BDNY AND THE SALON ART+DESIGN

THE SALON ART+DESIGN

Any time a show choses the Park Avenue Armory as its venue one can expect an Upper Eastside appeal. The Salon Art + Design did not disappoint. As opposed to shows selecting the massive Javits as their home the Armory is a smaller space with barely room for four aisles of booths that are more ateliers than vendor spaces.
It is definitely not a show based on the premise that more is more.

Some purveyors of art and antiquities had spaces so minimally stocked it was hard to see where their profit lay although that soon became eminently clear.

When the walls of your space are decorated with original Egon Schiele's the sale of one piece is more than likely sufficient to warrant the cost of your show expenses plus a tidy profit.

And most of the dealers here had some hefty expenses to deal with. It is a show composed heavily on representation from across the pond. With names in attendance like Giustini/Stagetti Galleria O. Roma and Pierre Marie Giraud Europe was well-represented meaning transportation, crating and huge custom forms to deal with and pay for.

I had decided on attending the show in hopes that I might find some art for a current client. We've been going back and forth on a few pieces but we've not hit on the right piece at the right price. This piece by an artist known as Nunzio done in 1954 did stop me, constructed of sheet metal over wood the patina and rhythm of the form was intriguing. We were looking for a large piece and Nunzio's piece at approximately five feet by five feet meant it was almost large enough for what we were looking for so I inquired. I asked the stunningly attired curator "Can you tell me anything about the piece?'
"It is stunning isn't it?" I nodded
She continued in her Italian accented broken English,"It's by Nunzio, an Italian artist very well known in Europe but not so well known here. It would be a steal at $120,000 U.S."
"A bargain" Unfortunately my client's budget wasn't quite up to that level.

I decided it was going to have to be an inspirational tour of the rest of  the show after I made one more attempt at inquiring about a piece I thought conceptually might have been appropriate. This piece made from honeycomb lath covered in 24-karat gold priced out at a mere $33,000. You have no idea of how hard and time consuming it is to get all that gold into all those little hexagonal holes.

Once I had given up on the quest of coming away with a possible solution to my client's needs I was able to focus on some of the pieces that I could connect with on a purely visual basis. I loved the airiness of this aluminum construction dated 1970 by the Swedish artist, Bertil Herlow-Svensson. It was a piece that when lit became more than the form itself by extending onto the walls with a constantly moving pattern of lines shadows on the wall and glints of reflective light.

Contemporary and current pieces were also on display. I'm normally not fascinated with three-dimensional art but this piece by Naimh Barry was another standout.

One of my favorites was the Sarah Meyerscough Gallery out of London specializing in a mix of woodcrafts and unforgettable art. The pale and grained wood on this huge table was to marvel at.

And this photo of a twist on the Vermeer painting had me drooling with desire. The trompe l'oeil of the real pearls dripping from the bottom of the frame was genius. Given the price point of most of the work I'm guessing that the pearls may actually be real and not manmade.














BDNY

The contrast between vendors at the Javits and those at the Park Avenue Armory couldn't have been clearer if only in the way they labeled themselves. At the Javits they were clearly vendors and sale people. At the Armory they were curators and antiquarians.

At the Armory touching the art could get your hands slapped. At BDNY you were encouraged to not only sit on the product but draw on it too. I'm pretty sure these chairs by Marquis were only a show gimmick but you have to admit they were an ingenious venture into pure fun.

There were a few things I hadn't seen before. This might only be new to me but this heatless flame was a novelty to me. You could run your hand through the flame and make it flicker from your hand's movement. There was no heat involved, you couldn't get burned...smoke and mirrors?

I hadn't seen Area Environments before. They're a wall covering company. It was hard to ignore their booth and that can be difficult if what you deal in is two-dimensional and usually shown in a book with samples no bigger than a diploma. Their marbleized wall covering that they stretched from wall to floor and would have extended to the ceiling if they had a ceiling was more that just impressive. It was a gorgeous adventure into blue and hand-painted swipes of gold.

Shagreen didn't make as significant an impression as it has in the past but what I did see I liked including this side table in brushed nickel and faux grey shagreen  from Go Home.

Steampunk is a well-known phenomenon in Madison but I was astounded to see it make an appearance at the BDNY show.  This version called ModVic hails from Sharon, Massachusetts. They came to the show with their own blacksmith/ironworker who pounded and bent creating his own rhythm and music as you walked by. I'm not sure how this might fit into the Boutique Design milieu but it was fascinating to see.

I couldn't review the show without a nod to one of my favorite vendors, Global Views. They always come up with great design at great prices making us look good to many of our clients.

But the most impressive piece of information I walked away with is that at a trade show that caters to the hospitality crowd is a great way to get a free drunk. Virtually every booth came equipped with a fully stocked and free, yes I said free, bar and those that didn't stashed their hooch in cabinets or under beds.

There were corks popping at nine in the morning. I'm, unfortunately not a drinker, but here's to next year's bacchanal.
THE GALLERY

Weegee At the San Remo Bar, ca. 1954
Weegee, photographer
Represented by the Steven Kasher Gallery

AUTUMN IN CENTRAL PARK

A 10 OUT OF 10 DAY

New York generally gets no more than a handful of perfect days each year. The first Friday in November just happened to be one of them, low sixties, blue skies, a paintbrush stroke of falls colors and a clear view for miles.

