GALLERY REVIEWS: Freight & Volume, Lyons Wier Gallery

"Haymaker" is the current show at Freight & Volume, 530 W. 24th St, NYC. A group show with the main room featuring paintings by Damian Stamer, a mash-up of abstract expressionism and realism. Fairly large canvases with wide washy brush strokes with rural images of old barns and shacks, fields, and barely rendered objects that resemble bales of hay. Makes for an interesting discussion - it's all brushstrokes, but some combine to form a recognizable image, some don't...can they live amicably in the same composition?



The statement says that Stamer's imagery reflects "the art market’s fluctuations, its in-favor/out of favor oscillations between the two genres." Whether anyone would take that from the paintings without the statement is debatable. Regardless, there is some good painting going on here and Stamer meets the challenge of combining two styles/genres quite well.
Above left: "Golden Leaf" 30x40", oil - Right: "South Lowell" 58x72", oil

Another artist in the show, Eric White, takes a jab at music market sound bites by recreating, in actual scale, album covers from the 70s and 80s.







I've been following Michael Lyons Wier's galleries for many years because of the consistent high quality of the work. This is to my reckoning his third space and he still maintains Lyons Wier Limited over on 7th Ave and 20th.
This is the debut show at his new space, a group show of some of the artists he reps. Mostly geared towards realism but with stylistic variety - photo realism, loose painterly, pop, and in cases like the always amazing Cayce Zavaglia, mixed media. One of the most underrated artists today, her portraits are layered and woven onto linen canvas with crewel wool, and then a painted background. "Abbi," the size is 11x27" (detail left) shows her amazing skill which has been championed in this blog before. When seen in person they're kind of awe-inspiring.

James Rieck's "Cockblock," 82x54", is interesting because the artist only uses 3 colors in this series of paintings: napthol crimson, sap green and white. The model is wearing a t-shirt with Bruce Lee images and humorous titles which correspond to them.

One more piece of note is another personal favorite, Fahamu Pecou. His piece, "Him and I (and Me)," acrylic and oil stick, 60x72" continues his ballsy self-portraits as pseudo pop/hip hop/celebrity icon. There is an energy in his work with a dash of Kehinde Wiley and a hint of Basquiat fed into the hip hop hype machine.
This group show is up til January 29th and Lyons Wier Gallery is located at 542 W. 24th St, NYC.

Eatin' and Drinkin' in Napa

Napa is exactly what you'd expect - rolling hills, lush vineyards, great food, great wine. The lovely Miss C and I stayed at the Wine Country Inn in the St. Helena section of Napa. Country-ish, our room's decor had lot of chickens - statues, quilts, pictures, etc. No TV. Our two favorite parts were the fireplace already setup with wood, kindling and paper, and the private patio with an outdoor jacuzzi about 20 feet from the grapevines with a great view. Each night they have a mini-tasting in the lobby from a local vineyard and we tasted a sangiovese from Castello di Amorosa, a nice dry red, right up there with a sangiovese from Italy. We stopped there the next day and grabbed two bottles, but unfortunately time didnt allow us to take the tour - the place is an actual stone castle with a moat! If you go, consider adding this to your agenda.

The first night we dined at Go Fish in St Helena (the inn offers a free shuttle service to local restaurants!) and it was amazing (see pics below). We were seated in a romantic and comfortable banquette with pillows. I ordered a bottle of sauvignon blanc from St. Supery and it ended up being my favorite wine from the trip. Some sauvignon blancs are too citrusy or too fruity, but this was perfectly balanced, full of flavor and we vowed to get to their winery in Napa and buy a few bottles. Our driver told us to order the lobster sushi roll which is not on the menu, so we did and it was unique and delicious (and $33!) A long roll with ahi tuna and crab, avocado and topped with chunks from half of a cooked lobster tail! We also ordered the ceviche of the day, sea bass marinated in citrus for 20 hours, then tossed with a light tomato broth, onions and spices. Rounding out the meal was a dish one rarely sees outside of Hawaii called poke. It's sort of like steak tartare but using ahi tuna. In Hawaii it's served in a parfait glass topped with avocado and various other elements depending on the restaurant. Go Fish's version was a burger sized serving on a plate with ginger, baby carrot, tobiko, pine nuts and a sprinkling of a potent spice called, if I remember right, tobuhiko? Something like that. I asked the waiter about it and a few minutes later he showed up with a small scoop of it in a plastic cup for me to take home. Waitstaff everywhere need to take note how a simple thing like that endears diners to the restaurant, and also adds to the the tip.

