I really like Jen Bekman.  She’s a gallery owner that has three cool things going on: A cute little gallery on Spring Street near the Bowery, a website called 20 x 200 that sells affordable art online (for as low as $20 a print) and a competition called Hey Hot Shot for up and coming photographers.

I trekked to the gallery recently on a 90+ degree day and was not disappointed.  There was a group exhibition called Land Use Survey that featured artists’ interpretations of people’s relationships with the landscape. It’s running until August 15th.

It was a great high/low mix with paintings, drawings and photographs of all ranges, featuring up and coming artists and real established ones as well.

Some standouts, in my opinion:

Indian Beach Surf, Oregon, 2009 by Ian Baguskas – A hazy, dreamy, timeless photo of an Oregon beach

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Mint + Magnolia by Brad Moore – A crunchy, vibrant photo of lush shrubbery

Greyfield #2 and #4 by Michelle Muldrow – Painterly takes on today’s mundane American retail landscape

Dusk, Cumberland Farms, Provincetown, 1976 by Joel Meyerowitz – The palette and vibe of 1976 frozen in time in this great slice of life photograph

Placed Places by William Wegman – Okay this was my favorite, best seen in person. William Wegman of dog photo fame has done a series of oil paintings where he attached vintage postcards to wood and then extended the postcard image by painting in his rendition of the rest of the scene.  It’s extremely cool and I’m not doing it justice by describing it here.

On the way back to the office I stopped for an excellent falafel and mint lemonade at Hoomoos Asli on Kenmare between Broome & Spring. Yum!