Modern Art Obsession: Yet another Gallery Opens, and not on the Lower East Side!

So we went to the Grand Re-Opening of the new New Museum last night.. and WOW.. it's amazing how different a museum feels with Art on the Walls.. !! Imagine that!! The new collage works are a huge improvement to their current: The Unmounumental Picture show.

We love the pieces by Mark Bradford, Wangechi Mutu, Kelley Walker, Kim Jones and the Christian Holstad works.. all very impressive. The Wangechi Mutu "Moon Mural", complete with flying pigs with fur.. is a not to be missed!! (Photo of Artist Mark Bradford, working on Helter Skelter I, 2007, collage)

Very telling, ~~of what total drunks we have become~~ we got to the Museum Preview a bit too early.. and so went to the nice new bar next door for a quick drink or 2 ~~or 3~~.. But the bar bill came to an amazing $58 dollars for 4 tiny drinks!! Ouch..!! Well.. clearly things are seriously changing on the Lower East Side!! Has it become too expensive already?

So.. Here's yet another Gallery choosing NOT to open in Chelsea (or the LES).. but to open on the ~~expensive & stuffy~~ hot and ~~not~~ chic Upper East Side of NYC.. story by Linda Sandler of Bloomberg news..

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   Jan. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Asher Edelman, a Wall Street raider
turned art dealer, is seeking space to open a gallery on New
York's Upper East Side that will show young and emerging
artists.
   Edelman, 68, has been a private dealer for about seven
years, trading impressionist and modern works through Edelman
Arts Inc. while promoting younger artists such as Yasmine
Chatila, Christopher Winter and Cathy McClure. He is ending a
joint venture in the Neuhoff Edelman Gallery because he prefers
working on his own, he said.
   Art dealing isn't as lucrative as trading stakes in
companies, according to Edelman. In the 1980s and 1990s, the
investor bought holdings in more than three dozen companies,
from Canal-Randolph Corp., a real-estate holding company, to
computer company Datapoint Corp. and champagne group Taittinger
SA, sometimes profiting as he took control or induced management
to boost the stock price.
   ``I can't make as much money in art as I used to on Wall
Street, but I can make a good living,'' Edelman said in a
telephone interview yesterday.
   Edelman said the art market is showing scattered signs of
weakness as bank losses mount from subprime mortgage
investments. In the private art market, purchasers of high-
priced works are driving harder bargains than they did two years
ago, and some dealers are hurting after borrowing to finance an
inventory that's losing value, he said.
   ``I think the time might come when some people stop bidding
at auctions,'' Edelman said. ``I would still rather have art
than dollars.''
   The dealer said he isn't concerned about opening a new
space at what may be the top of the market. Some staff from his
private dealing business could move over to the new gallery,
limiting the overhead to about $1 million a year, Edelman said.
   His commission from brokering a sale of a $10 million
Willem de Kooning or Andy Warhol picture would cover the cost,
he said.