The many moods of Lower Manhattan have inspired the artists of TriBeCa for 5 decades. This weekend partake of the essential experience by visiting about 70 artists where they work during the annual Open Studio Art Walk (a/k/a TOAST), beginning Friday evening April 23rd.
Studio Window - photo by Peggy Cyphers
In the words of artist Jacqueline Sferra Rada, her work presents "both a nostalgic memory of the simplicity and restorative affects of nature, which have become increasingly overlooked in lieu of technology." While she discusses the "marring effects" of industry on the landscape, we find her studio at 515 Greenwich Street nestled in a setting shaped by commercial forces in the decades before the western waterfront of Manhattan was reclaimed. Ensconced there, the transparent layers of her landscapes on paper seem all the more precious and delicate.
Jacqueline Sferra Rada - Small Island Series #II (24 x 30 inches)
As her photo attests, at 315 Broadway painter and printmaker Peggy Cyphers works with sight of the beating heart of the city, as well as the financial district. She describes the result as "exciting and abrasive, noisy and full of history. It's a Spectacle of Disaster and Beauty and extremes that informs my work - dramatic spacial tensions that mirror the human tensions, those in positions of financial and judicial power in contrast with the frightened powerless others...Then there's this legacy of 9/11 which still haunts all my being. TriBeCa!"
Disaster Spectacle - NYC, painting by Peggy Cyphers
Finally, all that walking makes you hungry, and as always the art in the community has led to myriad eateries of all stripes thriving below Canal. A few have sponsored the event, including our favorite discovery from the days when Mark had a studio on Worth Street. Souths, at 273 Church St. near Franklin, is a small neighborhood pub in the best New York tradition - tasty and generous specials, salads and sandwiches at very attractive prices, friendly service and conversation, and the best Irish Coffee we've had anywhere in town! Perfect place to begin or end your TOAST with a toast - maybe we will see you there...
