For multicultural art, especially Central and East Asian works, Sundaram Tagore Gallery in Chelsea is the preeminent space in Manhattan. Established in 2000, the gallery says its mission is to open the exchange of ideas between Western and non-Western cultures:
In a world where communication is instant and cultures are colliding and melding as never before, our goal is to provide a venue for art that transcends boundaries of all sorts.
Sounds like the artistic equivalent of Times columnist Tom Friedman's book The World Is Flat; art, like everything else, is getting globalized. So does this mean we'll be able to buy cut-rate knockoffs of the art from a guy in a trenchcoat a few blocks away in Chinatown?
The historic New Yorker hotel gets a welcome dining facelift with the just-opened Cooper's Tavern, part of the hotel's $65 million renovation. We say it's about time!
Cooper's is headed up by chef Julian Clauss-Ehlers and features warm blonde wood tables, lots of overhead lighting and a perfect-for-winter menu. For dinner think dishes like coriander-dusted yellowfin tuna and short ribs with horseradish sauce.
Don't miss out on the Skyscraper Burger: 12 oz. of meat topped with bacon, portabello, gouda, onions and tomato, and served with fries and a much-needed knife and fork. For lunch, splurge on the fish and chips. Cooper's is just what this neighborhood needed, and it's the perfect place to escape the first chills of winter.
Agora. It's not a hippy baby name. Or a synthetic form of rabbit fur. It's one of the hottest art galleries in Chelsea. Exhibits range from abstract watercolors to photographs of indigenous tribes--two seemingly tired genres on which the gallery manages to put a fresh twist.
Brazilian painter Karla Caprali's exhibit opens tomorrow and lasts until December 11. Her artwork sounds pretty cool, a Brazil-based newspaper tells us:
She takes a conceptual approach to her memories, perception, lust and ideas about the human condition, exploiting the tension between darkness and light, color and line. Inspired by life and death, dreams and fear, religion and paganism, motherhood and daily routine, she achieves a startlingly contemporary, feminine vision of daily life and her past.
Ok, so maybe this sounds like a bit of pretentious, artsy mumbo jumbo. But the images she creates are mesmerizing, and the stark, white walls and hardwood floors of the traditional gallery combined with Caprali's work make for both a familiar yet progressive gallery experience.
Since contemporary paintings look like something our kid sister splashed together in arts and crafts, we usually stick to the slightly more realistic stuff. That may be why we like Wallspace so much. The contemporary art gallery started in 2002 in a tiny space that allowed up and coming photographers to display their work. When word got out about the great artists using innovative techniques, the gallery moved to a bigger venue on West 27th Street and expanded to include more than just photographers.
The space is stark, so the images really stand out. And despite the noise of a busy city, Wallspace is a quiet spot for artistic reflection. It's a low-key setting that's anything but pretentious, which in some ways, makes it anything but Chelsea despite its address.
Everyone's got one night out in his past that he'd like to live down. Unfortunately for ex-"That '70s Show" actor Wilmer Valderrama, that night was Sunday, when he ran into ex Lindsay Lohan at a karaoke party at New York's PM nightclub. The ex-rehabber herself was on her third go-round of the night with Justin Timberlake's "Like I Love You" (use of falsetto = ten points!) when Wilmer commandeered the mike to sing Matchbox 20's "Back To Good," a song this blogger wishes had died in the '90s. It's not even a great post-break up song, like Ben Folds Five's "Song for the Dumped," or Alanis Morissette's "You Oughta Know," or... okay, we love karaoke.
Maybe Wilmer got the wrong idea because Lohan's first song of the night was "Dirrty." In any case, she didn't want to get dirrty with him; the New York Daily News writes she called out "It's too late!" and then retired to a banquette to drink champagne with her friends. She obviously didn't follow the song's lyrics, which request the ex-love, "If you see me out... try to turn your head, try to give me some room." At least he didn't respond by requesting the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back."
PM is just a hop, skip and a jump away from the Hotel Gansevoort.
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by ced138
