Stop 0.5 (Light Food, Coffee): Westville East (173 Avenue A)
Westville East has a great menu for vegetarians and vegans, as it features a list of fresh, market vegetable combinations. I opted for the vegan hotdog and brussel sprouts, which were both delicious. Aside from being healthy and tasting great, the entire meal was very inexpensive. Superiority Burger and Cornerstone Cafe are also highly rated eateries in the East Village for those who want some other options.
Located at 130 Orchard St., Galerie Perrotin has three floors featuring Mel Ziegler’s work on the first and second, and “THEM,” a group show on the third. Ziegler’s solo exhibition titled “Activated Artifacts” includes 1,000 digital prints of photos of his Mount Rushmore souvenirs. These canvases line the walls of an entire room on the first floor of the gallery, while leaving the floor space almost entirely empty. The second floor consists of drawings for future projects that Ziegler had planned, with each sketch on a paper napkin placed in a frame. Moving onto the third floor, the group show features various queer artists, who for the first time, have the ability to express love, unapologetically. For so long, heteronormativity has prevented queer artists from sharing their experiences; the “THEM” exhibition celebrates freedom from censorship and oppression, which has been sought for so long.
Checklist:
Ease of finding the gallery: EASY
Recommended time to allow: 25 Minutes
Any special exhibits at the time? “THEM”
Gift shop? Yes
Is the Website helpful? Yes
For the second gallery, we stopped at 149 Orchard St., a quaint but impressive gallery nonetheless. On a small ledge in the corner, there were four spray paint bottles, each of which was shown dripping paint of different colors and textures with the label “plastic Jesus.” Attached to the wall, there were what appeared to be candy wrappers made from a hard plastic or rubber, molded into the shape of a circle. The walls were additionally adorned with large tubes of paint, one with a one hundred dollar bill coming from the opening, and the other with a bright pink crayon. The “atomic pink” tube of paint had a message plastered down the side reading “there’s someone in my head but it’s not me.” The downstairs section of the gallery included a large circular structure made from what appeared to be thousands of painted dowel rods. Everything in the gallery was bold, loud, and colorful.
Checklist:
Ease of finding the gallery: EASY
Recommended time to allow: 15 Minutes
Any special exhibits at the time? “Emerging to Established”
Gift shop? No
Is the Website helpful? Yes
The Van Der Plas Gallery had the least amount to see out of all of the galleries, but the art was still beautiful. The “4 Elements” exhibition had ended on July 28th, so there were only a few pieces out for public view. One of the pieces appeared to be a portrait of a young child; rather than having clean lines, the artist allowed for the paint to drip, and for splotches of color to mesh both on the face and in the background. This added a lot of depth to the painting and made for high visual appeal. The other piece I had immediately noticed included streaks of black, white, red, gold, yellow, and orange. The visible brush strokes gave the painting more texture and allowed for more interest than just smooth blended lines would have.
Checklist:
Ease of finding the gallery: EASY
Recommended time to allow: 10 Minutes
Any special exhibits at the time? No
Gift shop? No
Is the Website helpful? Yes
We just happened to stumble upon the opening of a new exhibition at the Richard Taittinger gallery, by Maria Qamar. One of the more personal exhibitions, Qamar uses a comic-like style to disrupt South Asian gender norms, while showcasing the underlying hypocrisy that exists in much of the culture. To stick to her Pakistani roots, Qamar left pieces of text from her work in Hindi. The title of her exhibition, “Fraaaandship,” is a commentary on how often men can turn something as pure as friendship into unsolicited flirting, particularly on social media platforms. There are hints of Desi culture in each corner of the gallery, from traditional Maggi noodle packets on the walls to samosa shaped bean bags on the floor. There is so much honesty and ingenuity in Qamar’s work, as she allows for people to have a look at her life experiences.
Checklist:
Ease of finding the gallery: EASY
Recommended time to allow: 25 Minutes
Any special exhibits at the time? “Fraaaandship”
Gift shop? Yes
Is the Website helpful? Yes
The Lesley Heller Gallery featured an exhibition by Amanda C. Mathis, titled “Collage Dwellings.” Mathis’s pieces reflect how we recall different pieces of architecture based on our differences in memory. She shows how various places can bring about very interesting emotions and feelings, and makes everyday domestic architecture interesting. Her work has a very DIY feel, as each image pieces separate photos together to create one cohesive depiction of a particular place in time. Her work for this exhibit is described as an “incomplete memory,” as it is “familiar” yet “disorienting.”
Checklist:
Ease of finding the gallery: EASY
Recommended time to allow: 15 Minutes
Any special exhibits at the time? “Collage Dwellings”
Gift shop? No
Is the Website helpful? Yes
Stop 6: Pablo’s Birthday (57 Orchard St)
We actually ended up going to Pablo’s Birthday by accident, but it was definitely a happy accident. The wall was lined with small images seeming to represent Snapchats and Instagram posts, with emojis, to painted selfies, and picturesque locations. Aside from pointing out that our whole lives exist online, the exhibit featured a powerful piece that read “all day I am drinking coffee smoking cigarettes and checking my phone...when the evening comes coffee stops to work and I fear sleep.” Perhaps more alarming than our addictions to our online personas is our apprehension with existing offline.
Checklist:
Ease of finding the gallery: EASY
Recommended time to allow? 25 Minutes
Any special exhibits at the time? “The Selfish Meme”
Gift shop? No
Is the Website helpful? Yes
The last stop on our gallery tour was the Beauchene Gallery on Broome St, which featured an exhibition titled “The Waste Land.” Each piece is representative of something old, worn, or barren. The clothing hanging on the line was especially intriguing to view, as usually a clothing line represents home and is a sign of domesticity, whereas this clothing line is filled with mold and moss. All of the pieces suggest that humans did exist at one point, which makes the overgrowth of dirt and barren cement blocks feel eerie.
Checklist: Ease of finding the gallery: EASY
Recommended time to allow? 15 Minutes
Any special exhibits at the time? “The Waste Land”
Gift shop? No
Is the Website helpful? Yes
Stop 7.5: Charley St (41 Kenmare St)
The last unofficial stop was Charley St, a fun and casual spot for quick bites and drinks. I had an iced matcha latte with oat milk, which was the perfect refresher after walking around all day.
Personally, my favorite spot was the Richard Taittinger Gallery. Growing up, I never really had the ability to relate to art which so frequently only highlighted the caucasian American experience. Maria Qamar showcased many feelings that I have never even known I want to express, giving a voice to South Asian females everywhere. Each gallery was entertaining, unique, and told a different story; without artists like these who are so willing to be vulnerable and expressive in their work, life would without a doubt be very boring.