Loss.

http://twitter.com/perke/status/11956236117

Photo: Tom Warren

http://twitter.com/perke/status/11942652942

http://twitter.com/perke/status/11937722514

Francis Cunningham New Video: Summer Still Life '09

It's been long time since I made any videos. So, here is my return. I made a 10 minutes video about artist Francis Cunningham, whose blog I'm maintaining here, working in his summer studio on a still life. I was at his summer barn/ studio- a wonderful space- in August.
Here is about my wine with him.

It's my second project with Dick Cunningham and I hope there will be many more to come. I'm now planning to work with him, at his NYC studio every week. I already have some ideas about what we should video blog on. Here is the You Tube channel we're posting to.

Hpgrp Gallery: $10 Rioja & Adam Bateman Show Get Stars

Friday night, September 4, pincponic and I headed out to the Meat Packing District to an opening reception at Hpgrp, a gallery ran by a Japanese clothing brand from Tokyo, with spaces both in New York and in Tokyo. Their shows are often but not only of Japanese artists, often corky and generally very good. This month's show, Adam Bateman drawings and sculptural installations made of hydraulic pipes and parts of farm equipment deserves a mention.



Hpgrp had something else to celebrate in addition to the great exhibition. For the first time the gallery has a store front space, a much better, more convenient space than the second floor main gallery. Like the select shops in the area, it has a giant window exposing "the goods" to lure customers inside, a great stage for the Bateman human ribcage-like sculpture, which nearly fills up the space completely. The timing could not be better, with the increased foot traffic due to the recent opening of the High Line, this part of the gallery might get the deserved attention.

Of course the wine, Rioja, Faustion VII, was the biggest winner. It made me stop by a nearby wine shop on a hunch I'd find it there and it'll be cheap. And I found the exact bottle in the wine shop in Chelsea Market, but for $9.99, which is a high price for a gallery opening wine. Online, in a NJ shop Ultimate Wine Shop NJ it now goes for $9.49.
I bought the wine and it went very well with pizza.
Here are the cellar notes of which I prefer the Wine Spectator's "Smooth and supple, this red delivers plum, leaf, light vanilla and earth flavors, with gentle acidity and modest tannins. A beam of berry fruit shines through the finish. Drink now through 2010. Score: 87. —Thomas Matthews, February 28, 2009."
I can only add that the "berry fruit shining trough the finish," if you nurse the bottle for too long feels almost like a dry-ish fruit juice. I'm not complaining though.

Adam Bateman "Greener Pastures or The Effect of Imposing a Modern Aesthetic on a Traditional Landscape"
Venue: Hpgrp Gallery
Schedule: From 2009-09-04 To 2009-10-02
Address: 32-36 Little West 12th St., 2 Fl., New York, NY 10011
Phone: 212-727-2491 Fax: 212-727-7030

Verona Wine and Japanese Art Historian

Last week an art historian from Japan, Yusuke Kawase, having finished his 6-years long stay in NY, where he was studying Spanish and Italian history of painting at NYU was doing his final round of farewell parties. I had met him at least twice, and the second time we met, we decided to have a meal together. Pincponic caught up with Yusuke on Facebook just in time. We invited him for our Polish Kielbasa risotto. Not a joke- it was to be a fusion evening. Kielbasa risotto is only as novel of combination as a Japanese man studying 17th century Spanish painter working in Northern Italy, in New York. Both rare, both interesting. So, now the wine. The white wine we cooked with is unmentionable, but drinkable, and Californian. As soon as we were ready for the risotto we poured the Vaona Odino Valpolicella Classico 2008(very good deal there) brought by Yusuke. Vaona is a village in Valpolicella region near Verona. The wine was great. Just the way we like it, light and acidic and moderately fruity.
Yusuke has just arrived in Japan today. Good luck to him on a new adventure.
We hope to meet Yusuke in Japan when we visit, where he's gotten a position at Nagasaki Perfectural Art Museum, with a large Spanish art collection, from where he'll also be working on his dissertation "Jusepe de Ribera's Workshop Practice in Naples (1616–1652)."

Rex Goliath. Wine and Art-ist.

Recently I spent a weekend at Francis Cunningham's summer residence, wooden barn(I forgot myself that those are made of wood, therefore a stress on wooden.) turn to a great summer house and studio, in western Mass and of course had some wine with him.



Here is one of our meals: corn and sandwiches lunch. Pincponic and I were introduced to the famous Sheffield corn with which we had a bottle of wine, our Saturday lunch before returning to NY.



Light and earthy!
I was a great find for just under $10 and here is one source with equally good deal here.

UPDATE: Of course Dick showed us how to cook the corn.

My Birthday Drink. 100% Tinto Fino.

On my birthday I framed a work of art and hung it on my wall, went to the Frick Collection for the first time, immensely enjoying the trip, and at the end of the day drank delicious, moderately dry and acidic Spanish wine .

They say: "Made from low-yielding vines grown within a large nature preserve owned by the Arzuaga family in Western Ribera del Duero. 100% Tinto Fino, this wine is deep and rich but with ripe, supple tannins. Lush texture and a complex assortment of black cherry, currants and mineral-coated dark chocolate. This terrific value sings for some richly spiced Spanish cuisine. A fantastic buy for the money and a taste of the Ribera del Duero at its best."

Why do I like midtown gallery openings? Gering & López Gallery.

The reasons to go to midtown galleries are many and among them better wine often accompanied by snacks and yes more relaxed atmosphere, because of less human traffic. And when it rains, you're still covered when moving between galleries, as most of them, dozens, are in two main buildings.
Here is a set of wines at an opening on 57th Street in June, a summer season starter, I'd call it. There were also good chocolates and cheese and what not, in addition to these wines.

I had a taste of the bubbly, Cristalino, which was decent tasting and under $5. And the red was excellent too, according to my companion that evening. La Motte I found online is 2006, while the one served at the gallery was 2003. The price of 2006 is stillunder $10. I bet the 2003 was half the price.
My best to the gallery assistant or whoever found the deals.

Note the neat, geometric, abstract and massive art on the walls and and actual wine glass in the gentelman's hand.

I believe this was the show Michael Scott "and then he tried to swallow the world"
Venue: Gering & López Gallery
Schedule: From 2009-06-18 To 2009-08-21
Address: 730 5th Ave., New York, NY 10019
Phone: 646-336-7183 Fax: 646-336-7185