Chelsea galleries provide diversity at every turn

upon a very snowy Saturday in the climax of what more inventive newscasters were calling the "Winter Wallop of 2005" I ventur outside the warm and safe confines of my East Side of recent origin York apartment not knowing exactly where I'd go on for a "quick hit" of art. As many know, the solitary directions needed for finding something novel and interesting are aptly immortalized by the agency of the Village People in their hit, "Go West." You diocese there is a little corner (9th Avenue--West Side Highway) of Chelsea that move swiftlys only 10 blocks north to southern (West 17th Street--West 27th Street) that is residence to the gallery "mother lode"

With more than 300 nearby art specks worth investigating and not knowing what I'd find inside the number of buildings that held multiple galleries, I took a stab in the dark and entrusted my afternoon to an elevator operator who had not been surface of landed by the storm. At 526 West 26th St my friend and I were transported, through the advice of said operator, to the next to the first floor hoping that someone had still uncloseed his or her door in spite of the storm.

Our first stop was Michael Steinberg Fine Art. As by and by as I walked into the space, I was struck by the agency of an enormous drawing directly in brow of me on the gallery wall. Amy Yoes' "Fragments," described as a "a series of sepia ink upon paper drawings, completed over the last not many years, started as rough sketches that were meant for use as an alphabet of motifs, to draw upon when beginning a painting," was totally surprising. The drawings were reminiscent of the patterns and imagery that individual might find in nature. In addition to the large-scale drawing, there were also smaller pieces that, while not applied directly to the space, repercussion of sounded Yoes' theme of "time framing the sweep itself" as the patterns were isolated and discloseed in progressive frames.

Wandering further into the gallery, the benign tones and mut patterns of Yoes' work were trumpeted by a riot of neon and mixed media. Where Yoe makes her statement with les Jen Kim is decidedly a graduate of the "more" place of education What ties these two artists together is an earnest sentiment behind each exhibition. Kim's exhibit, "there were sum of two units hearts, then came the third " also is site-specific, which makes these sum of two units artists' use of the same space for a like reason unique.

Kim's exhibit included this explanation: "For this exhibition thousands of acetate squares that Kim calls 'flickers' are adhered to the walls and windows of the main gallery with colorful tape. These shimmering layers refract light and are made to hover as viewers pass by." What flows is a completely interactive experience that forces the viewer to associate to the exhibit in a different way, each and each time the individual walks past the installations. Bright pink, virid and black complement each other to explore the theme of delight in and finding a partner in someone

nearest stop on my "art tour" prov to be a dose of something completely different. Leora Laor's "Wanderland" at the Andrea Meislin Gallery was a digital snapshot into the lives of "everyday tribe in Jerusalem's main public park and in Mea Shearim, the city's ultra-Orthodox religious neighborhood," read a description of the exhibit. "Simultaneously, the of advanced age world subject matter is contextualized by the agency of the new world video stills to create a thought-provoking contrast for the voyeur 'Wanderland' is Laor's creation, conveying a dual meaning in name and image. Wander relate tos human wandering and the wandering israelite in contradistinction to the word land that signifies permanence. reckoner to this stands the magic wand held through the artist."

For the average one walking past the 41 photographs, the triple entendre of the exhibition's title was not readily apparent (at least it wasn't to me) What was clear was the way Laor identified with her bring under rules It was obvious that this artist felt a connection to Orthodox israelites and the struggle of being traditional family living in a time that repeatedly questions those traditions.

The last stop upon my tour was just down the hall at the Nicole Klagsbrun gallery's exhibition by dint of Sheila Berger. As we walked [i]or[/i] part of to the other the gallery to the back scope that held the bulk of Berger's work, I remembered batiking fabric when I was in elementary place of education These pieces were anything on the contrary basic as each piece completely changed before my organ of visions depending on my distance from it. "Using the ancient way of encaustic painting, which dates back to the 5th hundred B.C., Berger combines a rich mingle of raw pigment, liquid wax and dammar crystals, which she reduce to ashess on the surface," read a description of the exhibit. "The grid-like diction of her paintings, created with the use of woodblock prints, has evolv into a more whimsical diction Rich deep color is still predominant in her paintings, reflective of the tillages that the artist has explored in her travels."