I find it so exciting to be back at art openings, and have been trying to get to as many as I can. Somehow all the ones I’ve been eager to attend in NYC have been on heavy rain nights. After years of ridicule for not wearing, or owning, Gortex in Seattle, I have several perfect waterproof coats that I can wear right into a New York City gallery opening (or regatta). Nothing holds me back.

I wrote about Ania Hobson back in 2021, and was absolutely thrilled to see there would be an opening when I was in Manhattan. I had already been to all the galleries on the Lower East Side, and Morgan Aguilar-Lucander, the owner of Morgan Presents, let me come into his gallery before the opening. He could not have been nicer, and I was impressed with his deep and varied art knowledge. I got the opportunity to look at the work, and talk with Morgan about Hobson. I even got a tour of the large basement with other artist’s work that I also liked.

The opening featured work by Ania Hobson and Barbara Kruger. You can read about it here.

“Morgan Presents invites pairs of artists to create an exhibition that offers a new perspective into their practice. Morgan Presents is not a representing gallery, and no one artist will exhibit twice during the run of the program. Morgan Presents intends to offer an insight into today’s emerging vanguard of painting and sculpture in collaboration and dialogue with established artists and galleries both domestically and abroad. A hardback publication, cataloguing each exhibition, will be published at the conclusion of the project.” (Morgan Presents)

In the back area of the gallery, separate from the show, was this painting by Rebecca Ness. Lucien happens to be a great restaurant in the East Village that I’ve been to a handful of times. It was a beautiful painting.

In the basement there were two paintings by Walter Robinson, an artist who I had not heard of, but happy to now know about. I think his work is fantastic.

There was also a stunning Cora Cohen painting!