By Wendy
When we find a contemporary artist whose work we love, it’s pretty exciting. We want to get to know the artist’s history and try to see everything they’re making now. Here in New York during Armory week, it’s like looking for faces of friends in a huge crowd.
The map does not really exist. We’re relying on word of mouth and Google. So far, the quest has taken us to the headquarters of a major advertising agency, an Upper East Side penthouse, Pier 94 of the Armory Show, the Waterfront Tunnel event space in Chelsea and many galleries and art museums.
We found plenty of artists whose work is part of the Nasher Museum’s upcoming exhibition “Building the Contemporary Collection: Five Years of Acquisitions,” opening next week (although the opening event is March 16.) “Building the Contemporary Collection,” in celebration of the museum’s fifth anniversary, presents the most important contemporary works acquired since its founding in 2005. The exhibition is curated by Trevor Schoonmaker, Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Curator of Contemporary Art.
At the Armory Show, we found William Cordova, Barkley L. Hendricks, Christian Marclay, Hank Willis Thomas, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. We ran into the artist Glenn Ligon himself.
Still processing David Hammons’s solo show of all new work at L&M Arts, on East 78th St.
Went three times to Dario Robleto’s solo show, “The Minor Chords are Ours” at D’Amelio Terras.
Found works by Carolee Schneemann and Jeff Whetstone at Moving Image, an independent fair in Chelsea.
We actually needed an appointment at Ogilvy & Mather’s New York headquarters to see “The February Show,” a group show in celebration of Black History Month. That show, spread across six floors until June, includes work by Xaviera Simmons and Hank Willis Thomas. Hank’s work was also part of “Involuntary,” a group show at Ford Project in an Upper West Side penthouse.
We ventured to the Bronx Museum of the Arts to see “Stargazers: Elizabeth Catlett in Conversation with 21 Contemporary Artists,” curated by Isolde Brielmaier. The show includes work by Mickalene Thomas, Hank Willis Thomas and Xaviera Simmons.
Day Five … and we’re not finished!
IMAGE: Night view of Chelsea from the High Line. Photo by Wendy Hower Livingston.
