Plastered: O’Flaherty’s Opens on A

Arting on A with ABE

By ABE Titus

To say the atmosphere was electric, or buzzing, or even vibrant would do this show a severe disservice. As artist and entrepreneur Jamian Juliano-Villani launched her latest venture, the new O’Flaherty’s Gallery (@oflaherty.nyc) on Ave. A in the East Village, there was an almost tangible energy inside the gallery that spilled out with the crowd onto the sidewalk. It was messy, sweaty and stuffy. Cigarettes were smoked, beer was drunk and spilled and art was committed.

From the outside, it looked like a major theater district premier or a happening at an exclusive Manhattan club, anything but an art gallery opening in the EV. In fact, it was nothing like your typical Thursday night opening at a gallery in Chelsea or Soho.

O’Flaherty’s original location over on Ave. C was known for its wild, eccentric and outlandish shows that obliterated the boundaries of tasteful content and subdued presentation, even by the standards of lower Manhattan’s art underground. The Ave. C gallery was not unknown to the NYPD and its crowd control resources. That reputation, we are pleased to report, transferred nicely to the new digs on A.

Artist group @gelitin_official captivated a full audience with a sculptural performance piece that involved covering four living subjects in plaster. @heavenlyangelmanoloblahnik played the guitar while Jamian (@psychojonkanoo) mingled about the room. People were everywhere. It was hot. It was sexy. It was cool.

One woman, Kate, who is an ardent follower of the gallery and lives in the city said “this is insane. It’s fabulous.” The surfeit of humanity and the smoke made for a stuffy environment;  the artists were sweaty, the people were sweaty, but no one seemed to mind. It was as if everyone in attendance had made the decision to sacrifice comfort ability for reckless and unpredictable joys of experiencing live original art.

Onstage, performance group Gelatin were the focus. Four men beyond a certain age covered themselves in plaster to become a living sculpture, bowing not to Michelangelo or Bernini. When asked what they felt about the creation, the four, still trapped in their plaster casts, responded with unanimously levels of high praise. They seemed dedicated to their craft and art, no matter how absurd they may have looked.

Now in the later stages of their career, the artists/models agreed that it was amazing to be able to relate to the youthful crowd of art lovers that showed up for last night’s show. Strangely enough, it seemed that not everyone in attendance knew exactly what they were looking at. There were no announcement, no speech, no placards just straight up the performance. Books and shirts were available that showed a perspective of the art group from 2008-23, shedding a bit of light on the event.

Jamian, one half of the gallery duo behind the space and the event, floated about the room, a bottle of whiskey in one hand a cigarette in the other, while the guitarist, Ruby, also with a cigarette strummed a steady lull of easy music on an elevated platform in the center of the room.

“Our focus is doing the best shows possible at an extreme level,” Jamian told airmail.news before the opening. “We’re in a unique position with artists because we’re not trying to represent them. That’s when things start to suck. We just want to do shows artists aren’t able to do anywhere else. Basically, a faster, shittier Met.”

More performances are scheduled over the next month, and we will be back to report on the film and music experiences.

Abe out.