SOURCE: New York Magazine
TITLE: See Here Now
Three art-rich neighborhoods, 25 new galleries.
DATE: Oct 4, 2009
AUTHOR: Rachel Wolff
MAP BY: Jason Lee

Every gallery here has opened since the start of 2008, and all are exhibiting art that’s startling, affecting, or just plain fun. Since most (though not all) of them show emerging artists, the barriers to buying—financial and otherwise—are low. If you like what you see, you just may be able to take it home.

Downtown

Jonathan VanDyke at Scaramouche.
(Photo: Courtesy of Scaramouche, NY)
1. Scaramouche
53 Stanton St.; 212-228-2229
Stand back! This little gallery’s first fall opens with Jonathan VanDyke’s minimalist sculptures rigged to spurt out brightly colored paint (through November 1).

2. *Sue Scott
1 Rivington St., second fl. 212-358-8767
Scott’s sizable space, known for group shows and curatorial projects, is presenting an installation by Franklin Evans, who has transformed the gallery into a weird riff on his own studio (through October 24).

*= Jerry Saltz Recommends
3. Nicelle Beauchene
163 Eldridge St. 212-375-8043
Beauchene—who represents a nice mix of emerging and emerged artists—is showing Brooklynite Rachel Foullon’s wall-mounted sculptures of cedar and stained fabric, evoking the textures and details of life in rural America.

4. *Rachel Uffner
47 Orchard St.; 212-274-0064
Uffner’s September opening for Sara Greenberger Rafferty—who’s showing her murky manipulated portraits of seventies comedians through October 25—was packed to the rafters. A definite up-and-comer.


Saltz's Fall Gallery Tour
5. *Lisa Cooley Fine Art
34 Orchard St. 212-680-0564
Cooley represents a small crop of eclectic (and critically well-received) artists, and with the exception of a Texan and one West Coaster, all are local. Up now: a two-man show by painters Jon Pestoni and Zak Prekop (through October 18).

6. Collette Blanchard
26 Clinton St.; 917-639-3912
Blanchard made a splash last October with “Belle du Jour” (images of the female figure as imagined by E. V. Day, Mickalene Thomas, Shinique Smith, and others). Feminism is on the roster this fall, too, with Nancy Friedemann’s unexpectedly dramatic enamel paintings of lace and embroidery—a confluence of traditionally male and female media (through October 26).

7. Satori
164 Stanton St.; 646-896-1075
Like Blanchard, Satori is farther east than most local spaces, and both are worth the trek. This month, see one of the area’s few sculpture shows: Benjamin S. Jones’s wooden models inspired by not-so-stable urban architecture and planning (through October 18).

Lilla LoCurto at Sloan Fine Art.
(Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Sloan Fine Art Gallery)
8. Sloan Fine Art
128 Rivington St. 212-477-1140
Alix Sloan worked as a private art dealer in Los Angeles before opening here in 2008. In November, look for a series of anthropomorphic digital animations and prints by Lilla LoCurto and Bill Outcault, which look like high-tech medical illustrations run amok.

9. *X Initiative
548 W. 22nd St.; 917-697-4886
A one-year project in the old Dia space, this is a not-for-profit spearheaded by dealer Elizabeth Dee. Phase two of its three-part season is on view through the end of this month. In addition to seeing the three artists within the building, don’t miss the roof installation made of swimming-pool noodles.

10. *Horton & Liu
504 W. 22nd St.; 212-243-2663
This gallery specializes in painting and is located on the parlor floor of a Chelsea brownstone, giving it the pre-white-cube vibe of an earlier age. It debuted in September with a show of brightly colored, densely structured, faintly Cubist paintings by Michael Berryhill (through October 10).

11. *David Zwirner
524 W. 19th St.; 212-517-8677
Mega-dealer David Zwirner—who’s showing Chris Ofili and Raoul De Keyser across the street through October 24—will open his fourth Chelsea storefront early next year, expanding his retail space to an immense 40,000 square feet. The new building, a.k.a. Shigeru Ban’s Metal Shutter Houses, is almost an exhibit itself.

Joe Fig at Hendershot Gallery.
(Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Hendershot Gallery)
12. Hendershot Gallery
547 W. 27th St., Ste. 632 212-239-3085
James Hendershot represents commercial as well as fine-arts photographers, giving him a cash buffer in tricky times. He also reps a wide range of up-and-comers like Joe Fig, whose witty paintings and sculptures of artists’ studios—reproducing in micro-detail the worktable of, say, Ross Bleckner or Chuck Close—go on view October 15.

13. Slag
531 W. 25th St.; 212-967-9818
A passion project from Romanian-born collector Irina Protopopescu, Slag (named, symbolically, for the unwanted but recyclable by-product of ore smelting) opened last summer to showcase Eastern European artists. Right now, she’s hosting Romanian artist Mircea Suciu, whose bleak paintings look like fifties ads stripped of all their chipper optimism.


Kenji Hirata

The ocean is just beyond the rooftops at right, perhaps 200' away. Japanese houses are generally darker and block indoor-outdoor sightlines using screens, curtains, and wooden shutters.