Like the Spice makes it Affordable to collect!

AAF NYC is the place for new and established collectors to discover and buy paintings, drawings, sculptures, video, photography and limited edition prints from distinguished galleries, all priced from $100 - $10,000. This year the Fair will host more than 60 galleries from the US, Europe, Asia, Canada and South America. AAF 2009 will debut at its new home at 7 West 34th Street this May.
7 W New York
7 West 34th Street (b/w 5th & 6th Avenues)
New York, NY 10001
May 7th - 10th, 2009

Private Preview Cocktail Reception, May 6th, 2009

Fair Hours:

Thursday, May 7th 12:00PM - 6:00PM

Friday, May 8th 12:00PM - 8:00PM

Saturday, May 9th 12:00PM - 8:00PM

Sunday, May 10th 12:00PM - 5:00PM

Head out to the Affordable Art Fair and stop by Booth E-103. We'll be showing some of your favorite artists, including new works from Rachel Beach, Dean Goelz, Jenny Morgan Reuben Negron Michelle Hinebrook and more! We can't wait to see you there!

The Cutting Edge (Until She Dropped Her Knife)

That's right, this weekend was another absolutely delightful installment of our Monthly Dinner Series. This time we welcomed Allison Edge, the artist behind our current show, Crystal Days, now open through May 17th. Allison's an absolute joy to be around, so naturally, she attracted a few of our favorite people.



Here's our good friend Mandy having a wonderful time with artist Jenny Morgan. If you look closely you can see Allison preparing herself in the background. She had a lot to talk about!



It wasn't just all about making artist Rachel Beach laugh. Allison has been making art for a long time, so she's learned plenty. We got to hear all about her early work in college, her time as an assistant to Jeff Koons, and how and why her life moved from kittens to rock stars. She even brought a slide of something she did in third grade, and everyone was delighted! Just be aware that If you want that particular piece, you might have to bid against her mom.



While all this was going on, dinner was served. The carnivores loved the steak, the herbavores loved the stuffed peppers, and the dessertivores went crazy over the berry tart. Jenny let us take a picture of her tart, but made us promise not to get in the way of the fork.



After the meal, we got to hear about the upcoming India Street Mural Project. Designed as a way to mix community and art, the project is an effort to create a series of murals around India Street here in Brooklyn. You can view the submission pdf on Council Member David Yassky's site and donations are welcome. Help the world get a little more art, won't you?



Even though we caught Mandy refusing to pay attention, Eating On The Edge was a complete success. And our previous Monthly Dinners have been just as fantastic. Plan now for our next one, coming next month, with the fantastic Reuben Negron. You won't want to miss it!

Dinner & A Movie?

What are you doing this Thursday and Friday? Oh, really? Well, you should cancel that immediately, because Like the Spice is doing something even better.

On Thursday, April 23rd from 7:00 to 10:00 pm, we've got Loot Cakes, a fundraiser for filmmaker Hilton Carter of Fresh Kill. Hilton's been doing some fine work, but he's ready to make the bold step forward into a larger narrative. His concept is based around a dysfunctional mid-80s African-American family in Baltimore, Maryland, during the height of the crack epidemic. We're looking forward to hearing him tell us all about it. Stop in and enjoy an artist in his mercuric moment of transition.

Then Friday, April 24th at 8:00pm we've got the next installment of our Monthly Dinner Series: Eating On The Edge. Accompanying our current show, Crystal Days, this dinner is a chance to meet artist Allison Edge and enjoy a night of food and art. You're almost out of time to save your place, so RSVP as fast as you can .Previous dinners have been lots of fun, so we promise you won't want to miss it.

Knight / Beach

Last night, a meeting of two giants of the art world rocked our little gallery, as Philae Knight of Phillips Art Expert and Rachel Beach, sculptor/painter extraordinaire faced off in a sizzling exchange of Q's and A's. Rachel, who's solo exhibition "Towers and Portals" is closing tomorrow night, delved into portals to wonderland, bandsaws, and much, much more. Enjoy this excerpt from the most dramatic interview of our century.



Philae Knight: What is the process? Do you do a drawing or a maquette?

Rachel Beach: I make bazillions of sketches, all the time, again and again. So, little rawings, I sort of do them in bulk where I’ll project a lot of drawings onto brown paper, that I can see right away what’s happening, and then I trace them in black marker and cut them all out, sort of like sewing templates, then I use chalk pastel to map out the oil paint. So I have like 2000 drawings and that makes about 10 paper templates, which makes about 3 objects. I have them all over my studio.



PK: Do you use architectural drawings or photographs of cornices or details, because the details create such an illusion.

RB: I do have a background in architecture. When I was doing my major in painting I worked with a guru of architectural ornament, he was this lone voice in a very contemporary oriented staff. That’s where I got the idea of the cyclical nature of value, and how something is important and then not. So I worked with him, then I worked for an architectural company as well. It got filtered back in.
I can talk about why I’m interested in ornament - particularly as a painter. Painting is a window into space- when you look at a painting and you sort of enter it. It has a real sharp edge between the reality and the scene. It’s that idea of the transition. The portal is tied to that. Image is tied to painting, and object is tied to sculpture. Paintings are tied to walls, Sculptures are tied to floor and space. These are trying to be everything at once. (pointing to a piece) This seam is where the reality and the border converge, like this point is where it’s a portal that you can enter.



