The temperature may have been 930 million degrees yesterday, but NYC’s fall art season kicked off in Chelsea nonetheless, with 40 galleries throwing exhibition opening parties in the sticky evening air. As is custom on the first Thursday after Labor Day, the see-and-be-seen crowd showed up in large numbers, strolling in packs between around the neighborhood, popping in and out galleries, cadging free drinks, and filing to their Instagrams.
There was also a LOT of art to look at. The 21st Street Gagosian gallery opened its season with an extremely minimalist work by the usually-quite-maximalist Urs Fischer, called "Play." This features nine robotic office chairs programmed to "dance" throughout the large, empty space, rolling and spinning for seemingly random distances at seemingly random intervals, though it's all tightly choreographed by Madeline Hollander.
Marlborough Gallery on 25th Street put on a museum-quality retrospective of works by the crowd-pleasing NYC resident Red Grooms. Don't miss the porn shop installation in the back.
Contemporary Chinese artist Zhang Xiaogang is at the Pace on 25th Street, showing about a dozen large oil paintings on textured, bulky paper. Danese/Corey on 22nd Street has a career-spanning exhibition, from the 1960s to today, of simple, haunting figurative paintings by Elizabeth Osborne.
(Scott Lynch / Gothamist)
And if you think you might enjoy watching two super cute Nigerian pygmy goats doing goat things while wearing silly uniforms, check out Jonathan Paul's To The Victor Belongs The Spoils at Unix on 24th Street. Note that the live goats will only be at the gallery on Saturdays.
All of the exhibitions that opened last night will be around for at least a few weeks, and next Thursday evening 27 more galleries in the neighborhood will host openings from 6 to 8 p.m. Some people like to do a lot of research before going to Chelsea to look at art, but you don't really need to have a specific plan. Just pick a block on which to start (19th, 21st, 24th, 25th Streets are all good bets) and wander around until you've had enough.
