Spirikal’s bottom line: A fantastic evening with some really talented French female artists and wonderful guests. The turnout was surprisingly good for a Wednesday evening, and the mingling kept rolling as the wine kept pourring well into the night.

Review:

It was the perfect way to end a long tiring day at work and my evening class up in Harlem. I hopped on the subway as soon as my class ended and headed south to French Morning’s art expo in East SoHo. Although I was exhausted, I got a second wind as I passed by several receptions at some of the boutiques in neighborhood until I reached my destination. When I arrived, I just walked in. No need to RSVP because no one was at the door checking names.

To my dismay, there was no coat rack so I had fumble around with my coat, bag, a glass of wine and my camera as I took some snaps of the exhibit and the people – many of whom were expats from France. Happily, I eventually found a bench to stash my coat with about a dozen others.

I guzzled my first glass of white wine, a slightly dry one from Spain as I gazed at the artwork. I’ve seen so many mundane art expos with some pretentious art, but these ladies have got some serious talent. I suddenly felt guilty for any jaded thoughts I might had had before arriving.

My first stop was Inma Barrero, who made a wonderful installation of neutral-colored hanging mobiles. It’s shame that I wasn’t in the market because her display would have been perfect for my living room.  I was also hugely impressed with Anne de Villeméjane, who made such interesting sculptures with a slight exotic Southern Asian influence.

Laurence Bellotti, one of the artists, had some serious talent. Some of her works reminded me of the artwork one would have seen from the artists employed by the WPA during the Great Depression, which was, although a difficult time, the art world flourished. One painting, in particular, looked like a design I had seen of Moma that was made during the 1930s. She also featured two works, a beautiful painting of woman with colorful, exotic features and a print of Serge Gainsbourg, the famous French singer.

Fabienne Cutter was by far one of the most imaginative artists I met that evening. Her works were  printed on aluminium and stainless steel. She had a peculiar minimalist style with a certain hidden boldness that caught my eye.

I’m hoping that she might come chat with my students about her works.  As I sipped another glass of wine, I tried to sound as witty as possible, but it backfired because her art needed no interpretation. It was simple but incredibly powerful. As I think about it now, I’m still at a loss for words. Wow!

The crowd was amazing bunch. Many were expats working for French investment banks such as Société Générale and others were Americans, Germans and Brits all with different stories but passionate about art. So many people, so many conversations. I wished I could have carried on all night.

As my fatigue finally caught up with me; however, it was time to go. I headed out in the streets in the Lower East in search of a cab. It was after 11pm by the time I got home, but the images of some really fine art and memories of meeting so many kinds of people danced in my head as I finally crashed. Until tomorrow. Another day, another place to go. That is the life of a metronaut.