The emerald jewel in the cities crown has always been Central Park and even though I had a couple meetings to navigate on Friday and an early evening flight I still carved out an hour to walk over the cinder paths now covered with a patchwork of golden leaves in one of the most magnificent parks in the world on a day that was nothing but perfect. I would be guilty of being greedy if I didn’t share.

Here goes.

THE GALLERY

Central Park, 1935

Samuel Gottscho, photographer

From the Gottscho-Schleisner Collection in the Library of Congress

TREINEN FARM CORN MAZE AND PUMPKIN PATCH

A DAY ON THE FARM IN FALL

It was a perfect autumn day, temperature in the mid-sixties, clear skies, a gentle breeze and enough fall color to make the hills of Lodi, Wisconsin still sing their autumnal song.

We've known Julie for almost as long as we've been back in Madison. It's on her family farm that one of America's premier corn mazes has delighted and entertained thousands of guests for the past several years. This year Travel Magazine, USA Today, MSN and the Travel Channel have honored the Treinen corn maze and pumpkin patch as one of the country's ten best. Even Architectural Digest singled out Treinen Farm as one of the best in the nation. I couldn't believe that Julie and her family beat us to an editorial in Architectural Digest, but their honor was well deserved.

Everything on the farm is worked out to perfection. The farm is located on Highway 60 just outside of Lodi, Wisconsin. The farm is impossible to miss. Parking is on one side of the highway and looks more like a parking lot for a major athletic event.

For safety they've added a human size culvert going under the highway as a passage into the farm proper. Local kids are employed with wooden wagons to help guests carry their pumpkins from the fields back to their cars. The service is free but these kids make a killing on tips.

There is an admittance fee and a few competitive events have a small fee but everything else is free and there are activities for everyone. Expect lines, especially for heading out to the pumpkin patch.

It's probably the most photogenic part of the experience. Alan Treinen, the eighth child in the family of ten owns and runs this now massive operation. It's Alan who breeds and trains the Belgian Draft horse teams that pull the huge wagons out into the field for those wanting to take a pumpkin home with them.

They are very careful to not overtax the horse teams so they're switched out on regular rotation. Just watching the process of hitching and unhitching the teams is a spectacle.

Guests line up to board the wagons and then when they return their arms are always laden with pumpkins

There's a bin right there where they can wash down their finds

or an area set aside with baby cribs to store your pumpkin while you go off to explore the rest of the farm.

Kids are treated to all sorts of adventures. There's the rubber duckie water pump where kids use an old water pump to send rubber ducks down a shut and into a galvanized mini-lake

There are pony rides for those not suffering from equine fear.

Molehill Mountain provides the thrill of a giant slide through a tunnel made from PVC culvert pipes.

And if that's not enough to entertain the kids let them loose in the Tractor Tire Playground and watch them get filthy dirty in amongst the piles of sand and rubber tires.

For the bigger kids there's the pumpkin slingshot where you can catapult a small gourd or pumpkin into the pond in an attempt to hit a floating target

or for a dollar you can challenge your sense of balance and climb Jacob's Ladder. If you can reach the top without falling you win a sawbuck. I'm guessing this is a real moneymaker for them. I've never seen anyone reach the top

Then there are the animals, from miniature goats

to a pack of baby pigs with names like Bacon and Pork Chop a sadistic nod to their ultimate demise.

Perhaps the biggest animal draw is the kitty house. There's always a line to get in and spend time with a slew of kittens.

Most people who come to the farm and maze spend a good part of the day there so food is also a big part of the experience.

The food shed houses a snack bar featuring Lodi's award winning bratwurst, a Wisconsin staple along with cheese curds, chili dogs and malts and ice cream

A trip to the Old Chicken House Store is a mandatory stop before anyone leaves the farm and heads back to the tunnel and the parking lot.

Inside is where they stash the caramel apples and cinnamon donuts all locally made and totally delicious. Try to find a four-dollar caramel apple in New York. I dare you.

I have gone to the farm every year since we've know Julie and every year I make sure I don't leave without my year's supply of root beer jelly. I'm from Wisconsin and it's in my blood even if the first ingredient listed is sugar. I don't care.

I guess I need to end with the maze. It's great if you've got a group but on my own I'm not that into it.

Mazepic The amazing view is overhead and that's impossible to do without a drone but the aerial pictures are amazing.

When you're on the ground it just looks like corn but the thrill is getting in and then getting lost.

Fortunately they hand out maps so you can sort of get yourself out but I've known people who've ended up in there for hours trying to find their way back to the entrance.

For the really small ones they offer a Children's Maze. It's actually more my speed.

The farm will remain open until the second weekend in November. Put on your shit-kickers, come with hunger for what Wisconsin has to offer and load up on a few pumpkins still good for that Thanksgiving pumpkin pie.
















THE GALLERY

Southwest Wisconsin Farm Landscape
Zane Williams, photographer
Contact Zane Williams Photography