Gallery-hopping

Last night, The Kikster and I had an evening of gallery-hopping planned out. Here are the highlights:  

1. OPUS, by José Toirac

Imagine this: you walk into a room and are faced with a black screen on which numbers appear, voiced over by Fidel Castro. There you have it: the conceptual work Opus, by Cuban artist José Toirac presented at DHC Art. For this piece, Toirac edited a speech given by Castro in 2003, leaving only the portions where numbers were mentioned. I thought it was a good comment on politics, on our media, and on our tendency to reduce human life to mere numbers.

If you have never visited DHC Art – I urge you to do so. Opus was one of many fabulous works on display. Chronicles of a Disappearance will continue until May 13, 2012.

2. SANTOS, tapas bar

In an attempt to find refuge from the cold, we fell upon the exquisitely designed tapas restaurant Santos. It was the perfect setting for our long winded debate regarding “commercial” art versus “university-derived-slash-intellectual” art. We did a nauseating amount of artist-name dropping, and it was delightful!

3. BGL, at Parisian Laundry

I adore contemporary art. A black canvas: yes! A urinal re-baptized Fountain: sure! A taxidermy dog biting on a lace thong: bring it on! But sometimes, I just don’t get it. And you know what? That’s OK.