The Photos Are Here! The Photos Are Here!

We mentioned it once before, but now Nora Herting: Free Sitting has a brand-spanking new image page. Head on over and take a look at twenty two images from the shoot, and then visit Nora's page for more! Remember, these prints can be yours at any time, with a three pack of 8.5" x 11" prints going for only $45. And watch for more about Nora Herting, because we can't wait until we get to work with her again!

Nora Herting: Free Sitting 8.5" x 11" Prints Now Available!

Did you join us on Saturday, March 6th for Nora Herting:Free Sitting? If you did, guess what? Today's the day your pictures have arrived!.
Nora was very happy to see everyone that came out to take part in her adventure to document the found families of Williamsburg. Feel free to read the original press release or our blog to read our summary of the night itself. If you're unfamliar with Nora Herting , all you need to know is that she became fascinated by the social phenomenon of these awkward and ubiquitous family portraits, until finally, she decided to go undercover as a trade photographer with a J.C, Penny's portrait studio. Nora now brings this experience to the world with her traveling photo booth experiment, bringing strangers together to play the part of the frustrated family. And we, her make-believe models, all agreed that the process made for one fantastic night.
The photos you see here are just a light dusting of the images that Nora collected. Head over to Nora's Free Sitting Collection Web Page and start enjoying small web-quality results of the night. See one you like? See someone you know? Contact us and we'll be happy to help you get your packet! Because, like any good family portrait, these images are now available in an 8.5" x 11" size, at $45 for a packet of three.
It doesn't matter if she's in her role as the artist from 2008's Flip or appearing as the commercial photographer behind Free Sitting, Nora's charm and sense of humor always shines through in her work. If you joined us, or even if you didn't, we think you'll be thrilled by what she's created. Go on, take a look.
LTS CREW 2010

Maybe They Just Didn't Like The Mountains

Tell the truth, does that look like a "suspicious gathering" to you? Because according to the cops, that's how the caller described us. Thankfully we had all our papers in order, and the police were very polite and understanding, so our Nora Herting: Free Sitting party continued out in front of the gallery until a wee-but-reasonable hour!



With this lovely backdrop, Nora created found families, posing anyone who cared to be posed alongside anyone that cared to be with them. The shots ranged from the sublime to the surreal, and the night was filled with a mix of gallery regulars, first time visitors, and even a few innocent bystanders. Everyone was having so much fun that it was impossible for anyone to feel shy.



Nora's project is designed to explore the feeling of those awkward family portraits that once were part of the American dream, bringing total strangers together to play the parts. She's previously carried out her Free Sittings elsewhere, including a wonderfully successful stop in Chelsea late last year. Her seasoned ability turned Saturday night into a chance to play with the idea of the portrait, both through Nora's deliberate direction or by simply letting the models position themselves. Some shots were awkward, some were sinister, some were just plain funny, and one or two even made the onlookers say "awwww".



You can read a little more about Nora's project right here. Of course, while that was going on, we had a little event of our own happening inside.



Saturday's ultra-rare advance preview of our upcoming show, The World We Live In, The Worlds We Create was a mix of the sculpture and drawing that all us Spicy people have very excited about. You can see an advance sneak preview on our sneak preview page, but don't think that we're giving it all away this early! Why do you think we're being so coy with these shots? All you get now is a little taste, because the real opening night is Friday, March 12th, and we want YOU to be there! Maybe you'll even get to talk to some of the artists, such as the wonderful Jessica Stoller (center, in the hat).



Additionally, RSVP now for the next installment of our Monthly Dinner Series, The Worlds We Ate on March 20th. You'll be having a delicious dinner surrounded by the work itself, and you can enjoy meeting the artists in person! Previous dinners have been amazing, so reserve your place!

But that's a story still waiting for us in the future. The fun we had on Saturday was all because of Nora Herting.



Great job, Nora! We can't wait to do it again.

Free Sitting on March 6th!

The camera is held steadily as you pose before it with your family, your father's stern hand lain unnaturally on your shoulder forging a kind of maternal affection for the camera, imaginary ants tickling your body as you try to remain still with a broad smile plastered across your strained face. These unnatural snapshots intended on betraying family life became a point of fascination for our artist Nora Herting as she joins us on March 6th for Nora Herting: Free Sitting.

To delve into the nuts and bolts of the strange psychology and comedy of this long running tradition, she has constructed an interactive instillation in the form of a photo booth. Here, with each photo, she will create imaginary families and initiate momentary ties, as groups of strangers come in off the streets of Williamsburg to pose out of front of Like The Spice.



