It's been a few days since we last spoke and I would like to take this opportunity to update you on all that has happened in the past few days. I'll start with my internship which is amazing. For those of you who don't know I, am interning with Pierogi gallery, located just inside Brooklyn off of Bedford St. If you haven't heard of them I encourage you to go to their website www.pierogi2000.com, they represent some amazing artists, most of whom have been featured in Artforum and Art in America. Anyway I started work this past Friday and immediately they had me entering artist information into their flat files database. This is a massive database with over 2000 artists represented. I must interject some advice for all aspiring artists; it might be a good idea to put the title and date on the back of each piece that gets into a gallery that has flat files because it can be a pain to match up a title with a work only using dimensions or visible characteristics that are given away in the title such as untitled (blue) or untitled (red).
I'm only supposed to work six hours, but their featured artist, Jim Torok, was doing a performance of low tech animation that evening and I volunteered to stay and help out. The animations were extremely hilarious b/c they depicted alot of his characters in scenarios of extreme violence. Jim called them low tech because they were shown on a slide projector. He explained that he did several hundred drawings on note cards and then photographed each one and then developed them as slides, so depending on how fast he advanced the slides the animation would unfold rather dramatically.
Jim's work is satirical mainly in regards to politics and life but through his daily experiences. His current show, Jim Torok: New Work, features his childlike comic strips depicting his everyday life along with his hyper-realistic small scale graphite portrait work. When viewing the show for the first time I had no clue that they were the same artist until Justin, one of the main gallery employees, advised me that they were indeed all done by Jim.
Currently, my main job at the gallery is recording and photo-documenting all the work in the flat files. This is an exciting experience because I have to go through each flat file and pick three works that are representative of the artist record them in an excel document and then photo-document the work. It's nice to know the trust me with such a task.
Today I explored NYC trying to find the nearest Home Depot and art supply stores. Just in case you were wondering they are all they way down on 23rd st and between 6th and 7th avenue I think. The Utrecht store is on 23rd st as well and is located between 8th and 7th I think and then their is DaVinci's Artist Supply on 21st between 6th and 7th. I still have yet to visit Pearl Paint but I've heard wonderful things about this 5 story art supply mecca. Surprisingly they are extremely cheap up here on supplies, case in point: I use alot of exacto blades and a pack of 100 in Savannah would cost me close to $40.00 at Utrecht they only cost me $12.99 WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW. I will definitely stock up on supplies while I am here. Paint is fairly inexpensive up here as well.
On a complete side note. I was on the subway yesterday coming home from work and saw the most amazing thing I have seen here outside of the numerous galleries I have visited. I will expand on the galleries later this week after I visit a few more. I was on the L getting close to the A train transfer and 3 gentlemen commanded the attention of the car. The fella upfront announced who they were and then his colleague cranked up an old school boom-box. The three of them proceeded to perform the most astounding break-dance show I think I have ever witnessed. They had a space no bigger than 6ftx6ft and they were doing back-flips and one armed helicopters, and handstands where they were lockin out on their necks pushin back up and lockin out on their necks again, mind you the subway was still moving. It was amazing. On that note I will let you guys go for now. Hope all is well where ever you might be. Next time I will expound on my gallery visits and what I have found as far as reviews in Chelsea Now and The Village Voice. Until then.................
I'm only supposed to work six hours, but their featured artist, Jim Torok, was doing a performance of low tech animation that evening and I volunteered to stay and help out. The animations were extremely hilarious b/c they depicted alot of his characters in scenarios of extreme violence. Jim called them low tech because they were shown on a slide projector. He explained that he did several hundred drawings on note cards and then photographed each one and then developed them as slides, so depending on how fast he advanced the slides the animation would unfold rather dramatically.
Jim's work is satirical mainly in regards to politics and life but through his daily experiences. His current show, Jim Torok: New Work, features his childlike comic strips depicting his everyday life along with his hyper-realistic small scale graphite portrait work. When viewing the show for the first time I had no clue that they were the same artist until Justin, one of the main gallery employees, advised me that they were indeed all done by Jim.
Currently, my main job at the gallery is recording and photo-documenting all the work in the flat files. This is an exciting experience because I have to go through each flat file and pick three works that are representative of the artist record them in an excel document and then photo-document the work. It's nice to know the trust me with such a task.
Today I explored NYC trying to find the nearest Home Depot and art supply stores. Just in case you were wondering they are all they way down on 23rd st and between 6th and 7th avenue I think. The Utrecht store is on 23rd st as well and is located between 8th and 7th I think and then their is DaVinci's Artist Supply on 21st between 6th and 7th. I still have yet to visit Pearl Paint but I've heard wonderful things about this 5 story art supply mecca. Surprisingly they are extremely cheap up here on supplies, case in point: I use alot of exacto blades and a pack of 100 in Savannah would cost me close to $40.00 at Utrecht they only cost me $12.99 WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW. I will definitely stock up on supplies while I am here. Paint is fairly inexpensive up here as well.
On a complete side note. I was on the subway yesterday coming home from work and saw the most amazing thing I have seen here outside of the numerous galleries I have visited. I will expand on the galleries later this week after I visit a few more. I was on the L getting close to the A train transfer and 3 gentlemen commanded the attention of the car. The fella upfront announced who they were and then his colleague cranked up an old school boom-box. The three of them proceeded to perform the most astounding break-dance show I think I have ever witnessed. They had a space no bigger than 6ftx6ft and they were doing back-flips and one armed helicopters, and handstands where they were lockin out on their necks pushin back up and lockin out on their necks again, mind you the subway was still moving. It was amazing. On that note I will let you guys go for now. Hope all is well where ever you might be. Next time I will expound on my gallery visits and what I have found as far as reviews in Chelsea Now and The Village Voice. Until then.................
Charles
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