Last night was the season opener for galleries in New York’s Chelsea Arts District. Some 50+ openings were happening simultaneously in a two hour period, so, if you want to hit more than a couple of galleries, you have to map it out. I won’t bore you with the order but I started with the fantastic Richard Pettibone and ended up at Pace Gallery for Irving Penn, On Assignment which was fun and interesting to me because I worked for Vogue and Vanity Fair when he was shooting for both. There, I saw the legendary model Carmen Dell’Orefice, who has been modeling for 50+ years. I asked her if I could take her photograph and she flatly said, “No!” so, I can’t show you how amazing she still looks at 82. Earlier, I was at Joel Grey’s photography exhibit (yes, THE Joel Grey). At 81 himself, he was as charming as could be, so old age isn’t a good excuse for Carmen. The night ended early at 7:30 with a huge downpour and thousands of us got totally drenched. By the time I got home, it was as though I had gone swimming in my clothes. It was a fun night, though.
Top left: Andy Warhol by William John Kennedy at Steven Kasher Gallery; Miles Davis’s hand by Irving Penn at Pace Gallery; Richard Pettibone at David Zwirner Gallery; my neighbor Joel Grey at Steven Kasher Gallery.
Bottom left: Philip Lorca diCorcia’s “Hustler” series at David Zwirner Gallery; Josh Smith’s 20 solid
color paintings at Luhring Augustine: Elad Lassry photos at 303 Gallery: Irving Penn’s On Assignment at Pace Gallery.
Bottom left: Manjari Sharma’s “Ganesh” at ClampArt; Gilbert and George on the Highline Billboard; Lalanne sheep installed at the Getty station on 24th & 10th Avenue, the future site of real estate mogul Michael Schvo’s home; Barry McGee at Cheim and Read