Stricoff Fine Art

There are many draws to downtown New York City- from the creative storefronts, swanky bars and clubs, to even just neat architecture- but one area that is commonly left undetected by the typical traveler is the Gallery District in Chelsea. In the shadows of the lush, green Highline, are small streets lined with galleries, exhibiting refreshing new pieces from today's art scene.

Visiting this area is one of my choice city activities, as entrance to the galleries are usually free, and it takes only minutes to hop from one to the next. This summer, I have managed to land myself a job that is located right in the heart of the Gallery District. So during the hustle and bustle of the workday, my short lunch breaks are now often accompanied by a gallery viewing. I could never allow such impressive works to remain a secret, so I have decided to start a series of blog posts about each gallery I visit, alongside a few visuals of my favorite works.

The first location that I have chosen to spotlight is the Stricoff Fine Art Gallery. It's one quite wide room, with all of the pieces adorning completely white walls. Similar to many other New York galleries, it is flooded with natural light from an entryway made solely of large windows. Currently there isn't one main exhibition occurring, so a variety of artists were on display. I found that I was easily drawn to the pieces by Paul Believeau and Max Grossman, as they depicted popular culture with bright, lively colors.

Recently I worked on an intricate personal collage project, and the Stricoff was a perfect place to apply my appreciation for it. There were multiple pieces that employed this technique , but the majority were created by two male artists, Jeff Cohen and Andrzej M Karwacki.

Still, my favorite out of all of the works was a very unique still-life painting. I cannot figure out who the artist is, but it is clear that they find texture to be an important element to artistic work. The paint smudges and scribbles give it the appearance of a work-in-progress, but personally, I feel this is a visual that truly embodies a still-life: the central element garners attention simply by being completely in focus, even as it is surrounded by chaos.

The gallery hasn't released dates for any of their future shows, so if this post has left you eager to see any of these pieces, they'll still be on display for a little bit longer. Or, you can just surrender to your phone and peruse their funky instagram account (@stricofffineart) instead.