On Wednesday, Lower East Side galleries are trying something we haven't even seen from its older, gayer cousin known as Chelsea -- a "Grand Opening" featuring more than 70 galleries on the same night.  Exhibit rooms, most of which have been closed throughout August, will open and host a new influx of artists, complete with schmoozing, smirking, and hopefully a free glass of wine or two.

The event only lasts from 6-8pm, and with so many artists and venues, planning ahead is essential.  Check out Joonbug's interactive map of the event, complete with a 1-mile walk with 20 galleries, to decide your plan of attack.  For listings of every Lower East Side gallery, go here.

If you're still in need of some direction, Joonbug has assembled a look at some of the most exciting, jaw-dropping, and downright strange exhibits to look for.

 

Dacia Gallery (53 Stanton Street)

Brooklyn art fans have been gloating about the work of Leah Yerpe since her New York debut in 2007.  Now, the Brooklyn-based painter is showing off her work in the Lower East Side, and we're impressed.  As impressive as her acrobatic drawings appear here, the scale of her work can only be appreciated in the gallery -- some pieces tower over 10 feet high.

 

 

 

 

Fragmentation (Multiple Galleries)

If you're looking for variety, look no further than Fragmentation, an exhibition that puts up graduates from New York's School of Visual Art.  It may be a sign of the times that the school, which has programs in Chelsea, looked to the LES to give its alumni a home, but art lovers aren't complaining.  Galleries include Allegra LaViola (179 E. Broadway), Krause Gallery (149 Orchard Street), and CANADA (55 Chrystie Street).

 

Charles Bank Gallery (196 Bowery)

Kim Keever -- a man, and a born-and-bred New Yorker at that -- creates pieces that might look like paintings of beautiful landscapes...but they're actually photographs of dioramas.  And we're not talking about the dioramas you made in preschool.  Keever, a former NASA engineer, places his dioramas in a 200 gallon fish tanks, photographing them through water he's injected with pigment.  Your fake volcano would hang its head in shame next to these.

 

Rooster (190 Orchard Street)

If you want some performance art with your pinot, consider stopping by Vered Sivan's exhibit, Till Birth Do Us Part.  Don't go if you're a neat freak, though -- the room will be covered in hundreds of yards of synthetic fiber. One of the longest strands will be covering a model lying on the floor, so watch your step.  The piece, according to Sivan, touches on themes of birth, death, and bodies.  We just think it's crazy enough to be awesome.  If you're not a fan, never fear -- out the door, there are over 20 art galleries on Orchard Street alone.