Dan's Papers - November 23, 2007 - When In Manhattan... by Amanda Kludt

On December 1, the New Museum's new building will open on the Lower East Side at once signifying the neighborhood's prominence in the contemporary art world and the Bowery's final transformation from gritty to sleek. This is somewhat ironic as the decision-makers at the museum chose the Bowery spot to prove their commitment to young and upcoming artists. However, that was before the swank Bowery Hotel popped up four blocks north, before Whole Foods had their grand opening just around the corner, and before the first new residents closed on their million dollar condos in the Avalon Christie buildings.

But whatever the building's arrival means for the urban and downtrodden charm of the neighborhood, the Sejima + Nishizawa/SANAA-designed New Museum will be a great boost to the scores of ambitious galleries that have popped up in the area over the last few years. They've been plugging away at curating shows by excellent up and coming artists in the shadow of heavy hitting galleries in the art pockets of Chelsea and SoHo. But that will soon change.

The New Museum's opening is itself worthy of an entire column. But I'll just say I highly recommend checking the place out during its first couple of months. If you don't go inside to the gallery spaces to see their permanent collection, at least walk by the building to admire its diaphanous mesh facade and whimsical block structure. It is one of the first buildings in the United States by the Japanese architecture firm known for lighter than air buildings.

But once you've seen what the museum has to offer, stop by some of the galleries in the neighborhood. They tend to offer more affordable art than what you'll find in Chelsea and SoHo, and they feature more obscure artists. My favorite in the area is Rivington Arms. This was one of the first galleries to open on the LES and recently relocated from Rivington Street to East 2nd St., still a stone's throw away from all the action. Founded in 2001 by Mirabelle Marden and Melissa Bent, the gallery has a history of showing undiscovered and incredible young artists. From November 20 until January 2, see a new series "Maria" by the artist Pinar Yolcan. The 26-year-old has already received great acclaim in the art world for "Perishables," her gorgeous yet disturbing portraits of elderly women wearing dresses made out of chicken skin.

The next LES gallery to pop into while you're in the area is the Smith Stewart Gallery on Stanton Street. Opened just this year, the gallery hosts exhibits in all mediums by a rotating selection of young artists. Here you can check out the New York debut of Adrian Paci, an Albanian-born but Milan based artist whose video installation centers on a detention center for illegal immigrants in Italy. If you miss his work here you can catch him again at the MoMA's P.S. 1 art space next summer.

If you're looking for drawings and paintings, stop by to see the current group show at 31 Grand, an eight-year-old gallery that recently relocated to Ludlow Street, entitled "Just a Ghostly Paper Sigh." Here you'll find the new work of almost a dozen up and coming artists until December 22.

You should also wander over to the newest art space in the neighborhood, besides the New Museum that is, to see the inaugural show of Museum 52, the stateside branch of an established London gallery. Like its parent gallery, New York's Museum 52 focuses on young and mid-career artists from all over the world. Their exhibition, which runs through December 22, features three London-based and two New York-based artists and is called "Display." Each artist has interpreted the meaning of display in his or her own way in a variety of mediums.

I recommend checking out any of the aforementioned shows, though you'll probably stumble upon a great gallery just by wandering through the neighborhood these days. A stroll down the length of Orchard, Ludlow, Rivington or Stanton is sure to yield plenty of worthwhile exhibitions whenever you're in town to check out the silver mesh behemoth opening down on the Bowery.