Farewell, Hello and Welcome Back... Armory Week 2012

551 West 21st St, Studio 210, works by Mark Wiener

First days of March find us already in a whirlwind, pulling highlights together at Resolve40, still trying to absorb the fresh approach at the Whitney Biennial, and getting ready for the fairs and activities collectively know as Armory Arts Week.

As artists, we are also gearing up for "Chelsea Saturday" - and our participation in the High Line Open Studios (March 10, 12-6), bittersweet this time around. It is our last such event at Studio 210, 551 West 21st is slated to close its doors later this year. We will miss this venerable and storied magnet for art and culture, please join us one last time!

A trek that same evening will bring us to Williamsburg for Brooklyn Armory Night and another look at Sideshow's "Mic:Check" exhibition featuring almost 500 artists, and many other galleries staying open from 7-11.

All week we'll be racing to catch the best shows, which we continue to compile on the home page of Resolve40. Subscribe to our Twitter updates there - it's the only way to get "Listings Live" streaming videos from on the scene!

Passing through midtown at lunchtime of your way up to the Armory or across to the Piers? Make a stop for one of the coolest and tastiest traditions on the New York art scene:

Molly is coming to town with two notable Chelsea art dealers...

Thursday, March 8th: Pavel Zoubok, director of the Pavel Zoubok Gallery specializes in collage and will talk on the history of collage.

Friday, March 9th: Douglas Walla, brilliant author and owner of Kent Fine Art has shown artists Richard Artschwager, Richard Prince, Llyn Foulkes, Mike Cockrill, and DorotheaTanning.

At the Penthouse of the Roger Smith Hotel, N.E. corner of Lexington Avenue and 47th Street in Manhattan. They start at 12:00 noon, but please plan to arrive earlier for a complimentary Brown Bag lunch, lively conversation, and of course, a good seat. If you have any questions, please call the Roger Smith at 212 755-1400. (via Fran Kornfeld - thank you Fran!)

Hungry for novelty and nightlife? Welcome the first edition of the curator-driven fair, Spring Break Art Show -- it runs 'til 9 each evening at Prince & Mott Streets, and you can register for the after-party each night! But do save Friday for a special Armory Show After Party at the Hole, 312 Bowery, co-hosting with The Serve LLC and Art Station -- remember the cool show at Chelsea's Lukoil Station last fall? (deets below)

Also Friday only, Pink Gallery of Seoul, Korea presents a pop-up show by artists Chris Twomey, Nikki Johnson and Linda Levit for the opening of the Pool Art Fair on the mezzanine of the gorgeous new Flatiron Hotel, open to the public from 3-6 pm at 9 W 26th St (corner B'way)

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An Artist's Book With Bite -- From the Mighty Pen of Anthony Haden-Guest

Anthony Haden-Guest

Far from the right wing diatribe, Anthony Haden-Guest's new book is a hilarious and terrifying ride in words and pictures through the times in which we live. "In The Mean Time" presents Haden-Guest's signature cartoons and drawings alongside passages in verse, which he explains is not poetry ("The difference is rather like the difference between cartoons and fine art, I think."), but storytelling in the tradition of the likes of Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear and Hilaire Belloc.

Courtesy Freight and Volume

Published by Freight and Volume, the limited-edition book will also be available in a smaller edition including some original artwork. It was welcomed enthusiastically by an invited audience at a January 4th reading, with music - by the author and friends - at NYC's Gershwin Hotel.

Anthony Haden-Guest reads

Employing many voices for his deliciously unreliable yet pointed narration, Haden-Guest takes on such weighty subjects as politics, the environment, celebrity, art, death, and shoes...all the while mastering the authorial touch to guide readers through his world while allowing us to make our own decisions about what we see and who we meet there.

Juliette Bennett and Drew Hammond

Joining Anthony in the presentation were Tommy James on piano, Lorraine Leckie performing one of the verses, "Bad Shoes Blues," with her original music, and actor Juliette Bennett and writer Drew Hammond voicing 2 oh-so-downtown characters in "Encounter on the Lower East Side."

Tommy James on piano

Despite, or perhaps as a result of simplicity and directness, the pieces run deep as slices of the way we live around here - timely and on-target in a world where we are beginning to ask hard questions in the face of material challenges to our presumptions - seasoned to taste with wicked humor and finished with fine wordsmithing. When you encounter yourself on Haden-Guest's pages you may laugh, smile, or pretend not to notice, but if you don't think you see yourself, you are not paying attention.

from "In The Mean Time" courtesy Freight and Volume

Nick Lawrence, whose Chelsea art gallery, Freight + Volume, published the book, told us he has always had a passion for narrative, and throughout his career as a dealer has presented artists' books and published several, as well as his gallery's eponymous magazine. Anthony and Nick first met at a dinner in London, where Anthony was creating caricatures of his fellow guests.

from "In The Mean Time" courtesy Freight and Volume

Nick told us, "If two friends can survive a small publishing venture and still..."

Anthony interrupted, "It's not over yet."

Nick and Anthony

For future events and where to get the book, please contact Freight and Volume at

530 W. 24th St. New York, NY 10011, 212-691-7700

uncredited photos © resolve40 2011