How to Salvage a Snowy Saturday

Visit one, or a couple, of the over 500 art galleries in this great city of ours.

The Big Apple has been under at least five inches of snow for as long as I can remember (maybe a month).  I admit this city is reasonably difficult to enjoy during a perpetual whiteout.  The snow piles up on the corners and covers in dirt and dog shit, and worst of all, its cold.  Never the less, I love this city.  Snowfall in New York always has an air of romance, and just before the dog walkers come out, the entire city looks new and clean.

I am also lucky to live in a city where I don’t have to drive.  This makes continuing life after blizzard (A.B if you will) much easier.  Saturday, January 22 I braved the less than desired weather conditions to have an art adventure. 

To begin this escapade for art I needed a nutritious and delicious snack to energize me for the day: The Doughnut Plant!  If you haven’t been there, go, now, seriously. Marzipan is my favorite flavor, and they’re making it right now!  They sell these mouth-watering treats until they’re out, so don’t waste your time.  On you way to the green, organic, local market this weekend, stop there first. 

I went from breakfast paradise to the Lesley Heller Workspace in the Lower East Side to see the Bushwick Paintings by Deborah Brown on view until February 20.  I have lived in Bushwick for nearly two years, and I am very fond of the area and wanted to see it on canvas.  I loved her use of Dickchicken as a cultural reference for the neighborhood. 

From there I walked to NoLita to Gallery Nine5.  Extended until February 3, Seth Wulsin’s Animas is a small and very curious exhibit.  Wulsin uses layers of screen to create 3D images, one of which greets you when you enter.  Where ever I was standing, it was watching me.  His large scale installation pieces fill the entire gallery space. 

The last space I visited was in hidden in DUMBO.  Ellis Gallagher, famous for his sidewalk chalk drawings, held his Permanently Temporary (so temporary you can only see it until February 4) exhibit at The Mighty Tanaka.  The gallery was a room full of multicolored chalk outlines of different object’s shadows from a house plant to a Rastafarian.  It was great to be in a room surrounded by these drawings, as I usually feel like I found a treasure when I see them on sidewalks in random NYC locations. 

To finish my trip and thoroughly freeze my toes off, I walked over the Brooklyn Bridge (under construction, so the view is obstructed).  For some reason, it is easier to get to Bushwick from Manhattan than from Brooklyn (maybe driving would be easier).  I crossed into Manhattan feeling fulfilled.  My brief love affair with New York City winter and art was coming to a close for another day.