Nicole Eisenman, "Beer Garden with Ash," 2009. Oil on canvas. 65 x 82 inches.

I was sent on mission to scavenge the Chelsea galleries to find a work of art that I liked but didn’t know the reason why.

Walking into the Leo Koenig Gallery (545 West 23rd Street, gallery hours: Tuesdays through Saturdays 10am—6pm), on a dreary overcast day, I was hit with a dreary artistic work by Nicole Eisenman.  It portrayed a nocturnal party, probably a loud and rowdy one, where everyone was happily converged with beer and wearing smiles, but in the center was a seated and expressionless man with a phone that was wrapped around his fingers.  Everything about him was pathetic and he was conquered by loneliness in a friendly party.  In his eyes was the plea for some morsel of companionship, as he let the phone droop between his fingers.  Maybe the aspect of isolation by modern technology was the resounding theme, as everyone around him talked in person.  And for all the pity I could hurl at the man, I found an attraction that I tried desperately to repulse.

Next to that painting was another one by Eisenman.  In it was a car driven by a woman with the face of pig, and children in the back seat.  In front of her were monstrous men and languid women walking pitifully.  Behind them were blind mice, and next to them were tiny men just as blind.  And they all, the car, the walking men and women, and the mice were destined to face their doom.  I saw it clearly within the car, as the mother in front symbolized danger and terror upon the road, like the Taconic Crash that happened months ago.  And the men and women who walked on this field of death.  The mice and and the tiny men’s stupidity for following the blind to their destruction; of the inept leading the inept; of the irresponsibility of the those who are obligated, like the driving mother.

I recommend going to Leo Koenig to see Nicole Eisenman’s work.