Upcoming Ray Caesar Exhibit in New York

If you are lucky enough to be in New York to catch this exhibit, you'd better do so! If only I could....

A Gentle Kind of Cruelty

New Work By 

RAY CAESAR

Jan 22nd to Feb 19th 2011

Reception Jan 22nd 6-8pm

Jonathan LeVine Gallery

529 West 20th Street, 9th floor

New York, NY 10011

212-243-3822

www.jonathanlevinegallery.com 

Best of New York Art, June 2010 - Judith Schaechter's "Beauty and the Beef"

This show tied with Greg Simkin's show, ranking top-of-the-mark on recent NYC art offerings. Seeing Judith's work in person, after viewing it on a computer all these years, was a revelation. Most art is always better in person but glass works benefit especially from the glistening light and the bare eye. Judith's art is vividly saturated with the glorious colors only stained glass can emit. Juxtapose that with it's subject matter and you get killer art. No typical church art here, just pure beastly beauty. Painterly and dripping, scratched and rubbed - the glass becomes layered worlds upon worlds under her labors. Darkly human, innovative, emotive and lustrous.
Way too many beautiful images to post them all here, so just a select few, some cropped and some showing just the devil in the wondrous details.

The exhibit was at the Claire Oliver Gallery which is a nice space, however the peeps there were full of attitude. Refused to let my tired kid lie down for a second on their un-upholstered bench. I mean, come on... it's not like we were setting up a homeless encampment or even taking a nap. The snotty ambiance in some galleries really goes a bit too far, showing a little humanity sometimes can be a good thing. Judith's art made the rudeness all worthwhile.

"Another major reason I stick with stained glass is because I think the raw material is pretty. The uncut sheets of colored glass are really seductive, awesome, and unarguably lovely things. Naturally, the temptation to cut and damage all that pristine beauty is too much for me to resist."- Judith Schaechter, excerpt from a great statement, well worth a read, to be found here.

Schaechter's "Late Breaking Noose" here.