Experimental Art Thoughts #4 and Scout Art Fair
Reflections on Scout and Experimental Art Thoughts in New York City
Experimental Art Thoughts #4: New York City
When: Saturday, June 21st
Where: Chelsea Arts District
When: 2-5 p.m.
Since 2018, I have been galavanting through the galleries in Chelsea, New York. It was a known thing back then that Thursdays were the galleries’ openings, where crowds of people gathered and endless wine and champagne were poured. With over 300 galleries there alone, there were always multiple openings happening on any given Thursday. Twenty-something and pre-covid, my mission was to see as many galleries as possible on these Thursday nights. It was a fun game for me. Hustling between street to street, gallery to gallery, seeing the art quickly, downing a glass of wine, and moving on to the next. I loved the thrill of it. One of those Thursday nights, I made it to over 25 galleries in three hours, so drunk by the end of that mission, the New York breeze nearly wiped me off my feet.
The art director and dealer, Andrea Delph, once said to me, “You have to see the art you don’t like to know the art that you do.” Chelsea’s art galleries are where I developed my taste in art. It didn’t take many galleries or Thursday nights for me to realize what I didn’t like, but this was a great exercise for my eyes and mind.
Now thirty-something, I mostly attend gallery exhibitions that I know I will like and leave it up to the museums to show me what I don’t (jk jk). At least twice a year, I do my share of gallery hopping in this packed-out district, curating a list of shows I find from Artsy. So for my fourth, Experimental Art Thoughts Tour and for my second one in NYC, I have chosen four galleries in Chelsea for us to gallery hop. Gallery hopping gives us the space to walk, talk, and avoid the overwhelming feeling of being in a crowded New York museum. Our group will get the chance to get to know a diverse range of work, and also each other.
For this edition, we will be visiting four galleries.
-Gagosian for Willem de Kooning Endless Painting — 555 W 24th St.
-Dia Chelsea for Steve McQueen Sunshine State — 537 W 22nd St.
-Nara Roesler for the group show On Blindness — 511 W 21st St.
-Ethan Cohen Gallery for Algernon Miller: Afrofuturism and Beyond — 225 W 17th St.
Afterwards, we will grab a drink (or mocktail) at either Fairweather, Bonobo, or Wildflower to discuss the work we saw.
So wear some comfy shoes and be prepared for a fun art filled Saturday.
I am looking forward to seeing you there ;)
Reserve your spot here.
Looking Back At Scout Art Fair:
Imagine an art opening that is three days long instead of three hours. I now understand why galleries take 50% of all sales (yes, galleries take 50%). I still feel like that it a lot, but after working my booth, and doing the work of installing, setting up, curating, talking to hundreds of people, trying to sell the work, selling the work, deinstalling, and then shipping whatever work off to the collector, I now have a better understanding and appreication for dealers and gallerists. I am glad I now have first-hand experience working at an art fair because I can truly appreciate those who do that work for artists, and I now know how I want things to be done on my behalf.
Scout Fair was a lotttt of work. The painting, curating, wrapping, and signing my prints, picking out the furinture for my booth, running around every day for a week, driving back and forth to Baltimore, and stressing out about outfit choices, was worth it.
Over three days, I was able to observe how the “art crowd” and “everyday” crowd reacted to, received, and viewed my work. For the first time, I was able to share this body of work with a wide range of people, aside from the people who already knew me. And it just felt good to show you all, the people who have been watching, supporting, and holding me up throughout the years, the elevation of my work and its presentation. I witnessed people of all genders and ages understand the work without explanation, and those who were unsure or simply curious asked to know more. I know the eggshells reeled people in. It became an accessible entry point for all people to enter my booth and engage with me and the work. This helped me understand the universal recognition and symbolism of the egg.
I met so many people who connected with me on our multiple layers of fragility and our grief. One man in particular expressed the grief he was feeling over his late wife. The next day, that same man returned, gifting me the book Loss, Poems to Better Weather the Many Waves of Grief. He said that after seeing my booth, he went to my website and thought about what I said about my work and my mother. I was shocked and touched. Kindness still exists in the world.
Who knew that expressing my heartache over losing my mother would touch so many people? That my grief is a collective grief we all feel or felt at one point in our lives. My mother, Eileen’s, impact on Earth was just that big, and even after death, her impact still reaches the hearts of many. I am deeply honored that I have been given the opportunity and ability to do what I love and share my mother with the world. She deserves that, and nothing brings me more joy.
Throughout the fair, a lot of hugs were given and many tears were shed, but one thing remained clear: my work was seen and felt by many.
Price Sheet:
I have compiled a price sheet of the paintings and silkscreen prints available in a PDF below. Please reach out directly if you are interested in collecting a piece.
Xx Ciarra K. Walters
