Earlier this month I had the great pleasure of being in “THE CITY” – Manhattan! At times steel and concrete can be a sight for sore eyes. It must be the vibrancy of this city and all it has to offer that that draws me in so intently. Here for official work reasons, I unfortunately had little time to play. Nevertheless, just being there was invigorating; and I am not referring to the fluffy white stuff that fell from the sky either.

I was pretty excited because my timing could not have been better – it was Arts Week and “The Armory Show” was in full swing. Friday evening I made my way from Chelsea, uptown to Pier 92/94 for the show. I found myself being most drawn to the strong showings of more of the European galleries than American ones, which did not seem to be the case when I recently attended Art Basel Miami Beach.

Works or gallery displays that made me look twice included many sculptural works, but other media as well. Galerie Nathalie Obadia’s (Paris/Bruxelles) installation titled “Without Face: Cultivating the Foreign” by artist Rina Banerjee was captivating overall, but the individual works enticed you to look closer. Kristof Kintera’s installation of a black crow swinging above you on a tree branch made you want to listen to his mumblings in the booth of Jiri Svestka Gallery (Prague/Berlin).

Fun works by Sean Landers (above center: MacGregor, Tartan Buck, Ram), represented by New York gallery Friedrich Petzel, just make you smile. And while we are on the animal theme, the sculpture by Joachim Schönfeldt in the Goodman Gallery’s (Johannesburg/Cape Town) display fascinates and disgusts at the same time. Also from Cape Town, I loved the literary heads (above right - yes those are books!) by artist Michael Stevenson.    

In addition to art, I squeezed in a bit of local history with a visit to the Chelsea Hotel (rip Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen). Ok, so maybe there might have been some art in the hotel as well, sorry. One of the other many pleasures of being in NY is the colossal variety of food from which to choose. I think I spent more time looking and being overwhelmed by all the options than the time I actually spent eating what I purchased! I have a new favorite spot, sorry Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, I am ALL about Westside Market! YUM!