New York Art Guide - December

I.

Exhibition: David Hockney
Artist: David Hockney
Venue: The Met
Dates: Until February 26th, 2018

A retrospective of David Hockney at the Metropolitan Museum that explores 60 years of massive and diverse work by the great English-American painter. The show includes works from the early 60’s when Hockney was as a student at the Royal College of Art in London, His most famous paintings of L.A. leisure and good life scenes painted flat and geometrical. Collages from the 70’s and 80’s influenced by cubism are also included in this show and last but not least- his recent painting large, vibrant scenes of the Yorkshire countryside and his California garden that nod to the works of Van Gogh, Munch and Matisse.

II.

Exhibition: Whiteout
Artist: Erwin Redl
Venue: Madison Square Park
Dates: Until March 2018

This immersive art installation is made up of hundreds of transparent globes illuminated by white LED lights that are suspended two feet off the ground. The lights  are programmed to flutter in an odd way. Erwin Redl is an artist that uses LEDs as the main medium of his work. Redi was born in Australia and is currently living in the United States. His work includes installations, videos, graphics, computer art and electronic music.

III.

Exhibition: The Holiday Train Show
Venue: Bronx Botanical Garden
Dates: Until January 15th, 2018

The Holiday Train show at the Botanical Garden is truly something you won't forget. Every year, the garden celebrates its collection of crafted trains that chug along a nearly half-mile track followed by 150 miniature of NYC landmarks. Established in 1891, The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is a National Historic Landmark that's 250-acre (100 ha) site's verdant landscape supports over one million living plants in extensive collections.

Take a tour in New York to discover more!

Background to the Chelsea Art Scene

For the past 20 years, Chelsea has remained a designated area for true art lovers. 
It is in this particular moment that Chelsea has become the center for contemporary art in New York City, while the neighborhood is going through a massive face lift and things are always changing.

The famous wild art scene of the 60’s and 70’s in NYC was based in Soho—at that time it was considered the industrial area for businesses like import/export houses, textile houses and “rag trade” clothing stores.

Artists began to move to Soho mainly because of it’s big loft spaces and cheap rent. 
Artists like Philip Glass, Twyla Tharp, Nam June Paik, Meredith Monk, Chuck Close and Frank Stella were of the few that helped create and shape the ideal situation which made Soho a nexus for creative activity at a very magical time in the 1960's. SoHo became the focal point which represented the hip, avant garde scene of the time.

Not long after, artists concentrated the area and marked it as a hip neighborhood in NYC, Soho was announced to be the “art district of new york” and what started as an organic process of art imigration, continued to be a real estate target for “art oriented” commercial businesses.
The rise of rent and change of atmosphere in the  Soho of the early 1990’s meant that galleries needed to find themselves a new home. 

This  leads us to the Chelsea art scene... 

Today, the art galleries of Chelsea are located in a small zone near the Hudson River where shipping containers used to get stored. It still feels like a secret location—an isolated art bubble that is somehow being protected from the neighborhood’s gentrification process.  With more residential spaces and tourist destinations surrounding it (like Chelsea Market, The High Line, etc.), Chelsea still maintains a good balance of the native New York scene and a tourist-friendly environment.

Considered to be the most updated center for main discourses in the international art world, expressing a wide range of innovative ideas and outstanding techniques, Chelsea is currently home to more than 350 galleries, institutions and independent art projects. It has some of the most important art galleries today, representing the most acclaimed artists from around the world.

When looking at Chelsea, one will see how it has evolved and still remains a hip and fun location. Most importantly, Chelsea is definitely the place to be to engage with the contemporary world of art!

- by Maya Yadid