October 2011: Letter From the Editor

Whitehot Magazine artist/ publisher Noah Becker, photo by Steven Lane.

It's nearing the end of the month of October in New York City. I've been doing back to back meetings, attending gallery openings, playing jazz concerts, making drawings and working with writers.

Chris Verene a photographer who was featured in the Whitney Biennial, included me in his recent project at Postmasters Gallery. Verene took photographs of me in costume, surrounded by girls holding up stuffed fabric lobster claws. I have Spencer Tunick to thank for introducing me to Chris Verene and I am looking forward to the photos.

Trevor Guthrie, opened here in New York at Claire Oliver Gallery on 26th Street last week. His large format charcoal drawings are quite spectacular. I went to art school with Trevor and recommend seeing his exhibition before it closes. It was nice to see Joe Heaps Nelson and Jill Conner at the opening. I went home later that night to work on some drawings.

During the course of the week Grace Rosselli, had a party at her sprawling Dumbo studio full of her enigmatic large scale figurative paintings. While visiting this area of Brooklyn the well known painter Marc Dennis gave me a tour of the neighborhood. Marc’s works are highly substantial and in the tradition of Spanish painting. Dennis is exhibiting at Hasted Kraeutler in Chelsea which is a must see show if you are gallery hopping in New York.  In the must see category, everyone says go to Museum of Modern Art and see DeKooning right away.

Last night the renowned critic, artist and author Robert C. Morgan met me at Marian Goodman Gallery for the opening of Eija-Lissa Ahtila. As a person grounded in the Vancouver scene I recognized the influence of Rodney Graham and Stan Douglas in her work right away. Although Ahtila is Finnish she could almost pass as a Vancouver based artist. Robert Morgan pointed out the building Miles Davis lived in as we left the gallery.
Later on it was a jazz jam session at Smalls Jazz Club on 7th Avenue at west 10th starting at 1am. I was playing alto sax on this session. Roy Hargrove and David Kikoski sat in on piano and horn. Earlier in the evening I performed at the Soho House where the actor Steve Buschemi was in the audience, Isabella Rosselini was having lunch there earlier that day. At 4am outside Smalls Jazz Club, a shadowy figure approached. As this person came up to me I realized it was the Canadian artist Graham Gillmore. 

I visited Dustin Yellin’s studio in Red Hook Brooklyn. Yellin is represented by Vito Schnabel and has several large spaces in Red Hook near the building acting as the storage facility for Christie’s auction houses. More on Dustin Yellin soon as he is renovating a gigantic new Red Hook studio and residency. The people who worked on Gagosian will pour heated and polished concrete floors in Yellin’s new space.

Judith Hudson at Salomon Contemporary at 526 west 26th street in Chelsea was an exceptional opening. Hudson’s work uses text and figurative elements in watercolor. The text in Hudson’s pieces are playful references to the Playboy Advisor. At a certain point in the evening Julian Schnabel appeared at Salomon Contemporary. I spoke with Julian but did not remind him of meeting him in Miami at the New York Times party, Julian Schnabel is amazing. Later that evening at the after dinner for the Salomon show we dined with Linda Yablonsky, Glenn O’Brien, Michael Combs, Peter Dayton, Jerry Saltz, Klaus Kertess, Kiki Smith, Mike Solomon, Alanna Heiss, Donald Sultan, Jane Rose (Keith Richards longtime manager) and a host of other well known figures. Michael Combs got the freight elevator and we spilled into the street just in time to greet Julian Schnabel, Marina Abramovic and Lisa Phillips arriving late to the dinner. Michael Combs directed Julian and Marina to the freight elevator and they went up to the party.

I'll be in Miami for Art Basel week with a major Whitehot Magazine party at a museum on November 29th. Until then, see you around campus...

Letters to the editor can be sent to: noah@whitehotmagazine.com