The next day we went to Sterling Vineyards because Miss C's friend hooked us up there and we rode the tram up to the winery. A simple self-guided tour with tastings set up throughout, and we had several excellent wines. Below are shots of the huge wooden barrels and they also had a patio with amazing views.
We bought a few wines here - I'm not a chardonnay fan, but their's was light on the oak, not cloying, and it's always good to have a chard on hand for guests. The surprise hit was Malvasia Bianca ($30 bottle) Spicy flavors of ginger, nectarine, pear, tangerine, with a nice finish of lemon-lime. Not as sweet as a dessert wine, and I'm not partial to sweet wines in general, but this was so unique and tasty we had to buy some! The sommelier suggested serving it with spicy foods or bleu cheese, but not one that's too salty. We were thinking a rich cheese platter, crackers, fruit, figs, with some good friends outside in warm weather. Highly recommended if you can find it. We also picked up some of their reisling and if memory serves, a cabernet sauvignon as well.

We drove to TV/book chef Michael Chiarello's restaurant, Bottega, for lunch. A beautiful, rustic place with attention paid to every detail. Even the water was served in hammered copper cups rather than glasses, a unique touch. For an app I got the charred octopus with potato and greens and C got butternut squash soup. I guess butternut squash was big at the farmer's market because I ordered a special, tortelli stuffed with it. Not sure why they called them tortelli, they were actually ravioli - light sauce, filling was full of flavor and not too sweet. C got skirt steak with pommes frites, salad and a zesty red pepper chimichurri sauce.

Dinner was at Market in downtown St. Helena. A medium-sized, rectangular, casual restaurant with a fairly large bar, which is where we sat. At this point we went with small plates, and I got some local oysters, fresh and delicious, and a lobster roll with asparagus, avocado and mango with an awesome dipping sauce of basil and mint in a light oil. We also got a dungeness crabcake loaded with crabmeat and lightly fried, with roasted white corn. For dessert we again went with our driver's recommendation and got the house specialty butterscotch pudding - cool, creamy, sweet and a must-get if you eat here.

Our last winery was Peju, a family owned green/organic vineyard. The server was very friendly and informative and we sampled about 7 wines. I wasn't terribly impressed with most of them, but the cabernet sauvignon and syrah were good. Then he broke out their "Fifty/Fifty" a small run blend of merlot and cabernet that was outstanding. I asked if they had any of their reserve wines open that we could sample and he brought out their reserve cab and it completely blew away their regular cab, not even close. We got the 50/50, about $75 or 80 to save for a special occasion, but not the cab reserve which was over $100.

If you go to Napa, I suggest you go for 3-4 days at least. We crammed in alot because we only had just over 2 days and then were off to San Fran. There's plenty to do - many wineries to choose from, great restaurants, spas (we had an amazing scrub and massage in our room) and Ol' Faithful geyser is nearby, too! And of course, you'll need some chill time from all that food and vino!

Tiger Woods

Restaurant: Dovetail - NYC

Michael Colameco (PBS's "Colameco's Food Show") had a morning radio program on WOR in which he talked about cooking and dining. One restaurant he consistently recommended was John Fraser's Dovetail, so when I saw it was participating in Restaurant Week, I went for dinner. Inconspicuously located just off Columbus Ave at 103 W 77th Street, Dovetail ( "to join together harmoniously" ) has a warm, cozy atmosphere of earth tones, exposed brick, maple panels, oak tables -you get the idea. A dovetail is also a type of joint in woodworking, so they're working that theme here.

I ordered an interesting cocktail, a Black Martinez, with gin, sloe gin and orange bitters. A perfect meld with neither liquor dominating and the delicious orange finish was spot on. The lovely Miss C ordered a sauvignon blanc to go with her fish entree, more on that shortly. We were served cornbread and an amuse bouche on elegant spoons of a piece of curried watermelon topped with coconut flan. A surprise extra is always a plus in my book! However, this didn't quite hit the mark. The flan was so airy it was almost tasteless, but the curry in the watermelon was pretty heavy. It would've been a cool experiment if the curry was barely there on the backend of it. This was the only unbalanced thing we had all evening.

For her appetizer Miss C selected the White Gazpacho with almonds, asparagus, lavender and grapes. Served with some of the aforementioned items in a bowl and the "soup" poured over it. Light, tasty and not as sweet as the ingredients might suggest. I went for the Cantaloupe Salad with squid, fennel and mint. Funny thing about Dovetail, the portions look small but are surprisingly filling. The cantaloupe was thinly sliced, but I was more interested in the squid. All the ingredients were balanced and the squid was light and tender.

