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!

Economy: Why Gasoline Is Still Expensive

(Drivebycuriosity) - There is a lot ado about the falling oil prices. And if we believe the media energy is cheap now. Yes, the price for oil (Brent Crude) dropped almost 60% since last summer. But the average price at the US pumps fell just 39% (bespoke). And the New York Times reports that gas is, "still not as cheap as It used to be" (nytimes). From 1986 until 2000 the gas price fluctuated below $2.

I think there are at least 4 reasons for the stubbornly expensive gas:

1. The oil price is represented by futures on oil - like the future for Brent Crude. These are contracts to deliver oil in the future and are traded on financial markets. The price for physical unprocessed - crude - oil (spot price) maybe be close to the price of the representing future, but it needs time to transport crude oil to the refineries where it gets processed into gasoline and other oil products. More time is needed to transport the gasoline to the gas stations all over the nation.

2. There is a kind of ratchet effect. Refineries and gas station owners (often parts of vertical integrated oil companies) are happy to hike their prices when the market price goes up. But they are reluctant to reduce prices (like every producer) because they enjoy the higher profit margins. Over time competition usually forces them to adapt their prices, but that could need months.

3. In the winter season, when there is less demand, many refineries are temporary shut down for maintenance. This reduces temporary the supply of gasoline (even if the supply of crude oil rises). The temporary shrinking supply can cause price hikes. Yesterday for example the US average gasoline price rose - even just from from $2.033 up to $2.038 (bespoke).

4. The Obama administration is slowing the fall of the gasoline price, says Bloomberg (bloomberg). Refineries are forced by law to mix gasoline with ethanol. The price of this biofuel fell less than the oil price because the cost of corn, used to make the biofuel, has shrunk less than the market price for oil.

I believe that the distance between oil and gasoline should shrink in the coming months because the mentioned effects should wear out. Therefore I expect lower gas prices even if oil doesn´t get cheaper.

New York City: The Night Some Snowflakes Shut Manhattan Down

(Drivebycuriosity) - New York never sleeps? Last night was an exception. The city got shut down, thanks to some snowflakes.

The media had advertised a blizzard of historical dimensions. According to the weather reports the storm Juno, which was approaching from southwest, should mingle with another depression over the Atlantic and would create a monster winter storm.

Yesterday Whole Foods and other groceries got very long lines because people were stocking up their food supplies before the announced mega-storm. New York´s Governor Cuomo had declared a State of Emergency. After 11 pm the subways stopped running and all non-emergency traffic got banned from city roads. Around midnight the usually busy streets of Manhattan were empty.



                                                                State Of Emergency

In the morning we found just around 5 just inches (10 cm) of snow, instead of the advertised 20 inches and more. Around 9am the subways resumed running. Apparently the weather report had given false alarm - as they often do.

Around 8am the city looked winterly and charming as it often does in winter. There was little traffic, but many pedestrian ways were already cleared. Many people were doing heavy exercise by shuffling the snow.

It is good to be prepared and to be on alert. But, the event was  another example for the general scare mongering and how media & authorities are blowing everything up to historical dimensions - Lol. It is remarkable that the alarm about the coming global warming catastrophe comes from the same people

Here´s a collection of pictures a took from the "historical storm" in Manhattan`s Lower East Side beginning yesterday 3pm until today 8.30 am.


Enjoy.

Culture: Bartholomeus Spranger - Splendor and Eroticism in Imperial Prague @ Metropolitan Museum Of Art, New York

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - I am a connoisseur of contemporary art, but I also enjoy the old masters. Some of them defined the way we see the world around us and influenced generations of artists. Bartholomeus Spranger was a pioneer of visual art. The painter, who lived from 1546 till 1611, was born in Belgium but made his living mostly in Prague where he served a cardinal, a pope, and two Holy Roman Emperors. Spranger was one of the most prominent artists at the court of emperor Rudolf II in Prague and the most significant Northern Mannerist artist of his generation (wikipedia).

Last week I visited the show "Bartholomeus Spranger: Splendor and Eroticism in Imperial Prague" @ New York`s gigantic Metropolitan Museum of Art (the exhibition ends on February 1 2015 metmuseum). I was impressed how strongly the artist used colors, how delicate he displayed the features and how he played with light & shadows.

Apparently Spranger had an eye for women and he enjoyed sex. During my visit I overheard a guide talking about the "dominance of the female". The artist camouflaged his steamy illustrations with classical stories and often used quotes of the bible. It is really fun to observe how the artist played with his hyper-religious and bigot environment by using ridiculous religious titles for his highly erotical paintings. Maybe his employers, including popes, cardinals and emperors, shared secretly his humor and they might have enjoyed the mimikry.



                     Dominance Of The Female

Often his paintings tell a little story which was mostly a fake to hide the real intentions. On the top of this post you can see "Venus and Mercury", followed by a detail of "The Blindfolding Of Cupid" and "Hercules and Omphale". The next paintings are "Venus and Adonis" and "Jupiter and Antiope".

Above this paragraph you can see another quote of old Greek legends: A detail of  "Competition between Apollo and Pan".

The face above this paragraph belongs to "The Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist". I chose this segment because it shows the mastership of Spranger. Below follow a detail of "The mystic marriage of Saint Catherine with Saint John The Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist" (sic) and "Vanitas".

 Above this paragraph you can see some examples of Spranger`s drawings.


Enjoy.