Last day in New York City

We spent our last day in NYC enjoying the West Chelsea Art Gallery district of Manhattan.

Years ago, the NYC contemporary art galleries exhibiting living artists were located densely around Soho.
In recent years, they moved out of the pricy Soho area and moved into the West Chelsea area.

Most galleries in the West Chelsea district are spread in a large rectangle between 10th and 11th Avenues and 16th and 29th Street blocks, right above the old meatpacking district.

The relocation of the art galleries encouraged a wave of real-estate developers to buy, design and renovate some upscale contemporary residential buildings in west Chelsea, which once was just a cheap area filled with car garages and parking structures.

Now, because West Chelsea has already gotten filled with high end art galleries, upscale stores and trendy expensive residences, the art galleries are moving yet again to the Lower East Side of Manhattan…. In their ongoing search for larger spaces at lower cost.

I love contemporary art.
I love to see what other living artists are doing.
I enjoy looking at the development of art and trends, and I respect and appreciate many forms of art, even if I do not relate to some with my own aesthetics.
Many living artists today are doing AMAZING art.

I admit that not all the contemporary art is ground breaking and fabulous.
There are 250 galleries in the Chelsea area, and we only devoted one day to this district.

My husband asked me why do I refuse to go into certain galleries, suspecting that I was too shy or intimidated by the white spaces and the snooty gallery attendants…
I assured him that this was not the case.

I did not go into some galleries, because I could see from the windows that the work was not so exciting.
Since we had limited time to explore such a large area, I simply skipped the work that did not inspire or touch me.

I am glad to report that there were PLENTY of galleries that I was delighted to enter and truly admire the work.

We had a memorable Japanese creative Kaiseki meal at the newly opened “BrushStroke” restaurant on Hudson street.

The restaurant is beautifully designed with reclaimed barn wood, and the service was almost overly attentive.
The food was pure artwork.
Every dish was a symphony of flavors, colors and textures.
It was a true celebration to be dining there.

We also had a fabulous lunch at Devi, which is a creative Indian place with some of the best non traditional Indian food we ever had.

We walked for miles in NYC and saw so much…. Did so much…. And we boarded the night flight on Air Maroc to Casablanca.