Contemporary Art: Gallery Shows On Lower East Side, New York, January 2015

(Drivebycuriosity) - If you want to explore cutting edge art you might go to New York´s trendy Lower East Side where dozens of galleries are competing against each other. Often they are not larger than a living room of a middle class home, but they compensate that with contemporary art shows that are full of surprises. If the place is too far away for you will find some tidbits of the current art shows in this post.

Above you can see pics from the gallery Betty Cuningham (15 Rivington Street, between the Bowery and Chrystie Street bettycuning). Their current show is called: Charles Garabedian, Mythical Realitites (through February 21, 2015). The series starts with "Family Affair" (acrylic on paper) and "Cassandra" (acrylic on paper).

According to Wikipedia the American artist, son of Armenian immigrants, is known for his imaginative paintings and drawings rich in references to Greek and Chinese symbolism (wikipedia). Anyway, I find his pictures strange and funny.



                                                             Worshiping The Fish

Marc Strauss (299 Grand Street marcstraus  )shows works by Entang Wiharso (through February 8, 2015), the first exhibiton of works by the Indonesian artist in New York.

I enjoyed the diversity of his works (paintings, sculptures, installations) and also the strangeness of his worlds.

The works above - made with aluminum, brass, resin, pigment, thread (coated in polyurethane) - remind me of Indonesian shadow puppetry.

The gallery has one room for a group  of dolls sitting around a big fish before a painting. Are they are worshipping the fish? Is the fish a god or do they just like him as food?




                                                     Strangely Named Materials

If you are more into abstract art you can find that too on Lower East Side. Above this paragraph you can see images from the show Lucy Kim: A Parrot in a Bell (through February 15, 2015) @ Lisa Cooley (107 Norfolk Street  lisa  ).

I enjoyed the colorful compositions and the use of strangely named materials. From above you can see: "The Flashing Pass" (Oil paint, acrylic paint, spray enamel, urethane resin, epox polyurethana glue, burlap on wood), "An Edge"; "Back to Basis: Blue, Red, Yello" & "Virtuosic" (all with the same materials).

You can spot more abstracts @ Jack Hanley (327 Broome Street jackhanley ). This gallery has a group exhibition called "Zabriski Point" (through February 8, 2015). Above some examples.




                                                               Beautiful Game

If the paintings above are not weird enough for you than you might consider to visit Shin Gallery ( 322 Grand Street shin). Accoding to their website they are "committed to exhibiting the work of young artists and international artists whose artwork has been rarely shown in the U.S. Central to Shin Gallery's mission is fostering and enhancing the careers and practices of international pioneering artists". Currently they display works by Kenny Rivero (through February 28, 2015).

The Lodge Gallery ( 131 Chrystie Street thelodge) had a group show called "Alterity". I liked especially the images of the beautiful game there.

Enjoy!