Welcome to Wet Paint in the Wild, the freewheeling—and free!—spinoff of Artnet News Pro’s beloved Wet Paint gossip column, where we give art-world insiders a disposable camera to chronicle their lives on the circuit. To read the latest Wet Paint column, click here (members only).
The month of May tends to provide my favorite run of art openings in New York. The weather is just warming up, there’s plenty of gossip in the air as fairs and auctions keep coming, and the energy on the ground has a certain exuberance. I wanted to see the week from the perspective of an artist with an opening during this buoyant moment, so I tapped painter Sedrick Chisom to show me what a week in May looks like for him. His exhibition “…and 108 Prayers of Evil” opened on May 1, during Frieze New York, at Clearing’s Bowery space, and it runs through June 8. Take it away, Sedrick! —Annie Armstrong
Olivier Babin chasing someone via text at Clearing. Rare pic of him without the full suit.
At the night of my NYC debut show at Clearing “…and 108 Prayers of Evil,” me, Georgia Gardner Gray, Alex Adler, Brook Hsu, Leander Dobson, and Ai Makita pose for a cute group photo.
More moral support. Ai Makita, me, and Kathy Bradford stop to take a photo. While we’re posing, Kathy notices how fried and sweaty I am from talking to so many people positively responding to my show. She assures me by saying “you only have to do this for 20 more minutes.”
The afterparty at 105 Canal Street. John Utterson, me, and Reilly Davidson reflect over the past few years and how we’ve all grown. They’ve both worked with me on prior shows in different capacities from their current roles as directors at Clearing.
Afterparty at Talal Abillama’s celebrating the work of Elise Nguyen Quoc, who just opened her first solo with Gratin.
Just arrived at Bellport, NY, to see painter Ai Makita’s second solo show at The Something Machine Gallery, “Prospethetic Gods.”
Ai Makita and Jeffrey Uslip of The Something Machine at their opening celebrating Ai’s second solo presentation of her paintings with the gallery.
Me and Ai at a pop-up event party thanking the tailors of menswear brand “The Armoury,” who prepared the suit I wore for my solo show with Clearing.
Totally exhausted from the week but still gotta feed my Angel bb girl Buffy before I take a midday nap.
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