Limited Access Visit #8: Chelsea Galleries

October 13th: Wow, a month ago? Time is flying again! Anyway, October 13th I spent some time in the art galleries of Chelsea. This is a thing I really like to do, even if I go without knowing what to expect.

Hauser Wirth: There’s this new multi-story Hauser Wirth gallery, it’s practically a museum and there’s a big opening ceiling on the top floor!

Lisson Gallery: Well, this Ryan Gander show featuring sleeping cats (that breathed!) and a mouse that would pop out of its whole to monologue at you when it saw you coming, was just great! I don’t believe it’s there anymore. Sorry I didn’t show you these earlier.

Pace Gallery: The multi-floor Pace Gallery is even bigger and more like a museum than the Howser Wirth one with a cool open space up on top. Highlights from this visit: a bunch of Jena Dubuffet on the ground floor and Yoshitomo Nara up among the higher floors.

…ok before I show you stuff from the roof I just want you to see where it is, it’s under that grey two-story thing on the right. The grey two-story thing part of the gallery straddles the open roof area, so you can be outside and not get rained on unless you want to really bad.

On the left there that’s the apartment building that used to be famous for having a car elevator so you can drive right into your apartment’s “sky garage”.

And here’s a surprise ending! Turns out the Hudson Yards mall is open (and empty!). Hello Vessel, hello big gorilla!

Cars, Trees, Rocks and a Mall

October 17th: I found myself very lucky to have been invited on a jaunt out of the city to hike around and enjoy people and nature. This was my first time out of the city since mid-March, I tried to make the most of it. Our goal was to be hiking in the Minnewaska area, maybe see a lake and a waterfall, but lots of other people wanted to be enjoying nature that day and the parking lots of every trailhead were totally full until we found one lot where exactly two spots were left (and that’s the number of spots we needed). So whatever that hike was, we did it and it was great.

After the hike, we had a nice little lunch and walk-around in New Paltz.

After New Paltz I found myself in a car back to the city that needed to make a stop at a Target … a Target which was attached to the Palisades Mall! Boy nothing brings you back to life during a pandemic like a walk around a gigantic mall where they’re really trying to get people’s money any way they can!

Limited Access Visit #7: the Guggenheim

The Guggenheim re-opened a few weeks later than all the other museums with far trickier hours to work with but I got a couple reservations to go there at 5:15pm October 3rd. I had not been to the Guggenheim for a VERY long time, like, easily 11 years? The exhibit there right now is about the countryside. It was like a Museum of Science + Industry exhibit mixed with an art exhibit.

A special thing about this museum trip is I went with Patricia, who I hadn’t seen since the beginning of March.
Another thing about this museum trip was it turns out the Guggenheim closes at 6. So we had 45 minutes to see what we could see. It was nearly enough time for the rotunda, but not enough to check on the other galleries.

In Sum: Not a whole lot of people there, but also not a lot of visiting options. Still, it’s just fun to be in the Guggenheim, even if it’s for about half an hour.