Even I’m stunned at how suddenly the Lower East Side galleries have become an international art destination.  The number of galleries and quality of art continue to grow on a monthly basis, and my Lower East Side gallery tour on Sat. March 26 will be showing the most fascinating combination of exhibits so far on any L.E.S. tour I’ve ever given.  Highlights will include: (1) a young Puerto Rican artist who ingeniously handles oil paint as thought it’s fabric, and “drapes” rather than “brushes” it onto canvas, (2) a seasoned South African artist who creates stunningly realistic human skin on his giant cast silicone statues, and (3) a female artist who builds an imaginative room-filling installation out of ripped and shredded fabric pieces.   These are just 3 of 7 exhibits we’ll visit that day.

Painting is human civilization’s oldest art form, and therefore it’s not often that I deem a painting show to be original in technique, but this is one such case.  At just 29 years old, the Puerto Rican artist whose painting show we’ll visit moved to Chicago five years ago, but currently resides in New York City.  For the current exhibit, he uses oil paint with brush to paint realistic images onto glass.  After it dries, he peels the paint and grafts this “fabric” onto canvas, maintaining folds and all.  Half the interest for the viewer is trying to identify the original forms through all that drapery and overlap.  The work screams “emerging fresh talent”.

The Lower East Side’s largest and most expensively built gallery is showing brand-new work by a 57 year-old South African artist who has become famous for his huge cast silicone human statues.  Be warned that one of the nude male pieces is so realistically explicit (and hunky, I must add!) that the gallery has a sign in front warning it is not suitable for minors.  Several of the works are physically distorted just enough to engender interest, but not quite enough to disturb.  One of my favorite pieces is a double bust showing the artist’s face as a young man staring into his own face at his current age.

A female artist whose exhibit we’ll visit has built her reputation on using dozens of staples to attach sheets of fabric to a wall or board, then violently ripping the bulk of the fabric out to leave fabric shreds hanging from the staples.  It’s a wonderful synergy of the masculine (staples) and feminine (fabric).  For this show, she’s created her largest work yet, a room-filling fabric/staple installation we’ll explore from the inside out.  There’s both a ghostly and industrial quality to this piece.  In this artist’s hands, the violent ripping leads to a most delicate appearance.

Storied in its history as the immigrant breadbasket of America, the Lower East Side is reinventing itself yet again as one of the world’s great centers for contemporary art.  I feel fortunate to have observed this whirlwind of a metamorphosis from day one.

Rafael Risemberg, Ph.D.
Founder and Director
New York Gallery Tours