Living in New York for the last fourteen years, I have amassed a really wonderful group of smart, talented, and supportive female friends. Unfortunately, our varied professions and scattered personal lives make it difficult to get together (as a group) on a regular basis. In fact, I think we talk about it more over emails, texts, and bbm than we actually are able to see one another, so I was intrigued to hear about/see the new show over at Leo Koenig Inc. Projekte. Cleopatra’s Presents: Xavier Cha, Jenna Gribbon, Hannah Hoffmann, Andrea Huelse, Anna Lundh, Caris Reid, Hanna Sandin, Maayan Zilberman is a group show featuring friends (all women) of different creative disciplines, who have been getting together regularly over the last few years for somewhat of a conversational support group, internally dubbed, “Lady Luck.” They work in a range of creative professions: jewelry designer, performance artist, painter, writer, scenographer, photographer, sculptor, lingerie designer. These lucky meetings have taken place over potluck dinners at their various homes and studios, which I am guessing lends itself to the warm, welcoming experience I had walking through the show. Though some are non-traditional fine artists, and none have worked together, I could sense that the thoughts and ideas exchanged between these friends have overlapped . There seemed to be a genuine dialogue between their work in the space. My personal favorite piece was from Andrea Huelse, the scenographer of the group. She created a beautiful, draped curtain (with tassels!) around the entrance, made out of plastic drop cloths – “a sort of wink at classical interior drapery” that she’s so familiar with.

The show runs through January 15, 2011 at Leo Koenig Inc. Projekte, 541 West 23rd St., NY, NY.

Above image: Caris Reid; Below image: Maayan Zilberman

This Thursday would have been sculptor Alexander Calder’s birthday. It seems an appropriate moment for Not Extractions, but Abstractions, a show curated by Michael Clifton, which honors and echoes Alexander Calder’s whimsical spirit and rhapsodic love of reductive forms. The exhibit is actually the second part of a show presented at Karma International in Zurich earlier this year, and includes the work of six artists. Simplicity and bursts of saturation are the connective glue between work as varied as Polly Apfelbaum “Fallen Paintings” (made from colorful strips of clay), the flattened yet lyrical plant compositions by Jonas Wood, and Hanna Sandin’s hovering mobiles.

The show is on exhibit through August 14th at Clifton Benevento, 515 Broadway, NY, NY

This weekend, put on your power suit and head to LMCC open studios on Broadway and Water street. The 9-month residency is nearing its end, so the studios are brimming with the energy and artwork of the 21 visual artists and 8 writers accepted this year. It’s a pretty good mix of New York talent (Hanna Sandin) and international (Anna Lundh). So go check it out!