Greetings from New York City

The whirlwind is lovely.

Angela A’Court, Agapanthus, 2023, soft pastel on paper, 19 x 18 inches, courtesy of Susan Eley Fine Art

On Wednesday I rolled in with just enough time to drop in on the opening of Kyle Staver at Half. So many people were trying to love on Kyle that she would introduce one to another and then excuse herself to receive more well-wishers. Via that I met a gentleman who invited me to a group show at Landmark Art Space opening the following evening. The first artist listed for the show was Anthony Haden-Guest, the author of the foreword of James Croak’s Backseat Driver, Dissident Muse’s first published title. I had never met him in person. After Kyle I went to the opening of a group show at Anita Rogers Gallery that includes Stephen Bethel, who coincidentally is my neighbor in New Hampshire. Just when you think the world can’t get any smaller, it shrinks.

Yesterday I somehow accomplished four social calls, which was a feat because they were in Chelsea, the Village, Midtown, and Union Square respectively. Then it was off to Landmark in Chelsea to meet Anthony. The show, “OG Wiz!,” emphasized figures from the 1980s. With word about the show spread through flyers and a bumping opening, it conveyed a bit of what the ‘80s art world must have been like. I grabbed yet one more cab and barely made it to the LES exhibition of Angela A’Court and Karin Bruckner at Susan Eley. (I’ve written about Angela and might be something of a fan.) I stumbled back into the hotel, full of coffee (I suspect that the waiter didn’t hear the “decaf” portion of my order) and alcohol (which I seldom sample anymore and consequently has outsize effects for better and worse).

I would sort of like to laze around the hotel room today and recover, but Beckmann at the Neue beckons, at which point I might as well drop in on “Vertigo of Color” at the Met, and Lois Dodd at Alexandre. Tonight there’s an opening for Ying Li, of whom I’m unequivocally a fan, via Alice Gauvin’s presence at NADA.

Did I neglect to reach out to you, dear New York friend? I’m blessed with too many to see in a four-day trip. My train leaves tomorrow afternoon. There may yet be a chance to connect. Picture me making a “call me” gesture at you, thumb and pinky extended, hand held to head.

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We are in the midst of an Asynchronous Studio Book Club reading of Totality: Abstraction and Meaning in the Art of Barnett Newman by Michael Schreyach. Obtain your copy and jump in.

Dissident Muse’s first publication, Backseat Driver by James Croak, is available now at Amazon.

Preorders are available for Aphorisms for Artists: 100 Ways Toward Better Art by Walter Darby Bannard, to be published by Allworth Press on January 23, in a mere eleven days. More information is available at the site for the book.