I’m thrilled to announce that my final Lower East Side gallery tour of the season on Sat. June 18, showing all-new exhibits, will include a talk by transgender artist Amos Mac when we visit his fascinating photo exhibit of female-to-male transgender people.  This is NOT being billed as an L.G.B.T. gallery tour, though there will certainly be gay & lesbian folk in attendance – it is a general public tour, and I expect the public will be riveted by both Mac and his artwork.  Of the dozens of artists who have spoken on my tours over the past 9 nine years, Mac will be the first transgender artist to do so, and it’s about time! The gallery where his show is housed came into existence only a few months ago, one of dozens of cutting-edge Lower East Side galleries that have newly emerged this season, making the L.E.S. the go-to destination for the freshest contemporary art.

This tour will be crammed with jaw-dropping exhibits, one being a controversial shadow puppet video by arguably the world’s most famous and important female African-American artist, whose artwork years ago took up an entire floor of the Whitney Museum for a mid-career retrospective.  Her current exhibit depicts the relations – sexual and otherwise – between a white slave owner and his female slave in the antebellum South.  This artist is lauded by the art world but often criticized by the African-American community for creating images of abject oppression that some would just as soon forget.  The shadow puppet video is quite adult in nature, and squirm-inducing in the most positive way.

Another outstanding and outrageous show to be included is by a New York-based artist who has re-drawn every single bill and receipt that he received during the year 2010.  At first glance they look like Xeroxes, but on closer inspection you understand the staggering meticulous labor that it took to transcribe every last line of even the littlest expense.  A New York Times reviewer called the artist’s skills “prodigious,” and noted that the show provided a “joy and nutty comfort” in portraying all of our lives.

Looking back on the season, my Lower East Side tours have undergone a most dramatic transformation.  Back in September the L.E.S. didn’t even have its own stand-alone tour but was included as part of a combined Soho/ Lower East Side package.  Since the L.E.S. galleries “graduated” to full-tour status, the number and quality of galleries there have only continued to grow at a breath-taking pace.  The next Lower East Side gallery tour will not happen until early October, so take advantage now of the opportunity to experience this magically transforming art neighborhood.

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