Day 6: Madison Avenue, Second Avenue, Fifth Avenue and Midown

August 9, 2012August 10, 2012 | Design & Culture by Ed

Today I was in the Whitney Museum for the Kusama Exhibition on Madison Avenue. And that was a real disappointment. Well known for her use of dense patterns of polka dots and nets, as well as her intense, large scale environments, Yayoi Kusama works in a variety of media including paintings, drawing, sculpture, film, performance, and immersive installation. Kusama came to USA in 1957 and quickly found herself in New York epicenter of avant garde. After achieving fame thanks to art “happenings” she returned to Japan. Now she is one of the most loudest and known Japanese Contemporary artist and this retrospective in the Whitney features her works. However I didn’t liked the exhibition. The paintings were too… Ugly and normal. But the only thing I loved was the art piece with dark/yellow polka dots! And I will not write about rest of the museum because that was a hopeless. But the Frederic Malle perfumes and Rag and Bone shops were gorgeous! I also ate some ice creams in Eli Zabar Bakery (Madison Avenue).

Yayoi Kusama and this what was in the Whitney

Frederic Malle boutique, Rag and Bone, Pork Buns at Momofuku Ssam and Duck Dumplings
The next thing was a lunch at Momofuku Ssam Bar, whose chef is David Chang. We tried the iconic pork bun (a fluffy pancake with steamed pork and pickles inside). The dish was for me quite good, however it is really hard for stomach. The next dishes- were poor. But I bought, the Lucky Peach Magazine, that can be bought only in Momofuku. Because there was NO coffee in restaurant we went to Momofuku MILK Bar, that was on thesame street. I tried the first time in my life ice creams made out of… milk! They were great! We caught a taxi and drove to Bergdof Goodman on fifth avenue. We tried out some perfumes and I did lots of photos of some really fancy shoes! (I m gonna send them back at home!). To go back to he hotel, we chose a route through Central Park- in reality we didn’t see any green trees for few days! After some rest, we went for the dinner to Nobu- an Japanese restaurant. The food was really good- Wagyu beef, shrimp tempura, nigiri and tuna sushi rolls- but it was so annoyingly noisy there… But the most important was this that the fish was really fresh! As always, that was a great day day in NYC!!!

Day 5: Metropolitan Museum of Art and Soho

August 9, 2012August 11, 2014 | Design & Culture by Ed

That was a really exhausting and long day! We were already on nine o’clock in the morning in Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the biggest museum in the world. After reaching the main hall, we knew we will not go out of this place too fast. First, we went to the medieval arts, then European Sculpture and Decoration. I really loved all those beautiful porcelain vases and bowls ! They were so adoring! So detailed! Next was the Robert Lehman Collection of paintings, furnitures and sculpture. Most of paintings were by El Greco, Rembrandt and Botticelli. The best of all were Arts of Africa, Australia and Americas. My favourites- Mayans golds, Navajo clothes and Papua’s decoration. Modern and Contemporary Art was really great- Picasso, Mondrian, Andy Warhol, Anish Kapoor, Edward Hopper, Joan Miro and Elisworth Kelly did a real sensation! But the key exhibition was the Prada and Schiaparelli: Impossible Conversations. The main fashion categories were Hard, Ugly, Naif, The Classical Body, Exotic Body and Surreal Body Chics. The exhibition was to show the dialog between two Italian designers. The Conversation considers the striking affinities between these two iconic designers from different eras: Schiaparelli who worked in Paris from 1920 until her house closed in 1954, and Prada who took over her family Milan based business in 1978. The collection shows us also, how art is important in fashion and everyday life. We were also upstairs, but I don’t want you to be bored. So lets look at the pictures: (unfortunately, most photos are from the phone, and the best ones are on my camera. When I will be back at home I promise I will send on the blog much more!)

Andy Warhol, Van Gogh, Brooklyn Bridge from the taxi boat and Yayoi Kusama decorations
After lunch in museum we hurried on a taxi boat, to see all the most important bridges like Brooklyn. Awesome! It was a lot of fun. We saw whole Manhattan’s and New Jersey coasts. When we were walking out from the boat we found a tiny park where were standing… Yayoi Kusama benches! That temporary pieces of art, were standing there because of the Kusama exhibition in Whitney Museum. For the dinner we went to Balthazar on Spring Street on Soho. That was really poor. The homemade linguine were okay, red snaper (fish) was also okay but the some of the oysters were… Anorectic!!! That should have been the most fashionable restaurant in the city, but it was too loud and we felt like we were in the cheapest bistro in Paris. But the day was great.

Day 4: Soho and Meatpacking District

August 8, 2012August 28, 2014 | Design & Culture by Ed

Soho is my favourite place in whole New York! Because of the architecture, design, fashion, food, art and of course shopping. Our day began from visiting Victoria’s Secret (593 Broadway) really pink boutique. There was such a horrifying ton of all those perfumes, bras, etc. that we had to go to the Nespresso Cafe (Prince Str.) for relax. We ordered coffee and an small hamburger. After recollecting our energy, we moved to Agent Provocateur (133 Mercer Str.) boutique, that was also pink, however more elegant and exclusive than VS. Then there was time for Rag&Bone. Those clothes there were so cool, that we bought there so much items, that two huge bags were needed. However, A.P.C. was a huge disappointment. Our next place to go on map was the Crosby Street.
1.Victoria Secrets, 2. Nespresso, 3. Agent Provocateur, 4. Rag&Bone
There we went to an artistic design shop, Artifacts 20th Century (125 Crosby Str). In this shop the owner finds and sells furnitures and decoration from 20th century (Eames Lounge Chair, Eero Saarinen Womb Chair). Jill Platner (113 Crosby Str) sells a hand-made artistic jewellery. And everything is made out from silver. After this we’ve tried out some cupcakes in Georgetown Cupcakes (111 Mercer Str) and moved to Metal Pointu’s (235 Elizabeth Str) were you can by metal jewellery straight from Paris. As for me Elizabeth Str. On Soho is the most artistic one. There are lots of beautiful graffiti, art galleries… the next destination was Love Adorned (269 Elizabeth Str). This the most adorable shop ever! It sells hand made furniture from around the world like Kenya, India, Australia, artistic jewellery, some small things (for example antique stickers with Siwa, Rama and Ganesha, that were found on a market in India hat I bought) and even hand crafted in Kenya clothes for little children and dogs!

