I rarely make it to midtown, and the excuse last week was a visit to the dentist. I'm certainly glad I did visit a couple of shows. First, the Donald Judd/Joseph Albers show at Pace Wildenstein is the kind of show I would expect from one of our city's museums, but it seems galleries like Pace, Cheim and Read (with the Soutine show), and even auction houses seem more likely to present them.

installation view at Pace Wildenstein

When the elevator doors opened on the gallery, I actually gasped slightly. It's that beautiful, feeling a bit like a temple. The contrast with the large windows viewing a busy 57th Street is quite wonderful.

The other show I saw was "The Nightly News" at Luxe Gallery. It is curated by Kathleen Goncharov (whom I met at a Momenta benefit last year) and Stephan Stoyanov. Any show that includes Robert Boyd and Jackie Salloum would attract me, but the new discovery for me was the work of a Turkish artist, Ahmet Öğüt. He was represented by a set of videos, including "Cut it Out", in which a young man dressed in American flag pants tries to recreate a hostage video in Iraq or Afghanistan, but keeps messing up and laughing. Keep your eye on Mr. Öğüt.

Ahmet Öğüt, Cut it Out, 2004, DVD

There was a surreal moment as I turned to leave Luxe Gallery. With the music from Robert Boyd's video on the subject of suicide cults playing in the backround, I spotted a sheet of paper from a notepad on the floor, shaped like a yellow star.

[image of Judd/Alberts from the Pace Wildenstein website; "Cut it Out" from the artist's website]