gallery

The critics weren't kind to Damien Hirst's latest collection, which was exhibited at the Wallace Collection. It doesn't seem to have mattered. All news is good news in Hirst-land, as evidenced by the sales of his most recent effort. Hirst opened a new show yesterday at White Cube. Even if the media isn't crazy about his, the artist's collectors haven't ended the love affair. Five of the seven largest pieces in his new "Nothing Matters" collection sold before the show opened, with the highest-priced piece hitting $15.7 million, despite an initial point of only 235,000 pounds.

The show runs at White Cube through January 20, 2010, but you'll have to accept that you'll be checking out what is now other people's property. Hirst collectors are nothing if not loyal.

Are there any billionaires left in Russia? The last year has been pretty brutal on Russia's upper crust, and we haven't seen a whole lot of they guys who used to drop cash like it was vodka. Art Moscow, the largest art fair in Russia, opens tonight, and gallery owners are artists are hoping the likes of Roman Abramovich will see fit to plunk down some roubles on canvas.

Art Moscow features works from 40 galleries – both from Russia and around the world. Originally, the art fair was supposed to run in May, but Expo Park Exhibition Projects Ltd., its organizer, pushed it back to hit at the same time as the state run Third Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art. The dual event may bring a bigger turnout, but it will have to overcome a 10 percent contraction in the Russian economy.

Counting against Art Moscow ... aside from general economic malaise ... is the fact that the sale of Russian artwork is down. The major auction houses in London moved only $48 million in Russian art in June, down more than half from the same auctions in 2008.

So, how likely is a stream of cash? Igor Markin, a big-time collector and owner of the Art4.ru museum, says he "hasn't bought anything in a long time."

Larry Salander's glory days may be behind him, but that doesn't mean he stopped being a target. The 60-year-old bankrupt former mover and shaker was arrested again this week on a fistful of felony charges. On the list are three counts of grand larceny in the first degree and a count of falsifying business records in the first degree. If the stars line up against Salander, he could face a total of 29 (25+4) years behind bars.

All of this comes on top of a 100-count indictment filed back in March, in which Salander was accused of stealing a whopping $88 million in art from 26 collectors around the world.

Salander's claim to fame was that he was the first half of New York's Salander-O'Reilly Galleries. Leigh Morse, who worked as the director, was also arrested, charged with grand larceny and scheming to defraud several high-profile art estates. She could do 11 years (7+4) if the worst arises.

Both have gone the "not guilty" route, with Salander out on bail and Morse out on bond. But, neither is likely to be selling art anytime soon (I guess they have bigger problems than the current slump).

Art collectors benefit in two ways. It looks like two (alleged) bad guys are being yanked from the art scene. And, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau sweetened the pot by offering some advice: "be careful who you consign your art to."

Yeah, thanks.

The mood in the Hamptons has been affected by real estate prices, plunging bonuses and – of course – the ongoing art market slump. But, the collectors gathering at ArtHamptons are trying to keep stiff upper lips. Rick Friedman, its founder and executive director, is saying that now is the best time to enter the art market, with low prices building in an inherently greater upside. And, there's no doubt. If you have the cash to put into the art market – and the inclination to invest in this asset class – now is the time to do it.

The major constraint on the art market isn't the notion that it's a bad time to invest. Any fairly serious art collector can see that this is the time to make a move. Like any other "discount," you can't take advantage of it if you don't have the price of admission. You might be able to pick up the Old Masters for a relative song right now, but if your bonus got slashed this year, the opportunity may not be possible.

So, what's moving at ArtHamptons this year?

Jane Wilson, who one a Lifetime Achievement Award this year, has seen some success, along with Elliott Erwitt, Lillion Bassman and other artists who lean toward decorative pieces. For some, the year's even been positive, with gallery director Joseph Newman calling the first quarter of this year the best he's had. Trompe l'oeil is working well, too. Interested in buying a Madoff joke for $13,500? You can do it with Eric Forstmann's Made Off with the Bail Out Package.

