Lesley Heller Workshop

Last Friday night there were two LES gallery openings that seemed to brilliantly, if not purposefully, speak to one another. The first show, “Wells Street Gallery: Then and Now” at the Lesley Heller Workspace was full to the brim, where patrons of all ages were spilling out of the entrance and onto the sidewalk. The show was curated by Jason Andrew whose “curatorial projects bridge gaps left in art history,” and bridge he certainly did.

Continue reading Reflecting on Lesley Heller Workspace and JANE KIM/Thrust Projects Openings

Poor Baby Bree is back on stage this weekend, at Dixon Place. Called one of the most original cabaret acts to emerge in many years, Bree Benton stars for two nights only (tonight and tomorrow) in “I Am Going To Run Away.”  As Dixon Place puts it on their web site, “the wandering waif brings her pathetic plight back to the old Bowery area to a time where vaudeville was born and where she finds her biggest inspiration in depression-era tales and recitations… She channels a lost little girl singing woeful, obscure songs all while hugging a rag doll, her only earthly possession.” Click here for more information.

Based around the Narcomedusa, a deep sea jellyfish, Alejandro Cardenas‘ show of the same name, “NARCOMEDUSA,” will open tonight  at the James Fuentes LLC gallery ( 35 St. James Place). After tonight, James Fuentes LLC will re-open, as it has presently only been available through appointment only. The press release, gives a more in-depth description of  the Narcomedusa jellyfish: “found in the darkest depths of the Pacific Ocean.  Two thousand feet below sea level, it lives its entire life in total darkness, floating elegantly in pressures that could crush a human skull.  It feeds passively, as small animals stumble into its tentacles and are slowly digested in its translucent stomach.” Mr. Cardenas’ paintings end up resembling sea creatures caught in an explorer’s spotlights and are described as “looking for the image within the randomness.” Cardenas is also the art director at Proenza Schouler,  and the New York Times Style Magazine has recently created a profile on him as “an emerging tastemaker”  where he admits  his love of Swiss Apricot yogurt and the band My Bloody Valentine.