PK: Are there some works that are more important to you?
RB. No, some of them illustrate different ideas more than others. I like to follow different ideas, otherwise I get bored.

Meow Meow Wow

Towers and Portals, at Like the Spice Gallery, is Rachel Beach's second solo exhibition in New York. Beach's seductive sculpture-paintings are postmodern, playful explorations of relativistic perception. Using oil paint and a technique called veneered marquetry, the artist creates trompe-l'oeil forms that easily segue from a two-dimensional to a three-dimensional reading and likewise maneuver between ornamentation and cleverly subversive commentary. Remarkably, the works are as sincere as they are arch.

See that? We're not just making it up! Other people love Towers & Portals just as much as we do! That's a quote from the fantastic article at ArtCat which we think everyone should go read. We're very pleased to have been noticed, and we're very happy they liked us. We hope to see more of you here, ArtCat! Maybe even for the Closing Night Party on April 12th! Or what about opening night for Allison Edge: Crystal Days? That's April 18th, you know. Or what about coming to both? We're sure our art dog won't mind.

The End Is Nigh! Nigh Means Next Sunday!

So what if you're one of those people who haven't yet come to see Rachel Beach: Towers and Portals. Well, first of all, we forgive you. But we also think you should be planning to visit us on April 12th for the spectacular Closing Night Party from 6:00pm to 8:00pm. Rachel's coming! Don't you want to meet Rachel? And she'll be ing desserts from Uncle John's!

Okay, well, if that isn't enough, what if we tell you about the New Artist Silent Auction that will be happening the same night? Aha, now you're listening. Well, while Rachel shows off her work upstairs, our downstairs will be full of some up-and-coming types that we find very promising. Last time was so much fun, so we can't wait to do it again! Want a sneak peek?



Simone Meltesen is our first new find this month. We're very pleased to have her, especially in her own words:

As you can see from the video, she's someone that knows her art. Simone was born in San Francisco, and is a graduate of Hampshire College. Her move to Brooklyn changed her focus to smaller sized works, because she no longer had the room to paint!



Simone's pinhole photos are a document of her small sculptures, as well as her travels. Her research on girlhood in America and on the Feminist Art Movement of the 1970s, particularly on “craft" art, culminated her senior thesis show, “The Needle She,” which saw the genesis of her world of feral girls.



In her thesis show, the girls had been static, the backgrounds simple and monochromatic. The new incarnation sees the girls active, the landscapes lush and vibrant.



Currently Simone is working on a project called “What Every Girl Should Know,” where she interviews and photographs other young female artists in their studios, with the aim of starting a blog that is accessible to adolescent girls who are interested in art. We're very much looking forward to having her with us!

Our second new artist is Jsun Lalibertè.



Jsun is a UCF graduate with a BFA in Ceramics and Painting. His imagery is a model of nature, a look at a brief and intimate moment in the lives of fictitious plants, with delicate gestures and minute brushstrokes mirroring their intricacy. Watch our blog for more of Jsun's images later!

and as blogged about previously our third new artist is Katie Mangiardi.

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Katie Mangiardi, who's intimate, historically-influenced paintings draw from the textile patterns that adorn figures classical works of art. Lace and tapestry play across her canvases in twisting forms that are at once demure and haunting. Mangiardi holds degrees from RISD, Vassar, and the Glasgow School of the Arts.

Remember, all this is coming April 12th as part of the Towers & Portals Closing Night party from 6:30pm - 8:00pm! If you haven't yet seen the show, you've got one more chance! Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry! We'll see you here!

The Only Thing Better Than Being Talked About Is... Hmm... Let Us Think...

Okay, we give up. There's nothing better. We love being talked about!



If you came in to see Towers & Portals, this weekend, you might have noticed that we were all very happy. But you probably didn't ask why. That's so like you. Thankfully, we're not shy about tooting our own horn.

In this case, "horn" means "Interview Magazine". Steve Pulimood from Interview decided to devote a few minutes to an interview with the lovely Rachel Beach. Head on over and take a look! She even reveals her favorite color.



We've been very fortunate this month, and we've had all sorts of wonderful press from bloggers and magazines. Don't you think you should come see what's making them all decide to write about Rachel's work? Remember, Towers & Portals has been extended through April 12th to allow for maximum visitation. It's very much worth the trip.



Also keep in mind that, coming up on April 12th, we'll be holding a very special Closing Night Blowout. This celebration will feature a New Artist's Silent Auction, desserts from Uncle John's, and an appearance by Rachel Beach herself! And who knows, there might even be a little preview of our next show, Allison Edge: Crystal Days. So save the date, because when we post full details, you're gonna want to be free. Trust us, we know how to blow it out.