Come in on March 6th from 6.30pm to 10.00pm as we enjoy our Saturday night Armory party! Plus did we mention a chance for a sneak preview of one of our up and coming group sculpture shows The World We Live In, The Worlds We Create. And of course all are welcome to come to our next Monthly Dinner on March 20th to eat, drink, be merry, and talk to the artists about their art and their life. Join us, won't you?

Local Girl Makes Good

We at L the S always love it when our artists do good stuff. So we're very very pleased to mention that Nora Herting, who previously joined us as part of 2008's Flip, will be doing something wonderful this weekend!



This Friday, November 6th, from 4pm until 7pm, Nora will be on hand as part of Stand Alone Gallery's Portable Street Studio, which you can find lurking about 547 West Street (between 10th and 11th). An accomplished photographer (take a look and see!), Nora's going to be offering a free sitting to create spontaneous portraits as part of what they're calling an Interactive Community Portrait Event. We're going to try our best to be there, and we think you should try too.

Of course, Nora's been getting some good press lately. The Forth Worth Examiner has a very nice interview that's available to read online. Want a taste?

Richie Budd:
There is something gregariously pure and honest about where you leave the audience as viewers in relationship to your work. Can you talk to what it is you look for in your own photographs that make you want to share them? Or how do you decide to choose a particular photograph to display?

Nora Herting:
The criterion varies a bit depending on what I am expressing in each series of work. In each one I am communicating something a little bit different. I would like my photographs raise the viewers awareness to the nature of photography, as well as the actual subject in the photograph itself. So, in Free Sitting, a series I did about commercial portrait studios, the viewer has to think about the somewhat absurd measures that are employed when people make portraits of themselves.

It's a really nice look at the way Nora works, thinks, and creates, and it's worth the read. We're so pleased she's getting all this attention! So keep in mind: the place to be this Saturday is 547 West Street, from 4 - 7pm!

LtS + GiT = BFF

(A little accident made us post an unfinished draft before. Our bad! Hope you like this version more.)



On September 16th, LtS made a little trip to enjoy the Girls In Tech Web 2.0 Expo. And, just like we expected, the tech-minded know how to party!



We brought work from artists Anna Druzcz, Abby Goodman, Nora Herting,Tatiana Kronberg and Nicole Stager (who will be joining us in October for her solo show Synesthesia) and the pieces were very well received.



As the night went on, we became happier and happier that we'd been invited. Probably because of this, the photos started to get blurry. Hey, our cameraperson wanted to party too!



The Girls In Tech crowd were all terribly clever, and that made the whole thing a lot more fun. Thanks again to Girls In Tech for having us. We hope we can do this again!

Tonight, the Meatpacking District...Tomorrow the world. MWAAHAHAHAHA.

Have You Seen the Horizon Lately?
Like the Spice curates at...
Leo Kesting Gallery
812 Washington St.
New York, NY 10014

July 17th – August 3rd 2008
Opening Reception Thursday July 17th 7-10:00pm

Have you seen a horizon lately?
If you have, watch it for a while.
For you never know,
It may not last so long.
-Yoko Ono

Allison Edge, Tomorrowland at Night, 2008
oil on canvas, 48 x 48"


Like the Spice is proud to present Have You Seen the Horizon Lately, an exhibition featuring contemporary landscapes by Rachel Beach, Liz Brown, Anna Druzcz, Allison Edge, Dean Goelz, Nora Herting, Eric LoPresti, Ross Racine and Nicole Stager and hosted by the always-on-the-cutting-edge Leo Kesting Gallery in the meatpacking district.

Landscape art has historically had more to do with artists and the cultures they live in than with the actual lay of the land. Today, as natural landscapes are further than ever from our day-to-day lives, landscape art is even more tenuously connected to any sense of a natural pristine beauty. Landscapes today are phantasmagoric representations of communities, ecologies, memories and consumer fantasies. Most places we spend our time in are either haphazard mishmashes of the architecture of necessity or environments purposefully designed to encourage our consumption.

The artists in this exhibition combine the fantasy of and longing for a place we belong with a deep understanding of the near impossibility of finding it. Dystopian visions of landscapes in ruins, works depicting the sublime horror of battlefields, fantasy suburban developments with nonsense layouts and abstract memories of what nature was like populate this show. There are also moments of levity. A spaceship presides over a stuntman’s ring of fire in the desert, a duck-human hybrid contemplates nature and we get a peek of Space Mountain as we stroll through Tomorrowland in a technicolored photo-memory.

