R & Company Art Exhibit in Tribeca
If you’ve read my past post about the 3 top reasons to take a toddler to an art gallery, you know we love frequenting them! Today, after school, we enjoyed another artsy adventure, this time closer to our home, in Tribeca. R & Company on 82 Franklin (between Church and Broadway) is a 2-floor, narrow unassuming space that you’d miss easily if not looking specifically for it. Step inside though and you’ll be greeted with playful bursts of color and sculptures that beg you to reach out and touch them. As soon as Juliet stepped in, she screamed in delight, “Mommy this place looks like so much FUN!”
And indeed it was! The tactile surfaces were fun to explore and luckily, this gallery encouraged not only feeling the exhibits but also sitting, climbing and exploring in them!
Yes, the artist’s name is actually “Porky Hefer…”
Isn’t this such a wonderous place for a child to enjoy art?
It inspires such curiosity and imagination!
“Each piece is meant to be inhabited like a hermit inhabits shells.” He encourages visitors to curl their bodies into the playful, human-scaled shells and nests, or to drape themselves languidly over the leopard’s branch.
Downstairs, though was where Juliet’s favorite pieces were. She got such a kick out of the coin couch because we were just teaching her the value of coins. “I wonder how the artist made this!” And so we discussed possibilities and she determined, “glue!” haha
Johnny Swing‘s iconic coin works have been exhibited in museums and institutions around the world. Swing, who is considered a master welder and craftsman, has developed a unique patterning technique that utilizes flat shiny coins to create furniture works. His innovative approach successfully transforms these industrial found coins into biomorphic and natural forms that transcend their material. (excerpt from the exhibit’s website)
Coins certainly take on a whole new value in the mind of this tiny toddler!
Juliet’s other favorite find was this fuzzy little beast. When it was time to go, she said, “but I LOVE him!!” So I let her stay for a bit and she spent the remaining minutes, cuddling and kissing this crazy fur creature. “Wait! 3 more hugs!” she exclaimed as motioned for us to go.
If you’re in the NY area, I highly recommend R and Company. This intimate art gallery will only take you 30minutes of your time depending on how many selfies you take 🙂 and is great to explore with kids! We went on a Monday afternoon and were the only ones in there! Woohoo! This exhibit is open until February 23rd.
To see more of our mommy and me artsy adventures, click here!
The 2nd design got approved and though I wish I had decreased the size of the image to make it look more life-sized, it came out great!
I wanted it to look as though I had a bunch of items sprawled out on the bed trompe-l’oeil style but it’s a little larger than life. It was a bit hard to estimate from the website, how large the items would look in person with the duvet actually on the bed. But I’m OK with the end result. It just looks a little more playful now..
