CAROLINA WHEAT & LIZ NIELSEN

ONE DAY:

CAROLINA WHEAT & LIZ NIELSEN

The gallerists behind Elijah Wheat Showroom guide us through one day in their New York lives.

6:45 AM

Sunrise from a studio window, looking East over Mt. Beacon and the Hudson River, January 14, 2022.

7:00 AM

Wake up to the sunrise and the grinding bass alarm of Tirzah’s Make it Up. It’s always a wonder to watch the Hudson River and the tides flowing both ways. After some Oolong tea, Lina writes down her dreams while adding a few finishing touches on her Mystic Fiction YA novel for release this summer. Post coffee, Liz plays The New York Times Spelling Bee and dives into organizing her images for her monograph launching this fall. We also love to pet our kitten, Yashica Amaru Amarone, not pictured, however, they're usually atop of whatever table we’re trying to do things on.

10:30 AM

Pick up a U-Haul, a weekly occurrence (damn, we really need to invest in our own sprinter van), to bring one of Liz’s framed works, Vacation Portal, to finally get glazed at our favorite framers in the whole wide world: Pranayama in Brooklyn. That is, after our noon gallery appointment in Newburgh, NY. Our amazing curatorial assistant, Natalia Palacino Camargo, is off for winter break, as is our awesome studio assistant, Xiaofeng Guo, so we’re ripping and running around the Hudson Valley ‘getting shit done’ solo, yet together.

12:00 PM

The Curator and Project manager at Art Omi, Nicole Hayes, comes to visit us in Newburgh to get a tour with the artist of the very last days of Ashley Lyon’s solo exhibition, Tender Temper, in our Kunsthalle speak-easy kind of space on the Hudson River at a historic building that's part of Regal Bag Studios.

2:00 PM

Liz drives the truck on permitted highways to the city (#noparkways). Lina takes her own route on 9W down the Palisades, over the George Washington bridge and into the city via 9A watching the sun go down over the big apple. Overall, we’re thrilled that the West Side Highway and sus properties have removed anything to do with a corrupt NY real estate tycoon.

4:30 PM

Lina achieves GPK (Good Parking Karma) in Chelsea, gallery hops for a quickie, and pops into Lisson to peep the Pavillions exhibition. She gets inspired by a tableau of small sculptures while considering EWS Palm Springs’ Art Fair booth configuration presenting objects d’art by Mark Sengbrush before they meet at Miles McEnery gallery. Fitting in a phone call from their teen daughter Acacia, they enter together to discover the newly framed photograms and light-painted works of Liz Nielsen in a private viewing room. Wow. Impressed and blessed, we hit a few more galleries before a dinner reservation.

6:30 PM

Dinner and wine at one of Liz & Lina’s long-standing favorite haunts, Pepe Giallo, with our artist liaison at Miles, Sarah Grace! Liz is rocking the Ghostly label (a hometown favorite) shirt that she conveniently borrowed from Carolina and has yet to return, ahem. Once upon a time, Liz and Lina fabricated a secret identity as the Lesbian Nibblers, a food blog that took off only in a hand-written and tickling private audio journal that tracks our dining experiences around the world.

10:00 PM

Drive to Greenpoint where they pick up a dancing friend, and awesome photographer, Lauren Silberman, to go to the Good Room (meets JDH, one part of Fixed) while they dance their masked asses off to Detroit techno legend, Juan Atkins. Carolina’s Drexciya tee foreshadows the ‘D’s booming frequency of deep bass-love resoundings as the speakers shake the soul.

3:00 AM

Hail a cab (go-go-go NYC TAXI!) to get home and crash before waking up at 7:00AM to drive back up to Newburgh, NY for two gallery appointments and a studio visit on a Saturday. We got this, and so it begins again. Cue Billie Eilish's everything i wanted.