All Photos By Gail
I have no idea how long this pastel-hued NYC Skyline mural by San Francisco-based street artist Dirt Cobain has been up, but my guess is that it’s a couple of years old, based on its relatively decent condition. Continue reading NYC Skyline Mural By Dirt Cobain
All Photos By Gail
Ah, a pink-hued water tower, what a pleasant object to spot on the skyline. I shot these photos from the 9th floor patio of the Flag Art Foundation, which is located at 545 West 25th Street (Between 10th and 11th Avenues), so this tower is also going to be somewhere on the south side of West 25th Street, in that same block.
You can see it in the background of this photo, which is of an Elmgreen & Dragset sculpture called Watching (2016).
Perspective!
All Photos By Gail
I must not be looking up very often when I am in Union Square, because I just noticed the mural painted on a water tower at 127 Fourth Avenue at 13th Street, which is by the UK-based street artist STIK. Apparently, it’s been up there for two years already. Gee Wiz.
Watertower By Tom Fruin (All Photos By Gail)
Oh, what fun it was to discover one of Tom Fruin’s Watertower sculptures inside an art gallery instead of out in DUMBO or somewhere off the BQE! As it turns out, Fruin’s current exhibit, Color Study, over at Mike Weiss Gallery marks the very first time that the artist’s architecturally-scaled public works have been shown in a gallery context. Super fun!
Watertower Close Up
The Watertower is constructed from found scrap metal and colored Plexiglas in a patchwork design that also incorporates facsimiles of cigar bands and the word “Ecstasy” repeated at intervals across it’s colorful and endlessly captivating surface, which is illuminated from the tower’s interior.
The wall sculpture above (of which there are several on display at Mike Weiss) will give you an idea of the grid that Fruin builds on for his colored Plexiglas creations. Check out the one below:
This patchwork of colors relates not only to the surface of the Watertower but also to Fruin’s earlier project series, Drug-Bag Quilts, in which the artist used found drug bags, stitched together with thread, to create quilt-like wall hangings. Talk about an interesting way to upcycle!
Color Study also includes a set of Swings with Cigar Band Seats which are suspended from the gallery’s ceiling (not shown) and the above lanterns, one electric and one powered by a small fuel tank.
And last but not least, Fruin has created this illuminated-from-within, Stained Glass replica of what looks to me like the cluster of flame from Lady Liberty’s torch. Astounding.
Stained Glass Flame Detail
Color Study presents enchanting and unique artworks the likes of which you aren’t going to see anywhere else in the Chelsea Gallery District, so don’t let yourself miss this one!
Tom Fruin’s Color Study will be on Exhibit Through October 18th, 2014 at Mike Weiss Gallery, Located at 520 West 24th Street in the Chelsea Gallery District.
All Photos By Gail
I’m a little bit late to the party writing about this very cool exhibit, due to being busy doing other equally cool things. That said, you have until June 15th to make it to the Jonathan LeVine Gallery to see the Souvenirs solo exhibit from Portland-based artist Souther Salazar.
Souvenirs includes a series of new paintings, drawings, sculptures and installations, and it is very fun and totally family friendly. His art reminds me a bit of artist Jim Houser, whose work I also saw at LeVine very recently; in May of this year. Continue reading Souther Salazar’s Souvenirs at Jonathan LeVine Gallery