This past Friday evening I saw the Kara Walker exhibition at the Whitney. It was packed with the most people of color I have ever seen at a museum show. Her theme is the history of black slavery, but it easily becomes universal by extrapolating to gender, age, and relationships. We can all relate to being a slave or a master at some point in life.
In Chelsea, I visited CUE Art Foundation, and saw Phranc's exhibit of cardboard and paper replicas of shoes, clothing and other consumer stuff. Also saw a huge exhibition on masks, including antique and tribal examples as well as contemporary masks. Stux showed a young artist who works in pipe cleaners and very blotchy encaustic. One of my favorite shows was called "Ornament", riffing on Christmas kitsch. A big show of smallish works by many artists, priced to sell, very fun and funny. My absolute favorite of the day was at Tony Shafrazi, whose show, Four Friends, exhibited huge works by Keith Haring, Basquiat, Donald Baechler, and Kenny Scharf, all of whose work I find inspiring and exciting. Saw some of this stuff back in the 80s when it was first exhibited!