A trip to the Chelsea Galleries reveals the diversity of art found in New York City and its ability to express new and unique ideas. The Simone Leigh exhibition at the Luhring Augustine gallery and Frank Stella’s Selected Prints from the Moby Dick Seriesfeatured at the Anders Wahlstedt Fine Art Gallery are prime examples of how the city’s art galleries showcase vastly different art forms, each with their own messages and inspirations. Leigh’s exhibit features a variety of sculptures that focus on femininity while Stella’s showcases large prints from a series inspired by a literary work. Although very different, I found that both galleries demonstrated the great amount of thought and effort that goes into creating an exhibit and how powerful the voice of an artist could speak through his/her work.
Viewing Simone Leigh’s exhibition of ceramic sculptures was my very first art gallery experience. I found that the plain, white walls helped focus my attention on each individual sculpture and how the pieces were arranged throughout the gallery. I never realized how important a simplistic background is to visualizing artwork. The exhibition showcased the feminine form, ranging from large sculptures of women with full straw skirts to smaller figures which only featured the head. I thought that the most attention-grabbing feature of the sculptures was that none of them had eyes. Each sculpture had very few facial features, only showing the nose and mouth of the face. I thought this was a very interesting choice because it emphasized the features that were present and how they are representative of African-American women rather than the European figures which are more commonly found in art. I thought that the use of neutral colors and simplistic materials such as straw emphasized that ordinary women can also be represented through art. We commonly associate paintings and sculptures with wealthy and famous people. However, Leigh’s sculptures show that anyone could be represented through art as her work illustrates the general natural beauty of African-American females rather than focusing on individuals.
The exhibit of Frank Stella’s work demonstrated a different kind of art gallery. This exhibit encompassed only one room and featured prints instead of sculptures. All the prints were part of a series that was inspired by the novel Moby Dick and consisted of individual shapes, patterns, and colors that were crafted together to create impressive visuals. Glancing closer at some of the prints, I could see how come of the shapes mimicked waves and anchors which revealed the inspiration behind the artwork. It was very interesting to see how an artist can be inspired by a piece literature and use this to create something new and unique. I was also amazed to see how much work goes into making these prints. I was surprised to learn that an entire team of people and a lengthy span of time is required to create the artwork and that it is not only done by the artist himself. This exhibition really opened my eyes to how the inspiration for art can come from anything and the amount of time and effort that goes into creating this art is much greater than we initially perceive.
These two art exhibits were very different in both the style of the art and how the art was presented, but both showed how artists’ voices and their individual life experiences and inspirations are reflected through their work. The differences of these two art galleries really show how diverse the art of New York City is and how many different backgrounds and voices art represents.
