A Recent Gallery Trip

On a recent visit to the galleries in Chinatown, I happened upon the Inaugural Group Show for the Charlie James Gallery. Nowadays, every time I venture to Chinatown there seems to be a new gallery or an old one that has shifted location; so, it is not unusual for me to have wandered into this gallery not knowing what to expect.

Apparently, this is the inaugural installation and it is worth talking a look at, especially the work of Ray Beldner. He has sewn together currency to resemble famous art works from modern art history.

For the last five years, I have worked on a series titled Counterfeit in which I selected key artwork by famous 20th century artists, such as Fountain, by Marcel Duchamp, Three Flags, by Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol's Marilyn, and re-made those "signature" pieces out of sewn US currency. Counterfeit referred to my plagiarism of these masterpieces as well as the conditional nature of the value of art and money. – Statment from Beldner's website.

Yes, I know it seems very "grad-school", but there is something there in the Ruscha, Flavin and Lichtenstein composed of dollar bills. The piece that really stands out is Money Bag (2008). This is more than timely in the current state of the nation. I only wish I had my camera at the time.