We snuck up to New York yesterday, Stella, Steve, my sister Cate and I. We all had our wants and needs. Cate, who had been visiting Philadelphia, needed and wanted to get back to her apartment to make sure the cats had not destroyed too much in her absence. Steve was meeting a former student for lunch; Stella needed a shot of Bloomingdales and I of course was there for the art. As usual I got to pick one thing and chose the Neue Museum, home to German and Vienese art and artifacts of the 20th Century (Beckmann, Klimt, furniture by Adolf Loos). The small but elegant spot just up from the Met on 5th Ave. opened in 2001 and I’d never been. (image is the door to the museum, a building that was once the home of Mrs. Vanderbilt.) I’ll get back to you with more later—especially about the Pamela Kort-curated exhibit,”Comic Grotesque: Wit and Mockery in Germany, 1870-1940,” which I was very curious about in light of our own turgid and grotesque times.
Meanwhile, from the inbox, this news about great-sounding shows in February:
Abington Art Center hosts “Trouble in Paradise,” a group exhibit focussed on the landscape in our eco-disaster-ridden world. The show originated at Van Brunt Gallery in New York and includes work by sixteen artists including Brian Alfred, Brandon Ballengeé, Edward Burtynsky, David Chow, Dan Ford, Adam Fuss, Joy Garnett, Fariba Hajamadi, Julie Heffernan, Joanne Howard, Thomas Huber, Alison Moritsugu, Kirsten Mosher, Steve Mumford, Alexis Rockman and Chrysanne Stathacos. Show runs February 3 – May 28, 2005.
MissionCREEP at Nexus. Also in February, the online website, missionCREEP which hosts home pages for some super local artists (including artblog faves Judith Schaechter and Sarah McEneaney) comes into the real world with an exhibit at the local coop gallery. MissionCREEP also features the work of artists Susan Hagen, James G. Mundie, Tina Newberry, Bill Amundson and Carol Nowak and the writing of Jim Knipfel , Mike Walsh, and many others. (Walsh is the founder of the CREEP.) Show opens Feb. 3.
