I went to the Bowery the other day. I went to see some shows, but I also went to the Doughnut Plant and Pickle Guys. I had a great time. It's exhilarating to view art in the midst of life and not amid a sterile warren of sameness, long blocks and huge void galleries [sorry Chelsea]. I can’t say I know the galleries on the ground on the Lower East Side well, but even between Envoy [see below] and the imminent return of Feature to its downtown roots, I find myself excited about the prospect of an afternoon viewing art there as I haven’t been since the last fully vested days of Soho!
PIckle Guys, 49 Essex St. [betwn. Grand & Hester STs.], 888.4.PICKLE, pickleguys@yahoo.com, http://www.nycpickleguys.com/index.html.
Doughnut Plant, 379 Grand St. [betwn. Norfolk & Suffolk Sts.], 212.505.3700, http://www.doughnutplant.com.
Kanishka Raja: In the Future No One Will Have a Past
Through November 17
Envoy Gallery, 131 Chrystie St [betwn. Broome & Delancey Sts.], 212.226.4555, office@envoygallery.com, http://www.envoygallery.com.
I do not seek affirmation in what I do very often, yet it is thrilling when on that rare occasion affirmation seeks me out. Kanishka Raja’s project touches upon so many of the themes with which I’ve been enthralled over the years:1. He uses constructed landscapes in one spur of his work and multiple versions of remembered spaces in another.
2. His work has spurs.
3. He uses photos, but in purely handmade paintings.
4. He likes patterns and screens.
5. He likes smoke.
6. He is earnest in his project.
7. His paintings are linked to each other in sequence.
8. The world he creates is based on and directly in reference to this world.
9. He likes to paint.
Except for my family members, I don’t have nine reasons for liking most anything or anybody. There’s so much to absorb in the downtown show alone [his memory paintings are up at Tilton] that I really need a re-view. However, of what I’ve managed to absorb, In The Future No One Will Have A Past (part 5) rocks the hardest because in it the paint begins to take on a life beyond the project and the composition it has been called on to serve—a true glimpse of the future! Rock on Kanishka!
