At The Galleries

Spent a crowded day of art in Chelsea yesterday. Looking at so much stuff tires me out and the very high lighting in some of the places get me dizzy and I have to leave quickly. This happened at the Peter Halley show, so bright and colorful but I had to get out fast and all those steps and little rooms. Also climbing stairs to upper floors of galleries is out of the question for me, I really was huffing and puffing to get up to the Melvin Edwards show, and of course the nice receptionist told me oh we have an elevator. It was hidden somewhere in another entrance. No big deal but if you are going to show on upper floors count me out. I did pretty much like all I saw. Went to the new Pace building which I thought hideous and dull to see the marvelous large show of small drawings by Richard Tuttle. Glad to see that he is not making those awful clumsy big stage set like pieces anymore or at least not for now. Again the gallery was lit too bright for me, and the spaces are ugly and cramped. Also liked his wall pieces down the block at another Pace space, why don't they just take over the whole block already and be done with it. Also impressive were the 8 very large charcoal drawings by Robert Longo at Metro Pictures, political in nature and quite amazing in his touch. This time the gallery was almost dark and moody the darker to see you my dear. Also liked those big decorative paintings by Philip Taaffe, so delectable I wanted to lick them. If you're going to be pretty this is the way to go. Gary Panter has been one of my favorite comic book artists for forever, and there is a platter of his work on the walls of Fredericks & Freiser. His books are also marvelous so if you can't afford one his drawings get yourself one of his works between covers. Also not bad was Marianne Boesky hanging of Donald Moffett's 3-D wall paintings relating to "nature" but reminded me of those cookies of my youth (not as big of course) that we would have at elementary school snack breaks, the surfaces looked like the icing on those cookies that I loved especially the white vanilla ones. Finally my favorite show with some reservations ( I wasn't included) was the one hundred drawings at Mathew Marks gallery. What's not to like as my mom would say and there was something for every taste. My usual complaint is the lack of labels and instead having to walk around with a 20pg checklist. I would have liked to have just looked at the drawings instead of having to keep checking on who did the Goddamn thing. Of course I could have looked at the work like the beautiful young woman who I kept seeing all over the place did without a list. I know I missed many shows but so what.