Recommended Shows: Jen and Paul’s One-Stop Souvenir City and Chelsea Bus Tours

by Whitney Kimball on October 1, 2014 Recommendations + Reviews

Jen and Paul’s One-Stop Souvenir City and Chelsea Bus Tours

West 24th Street
Chelsea
Through November. Check Eventbrite for tour scheduling

In Chelsea, right now, Jen and Paul’s One-Stop Souvenir City and Chelsea Bus Tours sails down 24th street like a lifeboat of fun and bad taste in a Dead Sea of Modernism. Inside the bus, you can purchase art souvenirs at upwards of $9.99: a mini Damien Hirst (a goldfish in formaldehyde), a Richard Serra mug (labelled “DICK”), and a Marina Abramovic performance art kit (a hotel bathrobe). Over the PA, Paul plays a perfect smooth talking tour guide.

I happened to go on a day when AFC’s Paddy Johnson was leading a tour around Chelsea (more on that from Paddy later), but her tips identified, for example, Hauser & Wirth as the place to get free coffee, and the condo on 10th ave as notorious for leaving its blinds open. When we wound up outside Gagosian Gallery to get our promised handshakes from Larry, shouting “HEY LARRY!”, a well-dressed collector in slicked-back hair and an expensive suit waved his friend on past us simple folk. “Let’s go, Frank,” he said, loudly enough for all of us to hear.

I, on the other hand, got a T-shirt!

Comments on this entry are closed.

Previous post:

Next post: