And when I say hot, I mean... HOT!

Rachel Beach, our art star's solo show, Towers & Portals, opens with a Sneak Preview on Friday, March 6th and a Grand Opening on Saturday, March 7th. She is such a perfectionist that she's making her own lighting scheme. Where's the team of white mice and pumpkin coach to sweep her away?



We adore Rachel as a person and even more as an artist. These shots of her newest pieces should give you a great idea why.



Rachel's sculpture plays with space in a way that photos cannot totally capture. We know the dimensions of our gallery almost by heart and she still has us doing double takes. If you were here for her last show, you know how amazing her stuff is. If you weren't here, for Heaven's sake, don't miss out twice in a row!



Rachel asked us to save a few surprises, so keep in mind that we're deliberately avoiding some pieces in these shots... You'll be pleased that we did when you see them for the first time. Some things really are best witnessed in person.



Be here this Friday and Saturday for the Sneak Preview and Opening Night of Towers & Portals! And RSVP now for the March 13th Artist's Dinner with Rachel herself! Go ask your fairy godmother, she'll back us up.

Dear Armory show we love when you come to town because the events that happen because of your presence are so AWESOME!

Rachel Beach, Bridge Art Fair, and now all of the Galleries in Williamsburg open till 11pm. What more can we give you, what more could you ask for...On Saturday March 7th Like the Spice brings you an Art explosion like nothing you have ever seen. From Chelsea to Williamsburg LTS serves up a pure night of eye titillating experiences.
Here is the order of business:

12:00pm Booth #35 Bridge Art Fair (we gave you a teaser in our last blog post, check it)

3:00pm Family Scavenger Hunt through the Williamsburg check in at Ch"i
6:30pm Rachel Beach's new solo exhibition Towers and Portals opens.
7:30pm Collector Tour #1 leaves from Like the Spice 224 Roebling Street
8:00, 8:30 Collector Tours leave from Slate Gallery and then Jack the Pelican.
11:00pm Rachel Beach and Like the Spice head over to Supreme Trading for the after party!



and coming March 13th, our monthly artist dinner series: Knives And Glasses
dinner served at 8:00pm
RSVP Required

Like the Spice parties at the Tunnel in Bridge Art Fair NYC Booth #35

Like the Spice is thrilled to announce our participation in Bridge Art Fair New York March 5-8 at The Water Front 222 12th Avenue (the old Tunnel night club). Bridge New York is noted as one of the most influential presenters of international emerging contemporary art, and it is a top destination for collectors, curators and arts patrons. Bridge New York '09 will feature over 50 exhibitors, a large percentage of which will be international.

Press From Last Year:
New York Times
The New York Times stopped by The Bridge Art Fair on Friday and took a good hard look around. They seem to have been very pleased, and with good reason! Take a quick look of your own and see what you missed, as well as what's still waiting for you to discover.

James Kalm Report
Here are all the artists we are Bringing with us for the festivities!





Rachel Beach's multifaceted wood veneer and oil paint constructions are derived from details of art, architecture and design history. Her works have been described as " tough, precise and disciplined with a hard edged cheeriness" and "steeped in a pleasant pluralism, bound by a shared material intelligence".

Allison Edge works primarily in oil on canvas and watercolor on paper. Her work captures recurring themes of youth worship and idealized beauty, and are influenced by fashion advertising, boyfriends/friends, Pre-Raphaelites and growing up in the 80’s.

Dean Goelz’s sculptures and drawings depict the slightly odd ways we interact with each other and our environment, and the tenuous grip society and culture have on our gentle animal natures. Using a kind of reverse anthropomorphism, the characters depicted in his work evoke protective instincts usually reserved for cute animals and babies.

Jenny Morgan’s physiological portraiture manipulates the figure to expose an individual's idiosyncrasies. Working with people from her own life as subject matter allows Morgan to hone in on specifics of their character and present their personalities as she experiences them.

Plus a special collaborative piece by Jenny Morgan and David Mramor!

Ross Racine’s digital prints are drawn completely freehand, on the computer. Joined together the pieces reveal familiar opposites of handmade and digital, organic and mechanical, subjective and technological, physical and virtual.

Nicole Stager resin encased photogram cubes "that have spectacular array of saturated color, lightness and movement. While the photograms emanate warmth and openness, their methodology and the uncertainty of their sources gives them air of mystery, too." from
papermag.com

Du-licious dinners and Pleasing Readings

Things just went right at Friday night's "Du-licious" Dinner. Precisely the same number of guests arrived as there were seats to be filled at the table. The wine on the table was exactly sufficient to fill every glass the perfect number of times, with a touch left over for the LTS crew to toast themselves with at the end of the evening. And the amount of food in surplus was just enough to expand LTS Assistant Leia's waistline ever so slightly beyond the capacity of her Levis.


Falafel Chulo chef Dija Amer prepared steaming, succulent kefta kebabs and indulgently comforting veggie fritters - all smothered in a tangy dill tzatziki. Crisp, golden sheets of fried pita with hummus whipped into savory peaks of perfection. Despite an opulent spread (hah!) of no less than four creamy middle-eastern sauces, the tablecloths escaped unscathed.


While Leia recovered sluglike on the chaise in the basement under the pretense of helping the waitstaff, LTS Assistant Scott documented the evening in photographs. That, dear readers, is why in THIS blogpost you can see what stuff is. (See our last post for comparison). The photo above shows Syed addressing the diners. The next photo, however, illustrates the hazards of letting boys use cameras.


Very funny, Scott.

On Saturday, we welcomed Jack Hofsiss and Ethan Silverman, who treated us to a performance and workshop of "Jack from Above", the true story of Jack's journey to China to find a cure for his paralysis. We had a full house again, and we were touched to see that so many members of the audience were moved to tears.



We hope to have lots more readings like this in the future at LTS! It was really cool to have a different form of artistic talent on display, and a different group of enthusiasts taking part.

Is LTS setting its sights on the world of theatre? Stay tuned for our all-singing, all-dancing, upcoming revue, "A Print Hangs in Brooklyn".

Dubai Underground Opens! Assistant Fails to Capture the Moment.

LTS Assistant Leia can print pricelists and press releases with margins meticulously even. She can plate ritz crackers in an attractive semi-circle for openings. She can enfold oil paintings in the gentle embrace of bubble wrap, and securely affix sticky-labels to walls and postcards alike.

What Assistant Leia cannot do is take a digital photograph that is in any way legible or compositionally appealing. Fuzzy blobs hover in front of what may or may not be art. Darkness reigns over crowds with orangely glowing eyes. Heads are excised with abandon.

So, I wanted to write this gorgeously illustrated blog post about how awesome last night's opening was. Instead, I'm forced to give you this:

Just to clear things up, this was an opening at an art gallery. There were beautiful photographs and prints. Pretend that there's art in this photo, and that people are looking at said art rather than staring somberly en masse at a blank wall. How I managed to capture an exact moment where EVERY SINGLE ART PIECE would be blocked by a body is a mystery of physics.


This is supposed to be a picture of a good-looking couple admiring one of Khalid's prints, but it's mostly a picture of an empty doorway.


On the plus side, this picture has both people and art. Yay me! On the downside, it looks like one of those night-vision nature documentaries about the habits of unsettling nocturnal predators.


I'm proud of this one.

Make sure to RSVP to our upcoming artist dinner, Du-Licious! You'll be happy to hear that assistant Leia will be serving hors d'oeuvres, while a more qualified intern operates the camera. It's not like I've been demoted, really. Marisa says that she wants to DIRECT my skills to where they'll be more useful. If I do okay, she says she'll think about letting me pour wine (white only)! Wish me luck!

Valentine's kisses!

LTS.A.L.

TONIGHT: Dubai Underground Opening

Hey y'all. We're opening our awesome collaborative exhibition tonight, in partnership with Mezze! It's been a long install for Rahul and Liz, but we think it's totally worth it!

From political photography to tongue-in-cheek advertising, "Dubai Underground" exposes the complex underbelly of a place steeped in wealth and culture. What ancient roots and odd contradictions still turn the wheels of this seemingly cosmopolitan city? The seven artists presented in this exhibition seek the answers to these questions, and more.

We'll be pulling out all the usual stops on this opening! Come by for a drink and some inspiration! If you missed Jenny Morgan's "Abrasions", have no fear. Her gorgeous portraits are on display in the downstairs gallery, alongside the usual show of brilliance from our cast of artists.

Be sure to RSVP for Dubai Underground's special artist dinner - "Du-Licious", Friday, February 20th, 2008. Dinner's served at 8:00pm, and RSVPs are required. This month's dinner is created by the chefs of Falafel Chulo, serving up a delicious spread of Middle Eastern cuisine! Go here to reserve your spot!

Towering above the rest!

Rachel Beach: Towers and Portals
March 7th - March 29th, 2009
Opening Reception: Saturday March 7th, 6:30-10pm
Artist's Dinner: Knives & Glasses: March 13th, 8:00pm
Like the Spice is pleased to present Rachel Beach: Towers and Portals, an exhibition of the artist's conceptually elegant self-referential works.

Situated firmly in the border between sculpture and painting, illusion and reality, masculine and feminine, representation, abstraction and decoration, Rachel Beach's wooden portals and towers are crafted around cultural and biological limits. By playing painted illusion against sculptural reality each sculpture/painting creates a crisis of perception, an irresolvable tension between what you see and what is possible.