The artisanal bohemia

We love NY



We visit NYC often and the city continues to charm us with its cultural melting pot and urban vibe, making it one of our favourite cities. The culinary landscape of the city is a huge turn-on. We have a few friends in the city. We usually like to hang out at quaint cocktail bars and explore new ones every time we go. It’s good to explore designer stores in NYC, it is always exciting to see the design directions in which our counterparts in the West are heading towards.

ART OF MATTER



We went to an excellent exhibition that is currently on display at the Hauser & Wirth Gallery. The gallery unveiled ‘Sculptures’, a series of black walnut wood sculptures, by Paul McCarthy. Entering the gallery, you find yourself in McCarthy’s darkly humourous and always controversial psyche where a depraved mix of art history, Hollywood, and fairytales collide.

We felt dwarfed by the monumental black walnut sculptures of ‘White Snow’, the artist’s version of Snow White, and overwhelmed by the numerous scrawled drawings of overtly sexualised ‘White Snow’. McCarthy’s exhibition was nothing if not shocking, thought-provoking and memorable. We happened to come across an exhibit by a Swiss-born, NYC-based artist Ugo Rondinone, titled ‘Soul’ at the Gladstone Gallery, where seeing sort of unhinged Stonehenge in form of human figures was really a treat.  Mark Di Suvero’s exhibit Lowell’s ‘Ocean’ at the Paula Cooper Gallery reminded us that big can also be abstract, and that abstract at its best requires scale.

TRIP TALE



Summer had not yet affected the city’s pulse and this was probably the closest one can enjoy the New York summer heat, especially in the last few years of New York summer. With the weather on our side and the city’s seeming insomnia, we were excited to see where our exploration of New York’s contemporary art and gastronomic scene would lead us. Hopefully something exciting and stimulating and if lucky enough, something gripping enough to be embroiled in our Spring Summer 2014 Line.

GASTRONOMICAL DELIGHT



We started with The Modern at the Museum of Modern Art, where we had delectable portions of cassoulet. The Bathtub Gin, at 132nd, 9th Ave looked like a mundane café from outside, but if you’re dressed to kill, you are invited through to a secret door to the back of the café where it’s a different world all together. This buzzing bar had rustic vintage bathtubs in the middle of the room and great music while you get served some of the best gin concoctions in the city. What made it to our must drink list was the Eagle’s Dream. Sarabeth’s at Central Park was our choice for the day for breakfast. For sushi, after trying a couple of places we found Catch at the meat packing, serving the best rolls. The Eel however was the best at the blue ribbon, another famous Japanese restaurant in the city. The Best Asian we had on this trip was at Spice Market on 403 W 13th street.

PUNK APPEAL
There is something about climbing the steps to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the Upper East Side. The exhibit at MET that caught our eye this time was the ‘Punk: Chaos to Couture’, specially post all the limelight the 2013 MET Ball had brought in to this much hyped exhibition. Even though neither of us relate to the world of punk, this was the exact reason for our visit to the exhibit. We felt there was a lot of room for surprise and learning. The exhibition lacked depth and completely lost the plot in understanding if not convincingly communicating the origins of punk or its various facets.