Art World Leticia

Sorry to be all Scene & Herdy, but sometimes a girl can’t help herself.

I stopped by Deitch Projects last night for the opening of Swoon’s first NYC solo show. It is crazy and fabulous and great, but I barely got to look - there was such a crowd and as one walked deeper into the gallery things got hot and claustrophobic and decidedly musky. So I ditched and just hung around outside for a while, people watching. There were other openings just ’round the corner too - Spencer Brownstone and Guild & Greyshkul had receptions for their Summer shows too. Kristen commented that Williamsburg was probably mighty deserted that evening, what with the swarm of hipsters spilling into and across Grand St. You don’t need me to tell you about Swoon’s exhibit - ideally you’ll check it out your own self, but I promise it’ll be well-covered in the blogosphere.

I ran into loads of people, many of them artists who have shown, are showing or will be showing at jen bekman soon: Nate Page, Eliot Shepard and Darius were there. As were Tod Seelie, Bret Shirley (who shot this cool photo), and Quenell Jones, who co-directed Public Discourse with Downey and pledged to help out with the ambitious installation Darius & Downey are planning for their September show at my place.

Also spotted, but sadly I didn’t get a chance to talk with them: The Wooster Collective’s Marc Schiller, fellow Frank O’Hara lover Barry of Bloggy and Artcal fame as well as Summer Hey, Hot Shot contenders David Gallagher and Patryce Bak.
Finally, I also saw Ryan Watkins-Hughes, who is working on a cool project that I’ll tell you about in my next post.

If you have pointers to good coverage of the opening, please send me a note at person AT personsim DOT com, so I can post ‘em here.