During the trip to the High Line, my group and I were assigned to visit the art galleries on the 25th street of the Chelsea area. I’ve been to the High Line and Hudson Yards before so that was not new to me, but I never visited the art galleries in Chelsea before so this was a very interesting experience. Two galleries caught my attention because of their different interactions between the artworks and the environment of the art galleries. 

The first gallery my group and I went to was the Amsterdam Whitney Gallery inside this building that also hosted other galleries. What was fascinating was that inside the gallery different sections had dramatically different styles of artworks, making it look like the gallery had galleries inside of it. The gallery’s environment was considered white cube but the interactions weren’t just between the artworks and the surrounding wall. Inside the Amsterdam Whitney, there was antique furniture in every section of the gallery. There would be antique chairs and tables in every corner of the gallery, luring us to sit on one of them. In some way, these antiques also provided a contrast to the artworks the gallery offered.

 

As we entered the gallery, the paintings to the left and right were abstract paintings by an artist called Francesca Scesa. His style focused on the color and shape between strings and the vibrant colors of his paintings were brought out by the white walls and the white lights. Another interesting painting of his was his self-portrait on the top of the wall. The feature that captured my interest was that the painting was tilted and it reminded me of the discussion we had on the High Line before the class separated when we discussed why artworks located on the top are tilted since the angle of our view would be distorted if the painting was upright. Hence, the installers of the gallery used their space very efficiently to bring out the colors of their artworks and also minimizing the space used for all these artworks. I still wonder about the meaning behind the furniture if it is also supposed to offer a contrast to the abstract artworks or complement them.

     

The second gallery my group and I visited was called, Gallery Henoch, and it was by far the best gallery on the street. Once we walked in, we took a small flight of stairs that lead us to the entrance of the gallery and we were struck with this cozy vibe. The gallery was still standard white-cube but the ceiling was made of bricks instead of the regular white surface. Another difference is the lighting of the gallery because Gallery Henoch has orange, dimmer lights compared to the Amsterdam Whitney’s LED bright lights. My eyes were less-strained in the orange lighted environment and I felt more mellow while studying the artworks. My favorite artwork was a painting called “Allure” by Alexandra Averbach. It was a realistic painting of flowers and grapes in a big glass goblet. I personally like nature and any natural things found in nature. The dim-lights and brick ceiling matched the artwork the gallery offered because nature goes best with a countryside environment and it gave me a very relaxing experience.