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Wandering Carol: Things to do in Chelsea, NYC

Visiting New York? Here’s an insiders’ guide to the best things to do in Chelsea NYC and its surroundings, with suggestions on where to go and what to do from two New York gallery owners.  

An Insider's Guide

To get an insider take on the best things to do in Chelsea, I went to the two powerhouses behind Berry Campbell Gallery, Christine Berry and Martha Campbell who have owned an art gallery on 24th Street for the last six years.

I was at Berry Campbell for the opening of my late father’s art show, William Perehudoff: Architect of Color, so I pestered and prodded them (in the nicest way possible, of course) for insider tips on the best restaurants, galleries and top things to do in the area. What I learned was that it’s easy to spend at least one day in Chelsea exploring.

Two Coats of Paint Selected Gallery Guide: May 2019

Willam Perehudoff: Architect of Color

Provincetown Art Association and Museum
Provincetown, Massachusetts
July 5 - September 1, 2019
Opening Reception July 12, 2019
8 - 10 pm  

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View Works by Stephen Pace

Video by Luxeport Intl: Luxury & Creativity In Media

47th Kips Bay Decorator Showhouse
May 2nd - May 30th
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Berry Campbell collaborated with Robert Passal Interior Design and Daniel Kahan of Smith and Moore Architects as well as Sarah Bartholomew Design in the Kips Bay Decorator Showhouse, supplying works by Eric Dever, Perle Fine, and Stephen Pace.

Each year, celebrated interior designers transform a magnificent estate into an elegant exhibition of fine furnishings, art and technology. This all began in 1973 when several dedicated supporters of Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club launched the Kips Bay Decorator Show House in Manhattan to raise critical funds for much needed after school and enrichment programs for New York City children. For more than four decades, the show house has been a must-see event for thousands of design enthusiasts, renowned for sparking interior design trends throughout the world. In 2017, the show house expanded with a second location in Palm Beach, in partnership with Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County.

Three canvases hang as looming, watchful presences in New York-Centric, an exhibition at the Art Students League of New York curated by James Little: Al Loving’s stolid New Hexagon (1996), Dan Christensen’s Jarrito, (1997) and Ed Clark’s sensual and lugubrious X-form Untitled (Bastille Series) (1991). While these artists, and the others in the show, fulfill Karen Wilkin’s simple precept from her introduction to the catalogue—that their paintings make “color and the way it [is] applied the main carriers of emotion and meaning”—these works, many of them contemporary but emerging from specific artists’ practices forged in the ’60s, are evidence of a decisive break with modernist tradition. They were a rejection of existing standards of aesthetics, mirroring Pop Art’s rejection of appropriate subject matter but with a more visceral turn. Loving’s marbled blue triangle illusionistically juts out into the viewer’s space, a threatening machine of sharp edges and points, while Clark’s twisting torso-like abstraction mimics the enticement of corporeal flesh. This is color not behaving itself, expanding to overtake the more modernist and Ab-Ex sanctioned notions of “gesture,” “form,” and “mark” to become the main component of painterly composition. Color was accepted historically as a tool to illuminate emotion or psychological depth, but outliers such as William Blake, Hilma af Klint, and Johannes Itten, who foregrounded color as the main dynamo of expression, were relegated to the periphery and seen as overtaxing on taste or engaged in optical trickery. Emerging mid-century, most of the artists in New York-Centric refused to handle color gingerly, and while this novel approach is not overtly political, many of the artists are African-American and several are women, and this alternative approach to abstraction may have functioned to move the form away from exclusionary art historical traditions. 

The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) inducted three arts luminaries into its Hall of Fame during its annual benefit on April 11 at Capitale. The evening’s honorees were Sanford Biggers, a visual artist whose work speaks to current social, political, and economic happenings while examining the contexts that bore them; Karl Kellner, patron of the arts, Senior Partner, New York Office Managing Partner, McKinsey & Company, Inc., and a former NYFA Board Member; and Min Jin Lee, novelist of the best-selling books Free Food for Millionaires and Pachinko(Grand Central Publishing, 2007 and 2017). The gala was Co-Chaired by Marc Jason and J. Wesley McDade, both members of NYFA’s Board of Trustees. The silent auction was Co-Chaired by Marjorie W. Martay, a NYFA Board Member, and Marjorie Croes Silverman, a NYFA Leadership Council Member.

Designer QnA: Elizabeth Swartz On Bunny Williams Bingo, Her Belgian Urn, And That Moment The Art Goes On The Walls

Stephen Pace, Untitled (52-53), 1952, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 inches.

Elizabeth Swartz was named partner of Bunny Williams Associates in 2017 after a 14-year tenure, which began with a coveted internship. Elizabeth notes, “These days, it’s rare to rise from intern to partner while under one roof. In my case, I found my calling through the apprenticeship tradition much the way Bunny did when she began her long association with the revered Parish-Hadley Associates.” Originally from Wilmington, Delaware, Elizabeth attended the University of Richmond and then the New York School of Interior Design. After graduation, her internship at Bunny Williams Associates led to a job as Junior Designer and she rose later to Senior Designer. “Bunny is an ideal mentor and collaborator and we take our partnership seriously. She sets the stage with her vast experience, practicality, intelligence, and sense of humor. Generous in spirit, she invests in her staff when they show initiative, drive, and talent so I worked hard to meet these expectations. I’m thrilled to have the privilege of leading by Bunny’s example,” continues Swartz. Known for her skill in building stories for beautiful rooms from one point of inspiration, Elizabeth carves out time for personal growth, which informs her designs. When not at the office, reading, visiting museums, or spending time with numerous nieces and nephews, she’s exploring the world and capturing her adventures through her other great passion: photography. A recent trip to Berlin and Vienna are highlights, while future sojourns in Greece, Africa, and Iceland await.