Wolfgang Tillmans at Andrea Rosen Gallery

Chelsea's contemporary Andrea Rosen Gallery is currently displaying the photographs of famed artist Wolfgang Tillmans. While it is extremely difficult for photographers to create original, deeply personal and instantly recognizable visual styles, Tillmans has successfully done so, transforming himself into an innovative artist-photographer of modern life.

While the photographer has boldly explored various genres, techniques, and subject matters throughout his career (which began in the early 1990s), his eclectic creations all point to a “Tillmans-esque style” (one that is widely imitated and well – known). Tillmans' images portray beauty and nonchalance – accomplished through the photographer’s use of monochrome colors and abstract and fragmented styles. He seeks to create uncontrived pieces and sticks by his belief that photographs should occupy wall space more like a sheet than a piece of art (this is why he frequently leaves his photos unframed).

In his current exhibition, the photographer masterfully adheres to his signature style - as much of the gallery is hung with unframed pictures of varying scale – with some clustered and some isolated. In a recent review in NY Magazine, Jerry Saltz remarks,

“Visiting is like being suspended in a photographic aquarium. Although at first you might think he was just traveling around, snapping the shutter willy-nilly, you soon see that he’s trying, with each picture, to make something powerful and personal out of impossibly clichéd subjects.”

I’d love to be a fish in this aquarium! The exhibition runs through March 13th.

Check out other current exhibitions going on in Chelsea

Check out these photography exhibitions now on display at galleries and museums around NYC

Free Art in Manhattan

Not many things in NYC are free these days, but there are several art-related events going on in the next month that are FREE of charge! So save your spending money and explore NYC's "Free Art Scene."

NY Magazine lists 21 free art events in Manhattan. Some highlights include:

Alex Prager @ Yancey Richardson Gallery - Prager's complex photographs include images of California blondes with weird stares, waxy tans, retro buoyancy and forceful body language. All of the artist's photos were shot in the LA neighborhood where she grew up and the models' clothes came from an actress friend of her grandmothers, adding a uniquely personal touch to the show. (Oh how I love Hollywood Glamour!)


Gelitin @ Greene Naftali - Blindfolded half-naked Austrian artists (all part of the art collective, Gelitin) have composed sculptures of found materials at Green Naftali. Their creative style and chaotic perseverance blend masterfully. Hmm... I can't quite picture it, but it definitely sounds intriguing.


Johnny Swing @ Knoedler & Company - Go see Swing's functional - yet fun furniture, which he crafts from re-purposed materials (like baby-food jars and leather floor tiles).

Thomas Ruff @ David Zwirner - David Zwirner never seems to disappoint - and now is no exception. The influential German photographer, Thomas Ruff, ventures away from his usual portraiture, landscapes and architecture to create fascinating and elaborate visual systems (via computer-generated images depicting 3d curves).



Yaddo: Making American Culture @ the New York Public Library - This ongoing exhibition shows the legendary Saratoga Springs artists' community Yaddo's fantastic array of papers, art and ephemera. Since 1926, the community has hosted thousands of creative people, from Flannery O'Connor to Jacob Lawrence.

Have fun with these freebies!