Art/Exhibitions: Batman Returns/New Photographers/Vivian Maier

Joyce Pensato

Joyce Pensato/Freidrich Petzel Gallery: I was actually looking for the New Photographers showing in one of the galleries on 22nd street when stumbled upon a sign saying "Batman Returns". How could I resist?! Located at the Friedrich Petzel Gallery, Joyce Pensato's exhibition contains large, striking portraits of Batman on the walls, dripping with black and silver paint, as well as other artistic transformations of iconic American cartoon characters ("Punk Homer" and "London Donald" for example). While these portraits cover the walls, the floors are covered in paint splatters, stuffed animals and other objects, such as a plastic Mickey Mouse head, a snowman that you would usually find glowing in someone's garden around Christmas and other seemingly random (but not so random) paraphernalia.

Joyce Pensato

You feel like you are walking into an organised chaos, dark and light, good and bad, where characters we perceive to be innocent and friendly have been warped and all is being looked over by an iconic figure who is struggling to remain on the right side of it all. New York City basically. Both dark and bright, slightly ironic, but more just really tongue in cheek than anything else. Anyway - I loved this exhibition and I can't stop thinking about it. I'll probably go back again before it ends to spend more time there. The exhibition is on until February 25th.
Joyce Pensato

Joyce Pensato

Other interesting exhibitions on right now:
Vivian Maier/Steven Kasher Gallery: This is seriously amazing! All through-out her life Vivian Maier took thousands and thousands of pictures on the streets of NYC and Chicago, developed some and kept the negatives of the rest. They were all discovered after her death and as some are currently being exhibited, the rest are being sorted through and developed. I will probably be writing about Vivian Maier again, as I want to go back and spend more time looking at her photos. The type I photography that I really love more than anything, and the type of photography that is probably the closest to what I aim to produce.
More information on Vivian Maier HERE

Vivian Maier

Danziger Gallery: their New Photographers exhibition has some gems - especially Chris Levine's Queen Portraits and Tereza Vlckova's twins and free-flying women (both striking in very different ways). On until February 25th.
(Watch the video on Chris Levine's website (linked above) - there is a moment when the Queen just laughs and seems so lovely and human).

Chris Levine