10/05/2026
I don’t know what to think after visiting 15 Chelsea and lower east side galleries. I don’t sense a direction, a message, nor any astounding talent. Maybe it was 20k steps through a city that is transforming so quickly into a wealth cult it has gone beyond my capacity to know it anymore. Does a city’s DNA influence the public art offering? Gerhard Richter and Frakenthaler were the only two artists who delivered me into a transportive and thought provoking realm. Katie DeGroot’s work, celebrating the arboreal world in watercolor remains enjoyable. Maybe the city’s hard edges forces the embrace of abstraction. Maybe I didn’t do enough research on my Sea-Saw app. For years it has felt like searching for a needle in the haystack to find what my eyes and mind count as worthy of an inquisitive and engaged search for the unquantifiable magic that only good art can deliver. Most works viewed, not shown, Including sadly, most works from the Museo Del Barrio.
