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 Baech...
in the studio and beyond