ABBY LLOYD – ‘ON DISPLAY’
PTOLEMY ART GALLERY,
6733 Central Ave., QUEENS, New York 11385
HRS: Thursday – Sunday / 12 – 5 PM
OPENING TO-NITE !!
THURSDAY MAY 22 / 6 – 8 PM
@ptolemy.world / web: ptolemy.world
Ptolemy is a contemporary art gallery & retail shop located in Glendale, Queens, established in 2024 by PATRICK REYNOLDS.
~ABBY LLOYD / ‘ON DISPLAY’ / PTOLEMY / GLENDALE, QUEENS / NY / OPENS THURSDAY MAY 22 6 – 8 PM | Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | May 22nd, 2025, 11:33am
DAN ASHER at the opening of his solo show, ‘Bird of Prey’, GBE / GAVIN BROWN’S enterprise at Passerby, NYC
Oct 15, 2005
Archival Photo by NANCY SMITH / artloversnewyork.com
Dan was born in Cleveland Ohio in 1947, he moved to New York City in the late 70’s & died April 23, 2010 after a long struggle with cancer. He was 63.
he could be charming, but was super difficult. He lived on 9th Street in a very run down, messy apt. opposite the Russian baths. when he was broke, sometimes he sold drawings on the stoop.He was always way too out of control for his dad, who it was said, tried to beat him straight & obedient as a child. When he had had enough, he left high school, and took off to follow BOB MARLEY, on tour and, in Jamaica / taking photographs, which he promptly lost track off in the chaotic life he led. Many decades later a girl he used to know, showed up and said, “you left something in my cupboard” – the photos !! which he immediately turned around & sold to the Bob Marley estate for something rumored to be, at least $100,000 – a big, big sum in the 80’s – that kept him high rolling & in 5 star sushi joints for quite a while. the photos were also regarded to be a remarkable legacy of that early Marley time. So There !! no regrets, as they say. Dan had a deep passion for Indie music and made several low-fi indie video documentaries, as well as large oil stick paintings & small pencil minimalistic ‘scribbles’. MY late husband, gallerist, collector, flaneur-to-the-hilt & artist in-his-own-right, though he ultimately partied too hard, Simon Cerigo . . . . met Dan in 1982, at the legendary artist dive bar, the RED BAR in the East Village and they became life long friends. At this point, Dan began working on very gestural expressionistic oil stick on large paper pieces & when he could, on stretched usually raw linen. He had a dynamic solo show at Club 57 in 1982, and a solo show at the Red Bar in 1983. At one point he even shared a studio with Basquiat.
Simon had just started his own short-lived gallery, the ground breaking Simon Cerigo Gallery on Ave A, just below 12th Street & gave Dan one of his earliest gallery shows there in 1986. Dan went on to show extensively in the bigger galleries in New York, LA, Europe and Japan. One of the major galleries he was represented by was Galerie Aurel Scheibler, Koln, Germany. By 1997, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo was showing his work in both Japan & around the globe.
DESPITE their differences, sometime in the early to mid 90’s Dan’s dad died and left him around $300,000 / which as you might imagine he burned through pretty quickly, and not just on 5 star sushi / playing penny stocks – were his big downfall. no matter how we’d try to counsel him, he’d reply “it’s MY money” – good old same old same old Dan. Before he blew it all, ($300,000 felt initially like an endless million bucks, back in the 90’s) he managed to get himself to remote and then untrammelled Antartica to photograph the endangered icebergs, a trip that was quite unheard of and quite fraught back then / that’s when I really intersected with him, when in consideration of my own organizing, archiving and photography skills, he hired me as a ‘studio assistant’ to help produce the resultant big body of iceberg work / comprising of mostly large c prints. and manage their shipment to various shows. Those were some of my favorite days, not to mention all the free, all you can eat, sushi or hi-brow East Village gourmet vegetarian lunches at the coolest venues, that were just then ‘sprouting up’ !!
early DAN ASHER, working artist print / iceberg. ca. 1998.
Collection: Nancy Smith
before there was digital / all galleries produced hard invite cards for their artists’ shows.
this one was about 6-1/2 x 4-1/2 inches, the reverse states:
Dan Asher… Ice(s)
September 9 through October 2nd, 1999
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 9 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.
GRANT SELWYWN FINE ART
37 WEST 57 TH STREET
NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10019
front: Untitled 19998 C-print 30″ x 40m”
(original card / collection: NANCY SMITH)
i always think of Dan with great fondness on Earth Day, because if he didn’t start it, or coin the expression he was certainly the first to talk about it with me, way before it was a media mainstay, and he pretty much died, on an Earth DAY, April 23, 2010 / so there !!
