Arrangement in Gray and Cups

Not your usual window display in the Garment District

The gray would be the artist, Gwyneth Leech, dressed in a fashionable version of sweats. The cups would be her art, painted white to-go cups assembled in a waterfall of vessels. You can see both in the Fashion Center Window Space at 215 West 38th Street through April 1.

The exhibition, called Hypergraphia, is presented by Cheryl McGinnis Projects. Leech spends 90 minutes in the window each weekday (11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.) drawing and painting on ever more cups—recycled, by the way—which she stacks as they are completed and then adds to the installation; the window remains illuminated once she has left for the day.

Views from the street, above and below

Hypergraphia is right. Designs flow out of the artist’s pen like the house blend out of a deli spigot at breakfast. Leech is prolific. The results suggest Italian pottery, Greek vases, paisley prints, tattoos, cuneiform script and more—a range of contemporary abstraction.  And, if I may say so, the installation is really fun. It’s interactive in that people on the street stop to look at the cascade of cups, then spying Leech in the corner, painting, call their friends over to come and look.  “She musta drunk $900 worth of coffee,” said one hip-hop homie to another (I’m guessing more), as they paused to take in the range of graphic expression. But others are drawn in by the artist drawing. Those of us “in the life” forget just how fascinating it is to watch someone make something out nothing, or in this instance, a white paper cup. 

Leech at work, above and below; I entered the building for these views

Sometimes the window is crowded with viewers, but I opted for  a shot that focused on the art

 Creating more art supplies

The back story: Leech, a New York artist and coffee connoisseur, had an idea for this show, scouted around and found a location, and then approached McGinnis, who has a gallery nearby on Eighth Avenue at the northern fringe of Chelsea. The result: a pop-up project, which extends the reach of both artist and dealer. Maybe this is an only-in-New-York story, but it’s a good example of what happens when the artist is thinking outside the cup, and the dealer is thinking outside the box. 

Follow Leech’s first-person report of the project on her blog, Gwyneth’s Full Brew. Get more info about the project at the Cheryl McGinnis Gallery website.