Sunday weather. A grey, muggy morning turned into a day of torrential rain, but as luck would have it, these were perfect conditions to see the current exhibition at James Cohan Gallery.
The gallery is in what was once the French quarter of Shanghai. It’s housed in a lovely old garden villa, which still has the feel of a home (albeit a shabbily grand one, complete with hand painted ceilings and 1930’s stained glass windows). The show is called “Day and Night” by two of the gallery’s New York artists, Spencer Finch and Byron Kim. It was a pleasure to find and enter the space, as not only was the weather bad, so was the traffic. (Apparently this weekend gridlocks are common because so many people are out to buy the hairy crabs (!) that are currently in season.)
Softie that I am, Finch’s work did make my eyes well up (just a little bit, mind). His light pieces had the same tranquil tenderness that Agnes Martin’s paintings do. (Agnes Martin is one of my favourite painters and her work really does make me teary.) The pastel colours of his melting candles hummed in the dull light and his light-box take on a winter’s dusk in Paris was equally potent. I emerged from the gallery feeling like I’d just spent an hour floating through space. Delightful.