DAN, REST IN ETERNAL PEACE.
~Nancy
from left:
Simon Cerigo, Dan Asher, Nancy Smith
Tribeca, NYC – ca. 1982
~DAN ASHER / 1947 – 2010 / A BRIEF MEMORY | Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | May 21st, 2025, 3:08pm
‘THIS IS IRA RICHER’ – DIRECTED & EXECUTIVE PRODUCED BY RICK KNIEF
.. is a sweet toned, quirky, honest, fast paced, and precisely edited short, (about 6 minutes), documentary film on 1980’s NY artist IRA RICHER.
it was the winner / BEST SHORT DOC at last year’s (NOV 2024) BOWERY FILM FESTIVAL here in NYC & watch out for it / it’s probably coming through a film festival near you, soon enough.
while we were talking about the old days, Ira told me a brief little story that encapsulates those times perfectly. He was showing with ANNINA NOSEI, at the same time as Basquiat & it seems Annina owed him some money, and wanted to pay Ira with a BASQUIAT or a WARHOL, but Ira insisted on cash – he had bills to pay !!
Talk about FAST FORWARD — REGRETS !!
That’s the way it was, and how fast things . . progresssed.
casual 80’s art scene friends, Ira and I meanwhile bonded on our admiration for, and collecting of.. DAN ASHER’S work. Now we wonder, what the hell happened ?!! 40 years later, fizzle is not the word for it, and we both are mighty disappointed & mystified, as we considered DAN the best of the pack. you just never know. Dan was quite the character, sadly for us his small drawings & iceberg photographs now go for JUST about what it costs to store, and frame them. oh well, he’s still a great artist – just no one has been able to build his market, . . . . yet !!
~IRA RICHER / ‘THIS IS IRA RICHER’ / SHORT DOCUMENTARY 2024 / | Posted in Movie Reviews, The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | May 19th, 2025, 7:25pm
IN CELEBRATION OF EARTH / EARTH DAY 2025
PART 2:
LOUIS SOMVEILLE, LARGE LANDSCAPE PAINTING
/ ALSO AT THE ‘PAT McCARTHY ‘VESSELS of EXPERIENCE’ show / at ENTRANCE GALLERY / LOWER EAST SIDE / NYC.
Photo c/o INSTAGRAM / @ENTRANCE.NYC / ENTRANCE GALLERY
@entrance.nyc: “the PAT McCARTHY show also features landscape paintings by LOUIS SOMVIELLE / b. 1994 / Nancy, FRANCE
who is currently living & working in Paris. (A close friend & collaborator of Pat’s..) his summer residency on Pat’s Nik Nak’s FARM captured the vistas that backdrop Pat’s artistic endeavors and the farm life in ANDES, upstate NEW YORK.”
“LOUIS SOMVIELLE produced these paintings during his summer 2024 residency at Pat’s farm.”
ENTRANCE GALLERY – 48 LUDLOW St., NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10002
HRS: WED – SAT / 11am – 6pm
~LOUIS SOMVEILLE / LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS / PAT McCARTHY ‘s ‘VESSELS of EXPERIENCE’ / ENTRANCE GALLERY / now extended thru SAT JUNE 7th | Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | May 16th, 2025, 2:10pm
IN CELEBRATION of EARTH / EARTH DAY !!
PART I:
A HEAVILY D-I-Y / HANDS-ON-THE-GROUND CELEBRATION of an “ALREADY MAD” AWARENESS of EARTH DAY !!
AND A SEEMINGLY DARN GOOD / FUNCTIONAL / CREATIVE / IMAGINATIVE & HARD-WORKING COLLABORATIVE SPIRIT & PRODUCT /
in a word: A SUPPORTIVE !! BIOLOGICAL / HUMAN / EARTH FARMING / BIO LOVE MATCH / PARTNERSHIP !!
so, can a JUG (JUG HEAD ??) . . . . ever be a HEAD SHOT ?!!
I think so, in this case.
.
PAT McCARTHY, ‘Bouquet Jug’, 2025
Photocopy toner fired onto English porcelain, gold leaf, cork, wax, artist-made wine.
(I’m assuming flower imagery from their farm grown flowers.)
12″h x 9″l x 9″w
Photo c/o INSTAGRAM / @PIGEON_PAT (PAT McCARTHY)
@pigeon_pat:”5 bouquet jugs, made from our farms flowers. Each filled with a different Alpine wine, for the
self-service bar in ‘VESSELS of Experience’, my new show opening (happened Thurs May 8th) at ENTRANCE GALLERY @entrance.nyc . . .
