When I was a child, our family owned an object which I believed to be the most beautiful thing on the planet: a real Red Rose, preserved in wax and displayed inside a water-filled, glass globe which sat on a black plastic base. It captivated me. I would stare at this exquisite object for extended periods of time, thinking it must surely be quite precious and expensive. In hindsight, it was impossibly tacky and kitsch, but when you’re feeling it, who gives a shit? My point is that I flashed-back on that wax-dipped Red Rose in the glass globe immediate when I saw this similarly tacky Pink Glittery Rose in its own fishbowl-like globe for sale on the street outside a Deli that recently opened on the corner of 14th Street and Avenue A. Ah, sweet, sweet nostalgia.
You say you want Pink Things? I got yer Pink Things right here. The Spring edition of the Affordable Art Fair has come and gone from NYC, until it returns in the fall, and we had a ton of fun this year seeing many old friend and lots of exciting new artworks all priced to own! Affordable Art!
With so very many galleries exhibiting at the fair from all over the globe, we like to distill it down by choosing our favorite Pink Artworks and bringing them to your face, which will give you a good idea of the scope of painting, photography, sculpture and multi-media that finds its way into the two levels of the Metropolitan Pavilion when the AAF rolls into town. Though the fair is over for
now, you can still purchase many of these pieces, or others by the same artist, from the galleries via their brick and mortar locations, or websites. Continue reading Favorite Pink Artworks From the Affordable Art Fair, Spring 2017!→
Russell Young (born March 13, 1959) is a British-American artist. In the late 1970s, while living in London, he gained recognition photographing the early live club shows of Bauhaus, R.E.M. and The Smiths. During this period he shot portraits of Morrissey, Bjork, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, New Order, Diana Ross, and Paul Newman. In 1986, he shot the Faith sleeve for George Michael. In the following ten years he directed more than 100 music videos during the heyday of MTV.
In September 2000, while living in New York City, he began to concentrate on art and to devote himself to painting. Young is best known for his enamel, screen-print paintings on linen, which explore celebrity, rock and roll, death and history. His earliest notable works as an artist are his “Pig Portraits” – life-size Police mug shots of celebrities screened onto canvas. First shown in 2003, they proved a critical success and were exhibited in London and the United States.
Russell Young is represented by Taglialatella Galleries in NYC and you a can see a good selection of his large, glittery portraits any day, just by popping in during regular business hours. I took this shot of Young’s portrait depicting a stunning Liz Taylor at the opening reception for the launch of his new print of Jackie O. You miss so much when you don’t live in NYC.
Lehmann Maupin is delighted to debut Tête de Femme, a new body of work by artist Mickalene Thomas. In her fourth solo exhibition with the gallery, Thomas explores the intricacies of female beauty through painting and collage, focusing on how artifice serves both to mask and reveal the individual essence of her subjects.
Throughout much of her career, Thomas has drawn from art history with particular interest in classical portraiture, constructed interiors, and iconic representations of the female form. References to Édouard Manet, Henri Matisse, Romare Bearden and Gustave Courbet may be found throughout her oeuvre. In Tête de Femme (translated as “head of a woman”), Thomas looks to early 20th century Cubism and contemporary Pop references, fragmenting and reducing portraiture to its most formal and geometric elements to create larger-than-life portraits of her models.
While the artist’s earlier works focused on classical depictions of the female form, primarily using powerful black women as the subjects, Tête de Femme more boldly conceptualizes female faces from collaged geometric cutouts. She relies on these shapes in the absence of glamourized female bodies placed in the highly conceptualized environments of her previous work. The series demonstrates the artist’s interplay of line, form, and material, punctuated with an increased use of color. With an affinity for rhinestones and glitter, Thomas utilizes these materials in addition to introducing screen-printing to her practice, giving her paintings a new dimensionality.
Mickalene Thomas: Tête de Femme will be on Exhibit Through August 8th, 2014 at Lehmann Maupin, Located at 540 West 26th Street, in the Chelsea Gallery District.
