Chelsea, 25th Street Between Eleventh and Tenth Avenues

Here are three more photos from this Chelsea block on this cold gray day, pictures of quite ordinary, unremarkable, yes, scruffy things, and yet . . . well, I confess, I love them. 

If you want to know what I mean, you will have to enlarge them and really look at them for a few seconds.  Especially the last one.




Mary Sargent © 2009 …………….mmmm......…….. click to enlarge







Mary Sargent © 2009 …………xxxxxxxxxx……….…… ….........……………….. click to enlarge







Mary Sargent © 2009 ………………////////////….. click to enlarge

Chelsea, 25th Street Between Eleventh and Tenth Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2009 ……………xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx…….…… ………………….. click to enlarge

Chelsea, 25th Street Between Eleventh and Tenth Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2009 ………………….…xxxx… ………………….. click to enlarge

The very next day, October 30, I went back down to do data entry for OHNY, planning to take another walk afterwards. It was warmish when I left my house and NY1 predicted another nice day, but when I left the office, it was no longer nice. It looked like this. And I only had a jeans jacket. Therefore, armed with my new knowledge of the Half King's location, I limited my walk to this one block of 25th Street, and the two blocks it took to get to it (the Half King). Where I figured they knew how to make an Irish coffee.

This is looking east.


See map.

Chelsea, Eleventh Avenue at 25th Street

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………….. click to enlarge

This is looking back at 25th Street.  That's the Chelsea Arts Tower on the left, not looking quite so fabulous from this view.  And the building on the right is where the art gallery with the 4-legged birds is located.

Which reminds me, I did revisit that gallery today and now I have the information we need.  The gallery is Gana Art and the artist is Shigeru Uchida, a Japanese architect and designer.

See map.

Chelsea, 25th Street Between Eleventh and Tenth Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2007 ……………….. click to enlarge


Just at the end of this block, here's a gallery I think I want to have a look at.





Mary Sargent © 2007 ……………….. click to enlarge


Inside, we see it's an installation with trees, sheep and pools of water.





Mary Sargent © 2007 …………xxxxxxxxxx………………………….. click to enlarge


But wait!  Those don't look like sheep - they look like 4-legged birds. 

At this point, as I'm trying to figure out exactly what the artist intended them to be, I realize I have no information on the gallery or the artist.  Inexcusable, I know.  I tried googling wooden trees and sheep exhibition; nothing came up, but of course, maybe I should have googled wooden trees and 4-legged birds.

I'm going back to do some more work this week, and I will get answers.
---------
11/4 - yes answers:  Gana Art is the gallery; Shigeru Uchida is the artist.

Chelsea, 25th Street Between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………….. click to enlarge

This building is where OHNY has its office where I'm doing some volunteer work. On the ground floor is Gallery Henoch which is currently exhibiting a pretty good still life show. I particularly like Olga Antonova, but you have to see her stuff in person to appreciate it.





Mary Sargent © 2009 ……………xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx……….. click to enlarge

Look at that intricate brickwork around the arch.  Remember to enlarge it.  Do you think the bricklayers had patterns to consult?
X
After looking at a couple of exhibitions, I walked west on 25th Street, then down Eleventh Avenue to 23rd, then west on 23rd to Twelfth Avenue, then up to 24th Street, and across to Tenth Avenue where I ran out of space on my card. The reason I took such a tightly coiled walk was to close a few gaps on my map. It looks much better now. The next walk should be more straightforward.








Mary Sargent © 2009 …………….........................................……….. click to enlarge

Here's a view looking west on 25th Street.










Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………….. click to enlarge

And a close up.

Chelsea, 25th Street Between Eleventh and Tenth Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2009 ……………… click to enlarge

This, the Chelsea Arts Tower, completed in 2006, is the first condominium for art galleries in New York, according to New York Construction's website. You know, instead of waiting around for the neighborhood to go upscale and their rents to rise, they'll buy their space and be secure. Restaurants have gotten wise to that, now galleries. A few, anyway. Marlborough is on the first two floors.

The New York Times reported that in an unusual move, the developers used focus groups of gallery owners to learn what they wanted in gallery space, resulting in some changes, e.g., higher ceilings, three elevators instead of two.  Uh, unusual?  Let's see, we want gallery owners to buy space here.  I wonder what would get them to buy.  I got it, we'll ask them!

See map

Chelsea, Cheim & Read Gallery, 25th Street Between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2009 ………………….…… ………………….. click to enlarge

This is looking into the entrance of Cheim & Read from the room where I clandestinely took photographs.




Mary Sargent © 2009 …………..........……….…… ………………….. click to enlarge

And finally, I made it outside, and took a proper STREET photo.  This is, uh, the Cheim & Read Gallery.  I really don't have any particular fondness for this gallery, I just liked these photos.  Really. 

See map.

Chelsea, Cheim & Read Gallery, 25th Street Between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues

X
And now for something completely different.


Mary Sargent © 2009 ………………….…… .....………………….. click to enlarge

I had a decision to make tonight.  Whether to continue with the 3 remaining walks from the Civic Center/Chinatown area (the reason for so many walks is because I did Grand Jury service for four weeks) or to go with a walk I did today in Chelsea.  So Chelsea won, but now I have to figure out what to do about those three, now old, walks.  Maybe it'll come to me in a dream.

But for now, why I was in Chelsea is because I volunteered to do data entry for Open House New York and their office space is at 555 West 25th Street.  I did it from 1:00 to 3:00 and then stopped because I couldn't enter another piece of data without screaming.  They understood.  Some day I must talk to you about Open House, but not now.

So off I went to check out a few exhibits, but mostly to walk.  The day was nice, a proper fall day, around 60, I think, sunny and breezy.



Mary Sargent © 2009 ………………….…… .....………………….. click to enlarge

This show of Jack Pierson's abstract sculptures is at Cheim & Read through November 14.  I showed you the top photo, so you'd get a sense of the size of this piece.  The sculptures are made mostly from broken up signs, plastic and metal.

I'm leaving the enlargements extra large on the indiividual pieces so you can see the materials.



Mary Sargent © 2009 ………………….…… .....………………….. click to enlarge

I didn't like all of them, but I do like these three I'm showing you.  Although now that I look at this one some more, I wonder if it isn't too perfect.  I think I mean too facile, too slick, something like that.



Mary Sargent © 2009 ………………….…… .....………………….. click to enlarge

This one, I love.

Comments, please.

See map.