City Paper
December 1-7, 2005

by Lori Hill


Strolling the galleries on First Friday in December, there's a hint of anxiety in the air, that feeling that any free moment should be spent doing something to prepare for the holidays. What follows is a sampling of holiday exhibitions and sales this month—some old favorites, some relatively new kids on the block, but all should help you shop for that one friend you can't in good conscience wrap up a Yankee Candle for.

It's been six years and Shelley Spector and her crew still don't know that they're letting the buying public get away with a steal. Every year, kick-ass artists like Thom Lessner and Whitney Lee bring in their latest creations, and every year, Spector innocently hangs them on the wall or puts them on a pedestal and announces the annual weekend-long Red Dot sale, where nothing costs more than $100. And every year, we saunter in, eat some cheese cubes, act like we're hemming and hawing over this or that Zoe Strauss shot while we're actually wanting to knock our fellow shoppers to the ground and grab as much as we can, Supermarket Sweep-style, before the 72 hours are up. And the best part? Every year, we hear of one more of Spector's little elves making it into the halls of giants like PAFA or the PMA or MoMA. This time, besides the aforementioned, the artists include: Hiro Sakaguchi, Caitlin Perkins, Rain Harris, Isaac Lin and more. Don't forget: it's cash and carry—and let's not help them catch on, shall we?