trouble himself with explications. His modest announcement for “Pick 6,” an exhibition offered in conjunction with the gallerist Corinne Robbins, says only that it is “A collaborative show featuring the work of Jeffrey Bye, James O. Clark, Risa Glickman, Michael Henry, Michael Miller, Gabriella Mlynarczyk, John-Paul Philippe, Rachel Press, Corinne Robbins, Donna Senger, Jimmy Shack and Ann Walsh” (through June 19, though individual pieces may remain on view longer). 

Actually, after the invite was printed, the artist Kenneth Hayden came in with his provocative little paintings of birds, and Henry was so taken with them that he omitted his own work from the show in order to include Hayden’s. 

No work in this show appears to rely on “chance,” or be more significant for its manner of creation than its results. On the contrary, it is all straightforward and well-crafted painting, sculpture, works on paper and ceramics (with materials & methods ranging from very traditional to very up-to-date, and all created within the past few years). No artwork is large; everything is small (though needless to say, there are degrees of smallness). 

I particularly liked Bye’s sensitive oil painting entitled “FDR,” with its aerial view of small cars trundling alongside the East River and skyscrapers in the background, ceramic bowls by Press, ceramic cubes by Shack, mixed-media constructions by Clark, and the four handsome & good-sized tree studies by Glickman, made with pastel, acrylic, and charcoal on paper. 

However, the star of the show is Walsh, whose brightly colored blocks & free-standing panels, made of vinyl and cast acrylic, are among the smallest works on view, but stand out for their especial verve and vigor. The display in the window facing the street is a still life that easily surpasses anything by Morandi and approaches Cézanne in perfection — a particularly delightful combination of shapes, colors & textures. A white block stands next to a slender vase of white gladioli on their pale green stalks. Atop the white block stands Walsh’s “Button,” a rectilinear, three-dimensional shape measuring only 8” x 7” x 5.5” and combining a mostly-electric-blue surface with one upper corner of the hottest pink in town.

Pick 6 Opening

The PICK 6 opening at mdh fine arts was well attended with a nice flow of people during the 2-hour reception. For those of you who couldn’t make it here are some images from the show.

John-Paul Phillipe

Ann Walsh with Corinne Robbins and Risa Glickman, Michael Miller, and James O. Clark in background

Ann Walsh

Michael Miller

Michael Henry with James O. Clark (L) and Corinne Robbins (R)

Corinne Robbins on wall left,  Risa Glickman on wall right

Risa Glickman

James O. Clark

PINTAMANUEL

PINTAMANUEL posted a great article about the current Jackie Lipton

show at the Corinne Robbins Gallery:

 

Corinne Robbins, whose space has functioned, for some 5 years, as a furniture showroom, has opened her first fine art exhibition with the ambitious and energetic paintings of Jackie Lipton.  Ms. Lipton works in oil paint, cold wax and alkyd media.  Her press release speaks about her commitment to process, which is evident in her canvases.  It also speaks of her as an abstract cityscape painter.  This may be less evident, but an abstract painter residing in New York City, as she does, may be an abstract cityscape painter, not literally, but psychologically.

There’s nothing wrong with a little straight ahead abstract expressionism and Jackie Lipton gives it to you.  The notion that pictures made in certain genres already noted in the art history books are passé carry no weight here.  The painter Nell Blaine, for example, made great, very energetic fauvist paintings this side of World War II.  She’s due much recognition from those who like their paintings to demonstrate such energy.  Ms. Lipton’s paintings, too, are generally intense, and give pleasure to those who rock to that aesthetic.

“Because the Night,” 2005, makes the most of its under layers.  Its bumps and ridges achieve a uniform, atmospheric crudeness.  If you could work yourself up you could call it ugly.  If the surface were a sound it would possess the chronic raspyness heard in Bob Dylan’s late recordings.  It evokes a dusty, pocked and neglected plaster wall (abstract cityscape, anyone?)  Its narrow palette, the consistency of its scratchy brushwork, and the singularity of its appearance among Jackie Lipton’s work, make for a savory picture viewing experience.

That painting, measuring 52” X 64”, along with others in that size range, among them “Whirl Away,” and “Ghost Dance,” show Ms. Lipton is comfortable working on a large scale.  In them, she effects a bold gesture that carries at a distance.  Forcefully executed statements on this scale say, “monumental.”  When I stand before these I experience the artist’s bravery in the exploration of pictorial issues.

Given works disappoint me, though such works are in the minority.  “Christopher,” 2007, one of the large ones, is one such picture.  For me, the relentless and over saturated yellow that runs throughout this surface gives the other colors, all of which look wan, by comparison, “no chance to talk.”  Color is always a matter of relationship, regardless of the content.  For that yellow’s expressiveness to bloom it might have to congregate with other, equally strident colors, on some other canvas.  But, again, as I looked around the show, I found much to enjoy.

Some of Jackie Lipton’s notable smaller statements include “Breath to Breath Series #6, 2007, with the colors and texture of watermelon pulp, which may cause you to salivate in anticipation of a tasty summer treat.  Also, “Up There Down There #11, 2006, with it’s subtle and alluring tonality.  Looking at this one you may forget, momentarily, that Ms. Lipton is adept at play with more flamboyant colors.

Corinne Robbins is off to an exciting beginning with her fine art exhibitions.  We should also expect many more ambitious and satisfying statements from Jackie Lipton.  The current show continues to May 17, 2009.