25 CPW

The venue is nice as well as the couple who run, There were a lot of people at the party at was a hundred degrees inside for the event. Everyone was dripping with sweat as I actually sweated through my time. Stay away from using the place for events on warm evenings. It will take a while to get over how hot it was at the event.

A Brownie Crawl through Chelsea leads to an afternoon at Flannery’s Pub leads to 25 CPW. (Ahhh, those random NYC Sundays are the BEST, aren’t they, folks?)
I came here with friends to view the Sw! pe Magazine exhibit. This showing consisted of art and live music /​readings from security guards at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. (A friend’s husband, Fabian, is one of the featured guard /​artists.) The art showcased was mind-​blowingly gorgeous and thought provoking. The main gallery space itself was absolutely perfect: simple white walls and two facades that looked upon Central Park West /​Central Park and West 63^rd Street. There wasn’t crazy lighting or anything to take away from the pieces of art themselves. They shined on their own. The space was open with a good flow so you weren’t bumping into your fellow art viewers.
Narrow, excitingly creepy stairs lead down to a LARGE basement which was set up for the live music and reading. It was dark and concrete. I wouldn’t want to be down there by myself, but I still fell in love with this unique space. My only complaint was the almost unbearable heat down there! Luckily, the hallway leading to the bathrooms provided a dose of cool air.
Oh, and the flowers in the urinal in the ladies’ room? Lovely touch!

A recent project started up by a recent graduate from the ICP-​Bard School of Photography as an alternative space for contemporary art… this gallery is turning the otherwise staid cultural scene on the upper west side on its head.
There is a sense of urgency, as the space itself is in one of Manhattan’s priciest locations, and the lease is understood to be month-​to-​month until a high-​price tenant is able to be found in the building. As a result, though, the folks here are putting on show after show as if it were their last. Every week, the bar is raised higher and higher.
Video installation showing experimental videos from students/​artist throughout LI city, Brooklyn, and Manhattan? check.
Fundraiser for Haiti with some of the most heartbreakingly beautiful documentary photographs ever, from the immediate aftermath of the quake, from shooters working for Magnum, the NY Times, Getty, and National Geographic? check.
Special concert from folk stars Tara Nevins/​Jeb Puryear of Donna the Buffalo? check.
Mind blowing show of artworks from Metropolitan Museum of Art security guards (that probably blows away anything showing at the Armory this weekend.) as part of the Swipe! collective? check.
Most of the more well-​known galleries down in the meatpacking or chelsea would kill to get shows this good at least once a year. 25 CPW has shows like this up to once a week.