Chelsea, Lately

I forgot to mention that while touring the galleries with my wife and our friend Marc I kept trying to sort out an idea that's been buzzing around for a while: that while this is Chelsea's moment, it may not last forever.

Long-time New Yorkers point to the transformation of Soho, once the hot art gallery neighborhood. They ask: when the rents go up, or the art market dips, will only the blue-chip galleries remain? Will the scene move on, or perhaps fragment?

(From my California days I remember very well how the Santa Monica gallery scene changed quickly -- from a cruise along Colorado Boulevard's industrial spaces into a day parked in the gated-community of Bergamot Station.)

I'm not sure it can be known, yet. What's there seems very solid to me -- and I have a hard time imagining it won't stay oriented to an art scene. But I'm never surprised by change, and glad to see things as they are. All scenes are temporary, in a sense, aren't they?