1. A.P.C., 2. Artifacts 20th Century, 3. Jill Platner, 4. Love Adorned
The next place were we went was the small shop of Le Labo (233 Elizabeth Str), so the cosmetics and candles that are made only from biological ingredients and are from USA. I really loved Three Monkeys Eyewear. It sells some really cool and colourful sunglasses and optic glasses. Then, on the same street was small library Mcnally Jackson (52 Prince Str). I bought there an Alessandro Mendini book, and some nice notebooks. But the biggest surprise was the All Saints Spitalfields on 512 Broadway. There I bought a burgundy sweater. And then it was time for the dinner…

1. Three Monkeys Eyewear, 2. Le Labo, 3. All Saints Spitalfields
For the dinner we went to Buddakan (75 Ninth Av) in Meatpacking District. The food was great. Lots of spring rollls, chilli, noodles. I ate an delicious chicken in chilli dressing and whole pecking duck with pancakes.

Day 3: Battery Park, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and Soho

August 7, 2012August 7, 2012 | Design & Culture by Ed

Most of the third day in NY, we have spent on Ellis Island, there where the Statue of Liberty is located. We started from a cup of cofee in Nespresso on Madison Avenue and then we went there. First of all we had so sail with a huge boat from the Battery Park in the Down Manhattan. We were waiting in a quite long line, then we were checked just as on the airport by the security system, and just after those long procedures we stepped into the boat. After 15 minutes we were on Ellis Island. And there she was. The Statue of Liberty, symbol of Freedom and New York.It looked even bigger than I thought! After few minutes of taking photos, we’ve got hungry, so we bought hot dogs, chips and Coca Cola. It all was quite good… But I think just because we were really hungry! Then we stood in a line again, waiting for the boat, and after 20 minutes we were in Battery Park.

We caught a taxi and went to Soho for a small walk (I think we fall in love with it… Those buildings and shops and restaurant are so great!). We found a cool shop called The Frye Company. They were selling leather shoes and boots. We bought two pairs of them, and went further. Isabel Marant and Acne were the spots that we have visited. For the dinner we chose again The Mercer Kitchen. I ordered an japanese Tuna Spring Rolls. Fantastic! And for the second dish a hamburger with turkey, chilli peppers, and an specific dressing. As a side dish- of course french fries! And I should say this hamburger was really good. For the dessert- chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. New York is never boring!

Day 2: Midtown, Chinatown, Soho and Chelsea

August 6, 2012August 16, 2012 | Design & Culture by Ed

This day in New York was really artistic. We have began from a croissant with chocolate and a brioche in a bakery next to MoMa, Museum of Modern Art. It was my biggest wish to visit it! With excitement we are reaching the third floor of the museum. The whole floor is for Design, Architecture and Photography. It was really cool. We saw some of the Eames chair, Jean Prouve and Alvar Aalto. The fourth floor was full of modern sculptures and painting by such artists as: Roy Liectenstein, Edward Ruscha. But the best of all were Andy’s Warhol paintings- Gold Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley. Fifth floor was with more traditional artist like Claude Monet, Mondrian, Frida Kahlo and Vincent Van Gogh. And on the sixth floor we could find contemporary art- Jeff Koons and lots of different less known artist’s works. After the exhausting walking through all those sculptures and paintings, we tried out Modern Restaurant- the MoMa’s restaurant. It was quite good we ate an tartar from tuna and beef angus. The view was really nice- it was the garden of sculptures.

I really liked MoMA. It was for me, something new! After the museum, we’ve decided to visit Chinatown and Little Italy. And I should say that, I totally disliked it. Everything was dirty, stinky, noisy, crowd, narrow… The only thing that I thought was quite interesting were the fish shops with huge crabs, lobsters and so on. I tried out a coconut drink- it was fresh, but really sticky and sweet… Little Italy didn’t really look like Italy. It looked like it was made for tourists that never came to Italy. So, I was quite disappointed with those two. And it was so hot that day! Now we are on Soho. We went to Alexander Wang on Grand Street. It wasn’t nothing new, however there was air conditioning. On the same street we visited Vans Dqm and we found a Damien Hirst Gallery were was his painting for 45,000$! There were also some of the Andy Warhol paintings. It was a lot of fun at Kidrobot shop, where were tons of different and funny collecting figures. In the evening we went to Chelsea to an Morimoto restaurant, but because we came too early, we visited Chelsea Market. That was really cool. We bought some ham and vegetables for breakfast and in Chelsea Market Basket, we found a funny figurine of Elisabeth Queen and an I ❤ NY bag. Then it was time for Morimoto. That was awesome. We’ve ate sashimi selection, nigiri, shrimp tempura, udon in three different styles, ramen, wagyu beef carpaccio, and the normal wagyu beef with japanese sweet potatoes. And everything was so fresh and tasty! It is impossible to write it how good was the sashimi and tuna spicy rolls… That was the next great day in the big apple! Here is the address of Morimoto- 88 Tenth Avenue.