Art: NO DRINKING IN CHELSEA

SEXDRUGSandART

There was no drinking in Chelsea art galleries all the times I visited alone, after work. At least 2 or 3 times a week, I’d stroll over to the West side and feel the heart of NYC’s Arts district – so quietly charged with personality, sensuality and the mystery of creativity. I loved to spend time alone in that neighborhood, walking through the rooms, past paintings, photographs, installations – sometimes engaged by the art, other times simply surrounded.

But there was no drinking, no flirting, no party. Not for me. I didn’t attend a single Chelsea gallery reception the entire ten years I lived and worked in NYC. No wine and cheese, no sophisticated or punk artsy people. I visited so often and never had a sip, and never had to flirt with anyone.

The cool and elevated drinking at art shows, where everyone is an artist, or dresses and talks like one, is part of a kind of institutionalized frat party for a particular social group. Open moderately priced wine bars are expected. If it’s a bigger event, beer and vodka sponsors are as present there as they would be at any corporate function.

The art world does not party with originality. Art people loosen up with the same booze we all use, before the guards go down and the flirting starts:

Nan Golden reception, SF, 1998 –

Me: “So, Nan, where’s the good stuff?”

Nan: “Oh, that’s in here,” and she opened a door and poured us champagne. Then she took a photo of my tattoo. The tattooed guy I was with took his shirt off for her.

SPACE Gallery, benefit for Larkin Youth Center with SFMOMA, SF, 1998 –

I remember so many people in that gallery. You couldn’t even get to the bar, which overtook the area with a huge SKY Vodka logo. I was one of the gallery assistants then, and I went home with the other gallery assistant that night.

OrangeLine, Syracuse, 2008 –

I only went for the booze, but I had a fun time anyway. It was snowing, I was broke, and Melissa’s opening would be something to do. When I arrived, she was behind the turntables with the DJ, people were scattered around and there was plenty of wine to get toasty. People were still there the next morning doing more than drinking.

LACE, LA, 2010 –

The performance artist picked me from the crowd to sit at her table where she poured me a glass of red wine. Then she poured one for herself, raised it, and splashed it on her chest as part of her performance. She set the bottle in front of me, and I helped myself in front of a large crowd, while she proceeded with her long performance art piece.

TOTEM Gallery, NYC, 2001 –

Spacescent launched its Yves Behar designed bottle at Totem in Soho. A well-known art director was djing across from the champagne bar. I grabbed my art director friend and myself a glass. SPACE owner Haas was there, mingling nervously as usual. It was a brief reunion of artists and art directors I knew from SPACE in SF. Michael Stipe was there. My date and I went home together.

Sugar Pearl, Syracuse, 2006 –

I had the first artist reception at Sugar Pearl, but they didn’t have a liquor license yet. The owner and I made a pomegranate sorbet and I bought a 10lb slab of chocolate for our guests to chisel away at it all night. More people we ever expected showed up, and the menu turned out a great deal more interesting without the expected wine and cheese table.

Artists are thought of as open-minded people. The stigma facilitates a looser sex vibe when they meet. However, it’s not rock and roll and it’s not Hollywood. The art culture has its own code of ethics where messy incidents and out of control behavior sometimes becomes art. Drunkeness is eccentricity.

Almost any behavior can be redeemed with dignity or street cred, depending on upscale or underground art scenes. Alcohol is a big part of this special world. So is sex, money, and power. Desire is a main factor in the formula that equates art sales. An art dealer at an art show will put artists and art buyers together, and then what are they supposed to do? Artists struggle for originality when they create, but take it unoriginally easy on themselves when they celebrate.