PAT McCARTHY, NIK NAKS FLOWERS (FLOWER FARM) / UPSTATE, N.Y. / ANDES / CATSKILL MOUNTAINS
Photo c/o INSTAGRAM @pigeon_pat /PAT McCARTHY
@pigeon_pat: “New show opening in NYC …. celebrates this past year farming with MADDY … with many wines alongside other drinks & foods from the farm / (@niknaksflowers).”
ENTRANCE GALLERY – 48 LUDLOW St., NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10002
HRS: WED – SAT / 11am – 6PM
~PAT McCARTHY / ‘VESSELS OF EXPERIENCE’ / ENTRANCE / LOWER EAST SIDE / MANHATTAN, NYC / now extended until SAT JUNE 7th | Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | May 16th, 2025, 1:34pm
. . . STRANGE, another bold head shot !!
‘WONDER WOMEN: ART of the ASIAN DIASPORA’ – by KATHY HUANG
BOOK LAUNCH & SIGNING / FOOD BY NOM WAH / GAMES BY MAHJONG MISTRESS / DRINKS BY KUNG FU TEA
ALL WELCOME – NO RSVP REQUIRED – WED MAY 21 / 6-8 PM
JEFFREY DEITCH, 76 GRAND ST., DOWNTOWN MANHATTAN, NYC 10013
BOOK COVER ILLUSTRATION BY SASHA GORDON
ZOE BLUE M’s solo show ‘HARD BOILED’ WILL BE ON VIEW – AS WELL.
~KATHY HUANG / ‘WONDER WOMEN’ / BOOK LAUNCH / JEFFREY DEITCH / 76 GRAND ST. / NYC / WED MAY 21 / 6 – 8 PM | Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | May 13th, 2025, 1:22pm
TO-DAY !!!! SAT MAY 10 !!!! 2-7 PM
BIG PAR-TAY !!!!
JAKE KLOTZ – ‘BATTER HEAD’ /
GARAGE GALLERY – 624 LORIMER / NORTH WILLIAMSBURG / BROOKLYN / NYC
THE GALLERY WILL HOST A RECEPTION WITH MUSIC & REFRESHMENTS FROM 2-7 PM / ALL ARE WELCOME
GARAGE GALLERY IS A SMALL ARTIST-RUN SPACE ON THE FIRST FLOOR OF THE HOME OF EVAN SNYDERMAN & GABRIEL SHELTON.
~JAKE KLOTZ / ‘BATTER HEAD’ / GARAGE GALLERY / WILLIAMSBURG / BROOKLYN / SAT MAY 10 / 2-7 PM | Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | May 10th, 2025, 1:37pm
YOU CAN STILL CATCH . . .
LUKE MURPHY’S / MAP-LIKE, LED ANIMATED ‘DISTRESSED QUILT’/ ‘DISTRESSED EARTH’ AT THE HOLE, TRIBECA.
DISTRESSSED / but still mighty LUMINIOUS !!
LUKE MURPHY, ‘IS IT DONE?’, 2025, LED matrix panels, steel armature, display hardware, power supplies, mini-pc, software code,
61 x 41 x 12 inches.
Photo: c/o KATHY GRAYSON/THE HOLE
~LUKE MURPHY / IN ‘LFG’ / GROUP SHOW / THE HOLE / TRIBECA / THRU SAT MAY 24 | Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | May 8th, 2025, 2:40pm
I just remembered.
I had seen that cut-out of a green leaf / of same dimensions (approx. 6 X 2-1/2 ins.) on light green cardboard / of my last post, albeit in a different context – a contemporary one !! /
from I think after 2000 or around that era / there’s no date on the card.
ROB PRUITT . . . must have seen the original Shaker image.
well, Rob, got the message. one way or another.
ARCHIVAL PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
COLLECTION: NANCY SMITH
~ROB PRUITT ~ROB PRUITT / ARCHIV~ART EXHIBIT INVITE / GAVIN BROWN’S ENTERPRISE / NYC / no date availablee / no date available | Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | May 8th, 2025, 2:13pm
POLLY JANE REED (1818-1881)
‘LEAF-SHAPED CUTOUT for RUFUS BISHOP’
New Lebanon, New York, 1845
ink & watercolor on paper
(approx. 4 or 5 inches length x 2 inches at widest point )
Miller Collection, Hancock Shaker Village, Massachusetts, 1963.109
PHOTO: NANCY SMITH / artloversnewyork.com
Jan 26, 2025, American Folk Art Museum, NYC. NY.
the tiniest handwriting ever / look at the gradient asterisk detail on the stem !!
and the tiny line work repeats decorating the outline / border.
~POLLY JANE REED (1818-18881) / ‘ANYTHING BUT SIMPLE’ / AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM / MANHATTAN, NYC | Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | January 29th, 2025, 3:39pm
