How did everybody know about last night’s opening at the newly refurbished Culver Road Armory? A solo show of an unknown artist in a brand new space on a Saturday night and the place was packed. Free drinks were offered to us before we had even signed in on the iPad mounted to the wall near the entrance. Valet parking, prices starting at 6000 without the frame and plenty of red dots on the wall. “This is not an artist crowd, this is a money crowd”, said the first artist friend that we ran into. It’s true, I don’t know many artists who wear suits or spiked heels.
I was bowled over by the crowd and I was thinking this must have been a social media fueled event because I feel more isolated now that everyone is so connected. I only knew about the show because Martin Edic told us about it at Wednesday’s Margaret Explosion gig. I started asking people how they knew about his event and I got the story that an art dealer, Deborah Ronnen, who lives in Rochester, arranged the show, for the building’s owners who must have rented the lights, constructed the temporary walls to show the work, bought the drinks and invited the in crowd. The former armory already has a law firm as a tenant and restaurant on the way from the Black & Blue people. This art show was a brilliant ploy to get potential high rent tenants to see the space as a happening spot. This may not be the case but it all sounds plausible.
And then there was Mark Fox‘s art. I loved it but not all of it and not all of it as much as some pieces. I liked the two dimensional work better than the piles of cut out handwriting. I loved “Untitled (Black & White Pools)” and “Untitled (Pools 2)” but my absolute favorite was “Untitled (Fence)” (is it untitled or not?), graphite and acrylic on paper with metal pins (shown above). This three dimensional piece was cut from painted paper and woven like chain link fence and then suspended on pins so it would play with the shadows from the light.
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I guess the word was out among people who actually buy art- a fairly rare animal in Rochester. Fox isn’t exactly unknown, he is a fairly hot commodity in NY and has pieces in the MOMA collections and many other galleries. It’s interesting because you picked the pieces that both myself and my friend Boo liked. That fence piece is hard to comprehend until you see it is real life. A bit of compulsiveness there I think!
I got an invite to the pre-opening reception because of supporting BOA. I don’t know Deborah but she is close friends with a friend. And I’ve heard she owns some amazing art.
Besides there is this thing I call the ‘one degree of Rochester’.