"Paradise Garage and You’re Not In Kansas Anymore" Melody Weir Gallery July 2005 Written and Photographed by Danielle McClure

Artist Peter Tunney

Close Your Eyes, Click Your Heels, and Get Down to Melody Weir

"Paradise Garage"

Melody Weir Gallery in Chelsea has teamed up with pariah artist Peter Tunney for "Paradise Garage," a delicious exhibit of the artist’s new works. The outside gallery show features dozens of Tunney’s colorfully funky, graffiti-style works on steel Fed-Ex crates, stockade fence, vintage license plates, a picnic tabletop, and even an old dictionary.

Artist Peter Tunney

Painted prose and optimistic proverbs dominate works including the Fence of Love + Tolerance as well as in the artist’s experimentation with the hood of a car that reads: There Are No Accident’s In The Universe. Tunney is one of several artists who will participate in the New York Kabbalah Center’s Spirituality for Kids summer project, in which twenty inner city children will be taught painting, writing, and sculpture.

"You’re Not in Kansas Anymore"

Dress by Vadis Turner

Say goodbye to your colorless corn pone ways, Dorothy, and step inside the main gallery at Melody Weir. It’s like stepping into the land of Oz. In the quirky group show "You’re Not in Kansas Anymore," artists including Emiliano Maggi, Mr. Means, Vadis Turner, and Melody Weir, among others, offer vibrant, silly works. Turner’s brilliantly outrageous table installation The Tea Party flirts with fantasy by depicting Alice’s sweet and messy abandoned tea party. Mr. Means contributes to the show with a hilarious ensemble of C-prints featuring stuffed animals, bunnies, and even sexy clowns. Melody Weir exhibits an amusing and jaw-dropping collection of Pez dispensers in Pez Thriller. And Emiliano Maggi’s cool, summer-friendly installation Rock Stars Series features a string of outstanding graphite-on-paper renderings of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Bob Dylan hanging above a pair of lawn chairs, a beach ball, and a cooler.

Melody Weir Gallery is located at 507 W 24th. For more information, call 212.367.9093.