Chelsea is oversaturated with art galleries. Each block contains open galleries for the wealthy passersby as well as the casual art student looking for some inspiration. A lot of these galleries follow the model of a “White Cube” at first glance. Upon further investigation, each gallery had its own atmosphere: specifically curated by the gallery owner. To highlight the art as much as possible: spacing, wall placement, as well as lighting is tinkered with in each gallery. This leads to a different experience in every gallery, even if the gallery just consists of white walls.

The first gallery that my group stumbled upon was not even on the list given to us. The Jim Kempner Fine Art gallery, located on the corner of w23rd st and 10th ave, was still under construction but did a nice job of highlighting the art inside. The gallery is surrounded by a large steel wall, a clear departure from the brick buildings that surround it. It reminded me a lot of Richard Serra’s “Tilted Arc”. Between the steel wall and the actual gallery was a small pathway that crossed through a “garden of stones”. This garden decreased the actual square footage of the gallery, but immersed the viewer in the gallery experience. Crossing into the gallery, I felt that I had left the loud, urban city and entered a zen temple. 

The garden was under renovation when we came. This is what it normally looks like.

Upon first glance after entering, the gallery did not show one specific artist. The gallery contained a collection of multiple artists using different mediums. Each artwork was placed within one foot of another, giving the viewer an almost jumbled affect. Everywhere we looked was art. Even on the receptionist’s desk, there was a small sculpture. If anything, this amount of art was overwhelming for a small space. There was a certain centerpiece on the first floor to which the eye naturally gravitated to, separated from the other works on that floor. This was a small version of Mt. Rushmore, very accurately carved out of history books. If everything in that gallery didn’t cost thousands of dollars, I might have bought that piece.

From the first floor to the second was a flight of stairs that seemed so impractical, we didn’t want to step on it, fearing that it was another piece of art.

 

Eventually, we made it up the steps and found a similar exhibition upstairs. What was really interesting about the upstairs part (which was mostly a white cube) was the second room, all the way in the corner of the building. It was separated from the main hall by a small narrow hallway. This second room again, contained tons of art crammed into a small space. It forced the viewer to take a few glances before even recognizing what was there. The centerpiece in this room, among all the art, was a signed cardboard box. This really baffled us. There was much more work in that room that took so much more effort, but the piece in the center was a postage box. It gave the room a feeling of insignificance as the “best” piece in that room was a box.  

The other artwork on the side of the postage box

Captivating postage box for sale

The second gallery we visited was C24 which was located almost at the end of 24th st. Immediately, the gallery seemed closed off as there was a party inside, and an extremely heavy door guarding the entrance. Once we realized it was open and used whatever strength we had to open that door, we strolled in to C24 and found an inviting space. On the top floor, there was a collection of hyperrealistic oil paintings by Mike Dargas. There were only about 4 paintings on the whole floor, giving each painting a dignified status. The gallery put a lot of light and focus on the paintings (that I thought were photographs) to highlight the artists skill. 

The bottom floor was a completely different beast than the first. The bottom floor was currently housing an exhibit from a group of artists called Fields Projects. SImilar to some parts of the Jim Kempner gallery, artworks here were jumbled together and stacked one on top of another, which reminded me of Morse’s “Gallery of the Louvre”. Similar to the painting, there was art everywhere the eye can go, making each one seem a bit insignificant. However, a lot of this art was so surprising or unusual it caught the eye anyway

This bottom gallery was multimedia and even included some television screens. These screens naturally grabbed the viewer’s attention and therefore were placed at eye level. One of these screens was very interesting. It showed looping video, with classical music,  of some guy moving his hands and fingers over and over.

It gave me a weirdly hypnotic affect and made me confused as to why this was being sold or how (does the purchaser get the TV? Does he get a flash drive with this video? Who knows?). The other pieces of work in this gallery were oddly sexual, including a set of clay telephones with strange texts and pictures on them, including nudes (still forged out of clay). These telephones were not hung which made the viewer look over them from the top.

This gave me a feeling that this was someone’s phone and I was reading it from the usual angle that a phone would be held. After walking around a few times, I still felt as though I missed artwork and due to the sheer volume of art in that room I definitely missed the meaning of a lot of those pieces.

The gallery space is crucial to how the artwork is viewed. If a gallery shoves tons of artwork with different mediums into one tiny space, it can throw off the viewer and if anything overwhelm him or her. However, a gallery that shows only a few paintings (such as the top floor of C24) can really give the artist a proper exhibition, on par with any museum.