My entree was Braised Veal Shoulder with chorizo, peas, preserved lemon, sauce blanquette. There's a consistent theme to the food here at Dovetail, and that is balance. Elements that you'd think would dominate the dish, don't. There's obviously been time spent in achieving this because things could easily tip one way or the other taste-wise, but they don't. The veal pieces were tender, moist and the sauce blanquette complimented the meat. Again, at first I thought, "Not enough here!" but I was wrong. Miss C had a good-sized, firm, flaky piece of hake with grilled shrimp in a tomato stew (a tad salty), parsnips, peas, carrots, haricots verts and one last item we couldn't decipher that turned out to be chick pea fritters!

For dessert she had a berry crumble with ice cream - nice texture but a bit bland, and Miss C felt it definitely needed the ice cream to complete it. I had a chocolate mousse cake, a sliver of thick chocolate cake with a piece of hard chocolate on the top with a few cherries on the side, pistachio crémeux, and to the side, 3 pistachio nuts which visually was a bit amusing for some reason. Just these 3 little pistachio nuts sitting out there on this large plate like little sailors lost at sea.

We ate in the bar area, which was comfortable but darker than the restaurant area, and I like the visual part of dining. We were mainly served by our bartender who was very friendly, and an unending stream of suit-and-tied men that were either checking on our meal or taking our plates, along with the regular waitstaff - it was a little confusing! It was an enjoyable Restaurant Week meal (our drinks were $14 each) and we were pleasantly surprised at how full we were since the dishes seemed small. Not stuffed, just right, which in my mind reiterated the theme of balance here at Dovetail.

Harvey Pekar RIP

Like most people, the first time I saw Harvey Pekar was on his David Letterman appearances when I was in college in the early 80s. One of my roommates, John, and I were taken by this oddity - a comic book guy on Letterman? a weird dude who is completely unintimidated by Dave? His appearances were bizarre and you never knew what to expect, which is part of what led to their parting of ways - watch the "American Splendor" movie for details.

The best part is that his appearances prompted me to seek out and buy an American Splendor compilation. I had been buying comics since I was 7, but this - this changed the whole way I looked at the medium. These didn't necessarily have a beginning, middle and end, or battles with villains, and the quality of the various artists' work was inconsistent (Pekar wrote, didnt draw). This was "neo-realism," nothing more than snippets of this guy's daily life, tribulations and thoughts. Simple mundane things like being in line at the grocery store, to being lonely, to interesting facts about jazz musicians. I could not believe someone made a comic of those things - and I loved it. So much so that I called 411 in Cleveland and got his phone number and called him. We talked for a bit, he was very cordial, and I called him every so often. I sent him letters and comics, too.

Here's a coincidence for ya - I was chatting up AS and Pekar to my oldest brother, Tony, who for a few years was a surgeon at the VA Hospital in Cleveland. I put two and two together and thought perhaps it was the SAME hospital that Harvey worked at. I asked my brother and he replied, "Wait, the squirrely little guy that worked in files?? That's him?!?" I called Harvey and he said he remembered my brother. Six degrees of separation.

Years go by, and I opened a bar/gallery called Liquid Lounge in Hoboken. When tending bar, people talk - personal problems, crazy stories, wacky behavior, etc. Like the saying goes, "People confess to their priest or their bartender." Some stories were so good that I would jot down the salient points on napkins or a pad in order to remember the story. I came up with the idea, thanks to Harvey's American Splendor, of doing strips recounting these stories. The art had the customer looking directly at the reader so that you (the reader) became the bartender, like the person was talking to you. I called it "True Tales from the Bar Side." It appeared in a few local papers, I self-published a collection of them, and one strip was in an Australian anthology comic around '98 called Dee Vee! My strip appeared next to one by the amazing Eddie Campbell which felt like an honor, but more so was that after all those years of reading comics and drawing superheroes and villains that I finally had something of mine appear in a real, honest to goodness Comic Book!

I went to a movie at the Sunshine Landmark Theatre in NY around 2002, and during the previews I almost jumped out of my seat when they showed the trailer for an upcoming American Splendor movie!! I had no idea about this and the next day, filled with excitement, called Harvey . By this time, I rarely called because he had married Joyce and she usually answered the phone. I imagine climbing the Berlin Wall to escape the USSR was easier than getting past her to Harvey. She was always brusque, suspicious and well, just plain rude. Anyway, I passed the interrogation and got through to him. I told him that I saw the trailer, that the audience was buzzing about it, that it looked great, and how psyched I was for him. In true Pekar fashion, he replied, "Oh thanks, I just hope it makes me some money. You know I got to put this kid through college here in a coupla years."

Not long after the film came out he was doing a book/film tour and made a stop in NY. I went and finally got to meet him. As I was walking away, he said, "Oh, hey Joe, that comic you sent me, that was pretty good."
Cheers, Harvey - R.I.P.!