Meanwhile, soft porn is moving ... so, at least someone is making money on the skin business (the hardcore guys sure aren't). Suggestive images have always packed a bit of a thrill, and pieces that ply the flesh are doing well out in the Hamptons this year. Boyarde Messenger's Frilly in Yellow ($3,350) and Changing Rooms III moved for almost three times that amount.

The feel is somewhat upbeat at ArtHamptons this year, but the action is definitely taking place in the emerging artist space. Nonetheless, there are some big ticket items up for sale. At Vered Gallery's booth, you'll find a Picasso, Chagall, de Kooning and Rauschenberg – not to mention a 1984 portrait of Michael Jackson by Andy Warhol. If you're liquid, now's the time to enter the market!

A row of cars waiting for a green light was concealed by four large canvases proceeding across New York's busy Fifth Ave., creating the appearance of emptiness from W. 51st St to Central Park and beyond. Artist Nelson Diaz chose Palm Sunday to reveal his latest project, "The Isolated Christ," to the people of New York. The response to this unique mix of street art, performance art and oil on canvas was nothing short of astounding.

Five years in the making, The Isolated Christ is a four-part rendering of the most famous figure in one of Leonardo Da Vinci's most recognized works. Diaz "isolated" the image of Jesus Christ from the apostles in DaV inci's "The Last Supper" and plotted thousands of points on the image by hand. Then, using advanced calculus techniques, he fed the point into an equation that exposes "hidden" four dimensional space in the original image and used the results as the foundation for his signature perspective.

The result is four faces of DaVinci's Jesus, reflecting various situations. The final canvas – transcendence – offers an obscure, almost headless presentation, signifying the departure from the norm. The meaning is left to the viewer, with the religious assuming resurrection and the atheist likely to posit obsolescence. Diaz remains coy with his intention, believing that interpretation (like faith) is a personal affair.

With half a decade spent on the vision and production of The Isolated Christ (all four paintings were completed by hand – sans brushes, literally with his fingers), Diaz spent the last few months struggling with venue. He decided last summer to skip the traditional alternatives (such as art galleries) during his protest against the treatment of art as a commodity, during which he auctioned 10 paintings on eBay for the princely starting bid of $1 each.

"The old way of doing things is dead," he explained during several of our meetings. Deep-pocketed buyers writing checks for pieces they don't understand, he believed, would not be able to sustain itself ... a lesson to which the art market was treated last September. Diaz wanted a public setting. As with his eBay experiment, he wanted to return the aesthetic to everybody, not a self-proclaimed elite.

That left only one "gallery" from which to choose: the streets of Manhattan.

Gallery: Nelson Diaz and The Isolated Christ

Tipper Gore, the wife of former vice president Al Gore, is about to make her mark on the art world. She has just  reached a deal with Mitchell Gold Bob Williams to sell some of her personal photographs to their retail stores. Many of the photographs are images taken during her travels around the world and include close up portraits of figures, like Nelson Mandela, and historic events, such as the handshake between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat on the White House lawn. The full collection includes more than 30 photographs. Each will be displayed in a gallery frame and will come with a certificate of authenticity and will be signed by Tipper Gore. The pieces are expected to sell for between $1,500 and $2,000.

Forgo those cheap plastic eggs that seem to be overflowing supermarket shelves in the weeks before Easter and satisfy your craving for the seasonal egg-shapes with something that will last. Real eggs of various sizes can be carved and sculpted into a variety of surprising shapes and astonishingly beautiful patterns. Ron Cheruka, the "Egg Man", has been doing egg art for many years and uses modified dental tools with carbide and diamond bits to hand cut every egg that he makes. He uses ostrich, rhea, emu and standard eggs in his work. The emu eggs are visually stunning due to the natural pigments in the shells, which range from teal to black, but the nearly cantaloupe-sized ostrich eggs are the most spectacular. Their thick shells allow for the most detailed carvings, like the dragon pictured here, and the finished egg resembles polished ivory. Dragon Egg Price: $500.