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MoMA Goes to Chelsea

Chelsea is a neighborhood in Manhattan famous for many things, one of them being the gallery scene.  Chelsea is packed full of art galleries.  The new gallery season, just like the school year, usually begins in September.  Last Thursday night there were a ton of openings to celebrate the beginning of the new gallery season. 

MoMA (the Museum of Modern Art) invited members to a cocktail hour in Chelsea in order to kick off the openings.

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At first we thought we were in luck since there didn't seem to be anybody at the cocktail hour.  But then we hit the galleries.

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They were packed with people.  That's great, right?  Always good to know that art is appreciated and loved.  Difficult to manuever around and see things, however.

I didn't snap a ton of photos, but I thought I'd share a few photos from two of my favorite gallery shows from the evening.

The first was at the Marianne Boesky Gallery.  The artist is named Roxy Paine and the exhibit is called "Denuded Lens."

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The centerpiece of the exhibit was a life-sized diorama of an airport security checkpoint entirely carved from wood.

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In this shot from the side you can kind of see the forced perspective.  Things were skewed and narrowed, but worked -- visually -- from the front.  

The other gallery show I really liked was at the Mike Weiss Gallery.  The artist is Tom Fruin and the show is called "Color Study."

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I'm not quite sure what the swings had to do with the rest of the art...

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...but I definitely took the opportunity to jump on one of them!

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Who doesn't like a swing?!

Galleries are a great opportunity to see contemporary art for free!  In Chelsea they're so close together you can hit twenty galleries simply by strolling down the street.  If you take a peek at the New York City Gallery Directory, you'll see that Chelsea is so packed with galleries that each street has its own section in the directory!

These galleries were packed because it was opening night.  Usually when I visit galleries, they're quite empty.  The positive of a full gallery is that you can take photos and talk in a normal voice.  Often when I visit galleries I feel the need to whisper and feel a bit embarrassed about taking photos.  In fact, in some galleries photos are a total no-no.

As a side note, if you want an interesting read, check out this article about what happens when you break a sculpture in a gallery.

I hope you enjoyed coming along to the art galleries with me.  Do you ever visit art galleries?

Thanks for stopping by!

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