Chelsea – located on the west side of downtown Manhattan – is often referred to the ‘gallery district’ of New York, with the area renowned for being a hub for contemporary art. It's also the neighbourhood of The Shed, where Frieze New York takes place in May.
In this film, Jordan Carter (curator and co-department head at Dia Art Foundation) takes us on a tour of his perfect day in Chelsea. The area is particularly meaningful for Carter as he both lives and works in the neighbourhood.
Carter begins the day with a visit to the Whitney Museum of American Art to explore Christine Sun Kim’s first major survey exhibition ‘All Day All Night’, talking to curator Jennie Goldstein about the artist’s ‘enveloping’ murals and investigations into sound and language.
The Whitney is connected to Chelsea via the High Line, a historic, elevated railway which has been transformed into a park with a public art programme. The director and chief curator of High Line Art, Cecilia Alemani, talks to Carter about the park’s railway origins and High Line Art’s dedication to expanding the role of art in public spaces, using the ‘city as a giant canvas’. Carter learns about Arthur Simms’s site-responsive work on one of the spurs of the High Line, then joins artist Iván Argote under the piercing gaze of his T-Rex-scaled pigeon sculpture, Dinosaur.
Carter then heads to his home institution, Dia Chelsea, to meet Donna de Salvo (senior adjunct curator, special projects) for a tour of filmmaker and artist Steve McQueen’s solo presentation, then goes out to explore some of the many nearby commercial galleries. At Hauser & Wirth, just across the road from Dia, he encounters Camille Henrot’s humorous sculptures that draw upon themes of psychology and play, discovering the ‘sensory environment’ with curatorial director Alexis Lowry.
On the next street over, at Tina Kim Gallery, Carter checks in with Demie Kim (managing director) to hear about the gallery’s ten influential years in the neighbourhood and their exciting Frieze Week plans.
Carter’s day could only appropriately end in one way: a Duke’s martini at Hotel Chelsea, revelling in the legacy of the iconic writers, musicians and artists who have been habitués and residents there.