My, How Time Flies...

Two Year Anniversary Show & Raffle!
July 11th, 2008
Doors open at 6:30pm, Auction starts at 8:45pm
Entry to the gallery is FREE!

Alison Edge, John 2002 Watercolor on Paper. 12" by 8 3⁄4".

Come help Like the Spice celebrate two exciting years with a special one day auction! Nearly all of our artists are donating small works to be raffled off, so it'll be easy to go home with something nice. Take a look at these examples, and check back now and then, because we'll be adding more! We'll also have some surprises you'll have to come see in person as well as a few special prizes we're keeping under our hat for now. But who doesn't like free framing?


Tickets are $50 at the door and $45 if purchased in advance. This is a great chance to get a great piece from your favorite Like the Spice artist. Not to mention you'll get to enjoy an afternoon of live music. And we'll have drinks and party fuel too!

Click here to read some of our press over the last two years!

Come on July 11th at 6:30pm and help us celebrate the first two years... of many!

Sean Flannigan, Birdcloud Watercolor & Charcoal on Cradled Board. 12" by 12".


Nora Herting, Spirit 226 Artist's Proof.


Ross Racine, Subdivision: Beachview Bluffs (crop). 9 1/2 x 12 5/8 Digital Drawing.

Peter Feigenbaum11" x 14" DIGITAL PRINT, 2005.

Max Liboiron, Dirty Taxidermy (Elephant)
Drypoint, 6" x 8", 2006.

Max Liboiron,Dirty Taxidermy (Giraffe)
Drypoint, 6" x 8", 2006.

Steven Tabbutt, "Bright Paper Shaman" Mixed Media.

Grace Yung Ting Teng, When This Cruel War is over, 2008.

Darren Lee Miller, 4000 and Counting, 2007, Archival Ink Jet.

Barry Hazard, Transmision, 9"x12" ; tinted gesso and charcoal on paper; 2007.


Robert Gullie, Saratoga Horse Girl, hand-tinted black and white photograph, 11x14".

Seth Cohen, Graphite Drawing

James Biederman, Drawing, Mixed media on paper.

Ian O'Phelan, pen + ink drawing in gold frames, 2008.

Ian O'Phelan, pen + ink drawing in gold frames, 2008.

Rachel Beach, Droplet #20,Wood veneer,Plywood, Polystyrene, Oil paint, 2008.

Dean Goelz, Untitled, Mixed Media, 2008.

Abby Goodman, Untitled, mixed media

Allie Rex, Untitled(circles), 2008, 14" x 13", Acyrlic, Pins, Mylar.

Thomas Clark, Volture, Graphite, pastel.

John Zaso, Stop, Look, Listen. Collage, paper on paper, and glue. 11x 14".

Chadwick Whitehead, Speed, Screenprint, 2007.

Anna Druzcz, In vitro complex No.3 Artist Proof, c-print,8"x11", 2007.

Liz Brown,Ride a Pale Horse 2008.

Liz Brown, Prelude to terror, 2008.

Malika (queen), Sunny Chapman, 2007

Micah Danges, "Untitled", Archival Ink Jet print is 21'x21'.

Jason Bryant, Colored Pencil on Board, 2007

Michael Sanders, Untitled Watercolor on Paper, 2008

Clark Jackson,Extreme_ankle GYM/ vertical ankle flex machine, Archival inkjet, 2004.

Eric LoPresti, Gradient, Yellow & Gray acrylic on paper,14 x11, 2008.

Jason Head, Unicorns, 2007 Animation Cell (Triacetate Cell) and Vinyl Paint. 13x17.

Brian LaRossa Drawing In—2007 Ballpoint Pen, Digital C-Print—4"x6"

Ammie Rose, High above the countryside, Silver Gelitin print, 2005.

Kendall Bradford, RFB, Watercolor on paper, 2008.

Steed Taylor, Messenger (detail 1/26 scale); graphite on black gesso coated cotton
rag paper; 20" x 16"; 2006; signed on back

Dylan Peet, Tania, graphite on wood,8" x 6", 2008.

Ian O’Phelan, Portrait, Graphite and mixed media on canvas, 12”x9” 2008

Brendan Fernandes, Dog with Head, 8x11, digital drawing on paper, 2008.



Cair Crawford, Baby Blanket, Oil on canvas, 11”x8 1/2” 2008