Actress, model, and artist, Mia Tyler, daughter of the Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler caused a commotion Saturday in Chelsea during her art exhibition. Mia, who likes hard rock music, tattoos, and sports, describes herself as “not the girly-girl” in contrast to her famous, feminine sister Liv Tyler.
Survival by Mia Tyler at Lambert Fine Arts
Like Liv, Mia has seen her share of time on the big screen but found being behind a camera ultimately more fulfilling and has launched a career as a fine art photographer. Her photography exemplifies the dark side of beauty in life, as she explains in a NY Post interview. “I love abandoned buildings and took the opportunity go and shoot. I like finding beauty in decay,” Tyler explains.
The photograph below exemplifies the nature of her work. The image, taken in an old abandoned psychiatric hospital, demonstrates the artist’s dichotomies between that which is beautiful juxtaposed against decay and discomfort.
Kings Park Psychiatric Hospital Long Island, NY by Mia Tyler
The Chelsea exhibition at Lambert Fine Arts entitled Survival thatruns through October 7th is based on survival gear and gas masks. At the opening on Saturday, guests were encouraged to attend in proper fashion, in this case with a gas mask on.
Survival explores life in a toxic environment and the need for survival. The Lambert Fine Arts exhibition includes Tyler’s work, as well as artists Harris Diamant, David Erwin, and Joseph Grazi.
Attendees of the show’s opening last week even included the New York Police Department who showed up only to break up the reception because of overcrowding and noise violations. That’s what the police would call a “toxic environment”.
Thirteen-time Grammy winner Michael Jackson belted the hit single “Black or White,” which soared to the top of the music charts in 1991 and became the second best selling single of that year.
See if you can recognize the young Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin jammin’ with MJ in the “Black or White” music video below!
While the King of Pop wrote “Black or White” to address racial tension, famous artists utilized the colors black and white — or shades, values, or gradients as per the ongoing “black-and-white color debate” — as defining styles for bodies of work.
Richard Avedon, renowned American fashion and portrait photographer, developed his photos solely in black and white. Avedon photographed acclaimed subjects like The Beatles, Andy Warhol, and Marilyn Monroe.
You may have seen Avedon’s work in the permanent collections of The MoMa or The Met, or at the Richard Avedon exhibition at Chelsea’s Gagosian Gallery. Catch the last day of the Avedon exhibit and head over to Gagosian on your lunch break today!
Marilyn Monroe by Richard Avedon
Dying for a good black and white read? Just wait a month until Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld and Carine Roitfeld release the highly-anticipated The Little Black Jacket.
In June, Chanel opened a one week Little Black Jacket exhibition featuring over a hundred black and white photographs of the rich and famous adorned by custom Chanel jackets.
Sarah Jessica Parker and Uma Thurman in Chanel jackets
You can read it to believe it on August 25th, when The Little Black Jacket becomes available in all its black and white glory. Sporting pages of Lagerfeld’s and Roitfeld’s reinterpretation of Chanel’s iconic black jacket, The Little Black Jacket also includes black and white photos of jacket-bearing celebrities like Kanye West and Yoko Ono.
The Little Black Jacket by Karl Lagerfeld and Carine Roitfeld
Looking for an excellent restaurant filled with black and white decor?
The work of esteemed American caricaturist Al Hirschfeld covers the walls of Rockefeller Center’s Alfredo of Rome.
Audrey Hepburn portrait by Al Hirschfeld
Hirschfeld’s black and white portraits of celebrities and broadway stars hang at six-by-sixteen feet and invite restaurant goers into an atmosphere filled with authentic Italian cuisine and whimsical black and white art.
Al Hirschfeld caricatures lining the walls of NYC’s Alfredo of Rome
[Editor's Note: Have you read our entire Color Commentary series? Please check out Red and Blue and stay tuned for more colors to come...Only at The Bare Square!]
The British reggae/pop band UB40 began as friends who knew each other from various schools in the UK. The name “UB40″ stood for Unemployment Benefit, Form 40, referring to the document issued to people claiming unemployment benefit at the time of the band’s formation in 1978.
Needless to say, UB40 went on to sell over 70 million records and receive a Grammy Award nomination. Among their top hits was a cover of Neil Diamond’s “Red Red Wine”….
More than fifty years prior to UB40′s “Red Red Wine”, French artist Henri Matisse experimented with his own version of red subject matter as a tool for creative expression.
Matisse’s 1911 painting The Red Studio depicts the studio he used while residing in a suburb of Paris.
Through Matisse’s use of the red hue, color engulfs the painting and blurs the delineation of architectural form, a token of the artist’s painterly style.
The Red Studio by Henri Matisse
Russian-American abstract expressionist artist Mark Rothko filled his paintings with red as well.
The broadway show Red, which closed in 2010, featured an inside look into the thoughts and struggles of Rothko, played by Alfred Molina.
As a color often used to depict a range of powerful emotions, from passion to anger, red proved a fitting title for the Tony-nominated show.
Alfred Molina as Mark Rothko and Eddie Redmayne as Ken in the broadway show Red (Photo: Broadway)
Throughout Red, Rothko and his young apprentice throw red paint onto a larger-than-life canvas, emulating an authentic Rothko painting.
Canvas by Mark Rothko
For some good eats in a royally red atmosphere, head to The Red Cat in Chelsea for American-inspired cuisine.
With red walls and red plates, The Red Cat is the perfect place to bring that special someone, or to treat yourself to a lovely meal!
The Red Cat restaurant (Photo: The Red Cat)
Did you miss The Best Of Blue? More colors to come only at The Bare Square. And don’t forget…. like, share, and tweet your favorites!
How many times a day are we confronted with some form of advertisement?
Whether its billboards while driving or posters when walking, we’re destined to witness at least one image beckoning us to try McDonald’s new breakfast special!
With advertisements following our every move, Jen Recommends Erik Schoonebeek‘sPhantom Hand exhibition at the Jeff Bailey Gallery, as the NYC artist explores the graphics and symbols behind commercial advertising.
Untitled (C-51) by Erik Schoonebeek - gouache and acrylic on book cover
Jen describes Schoonbeek’s abstract acrylic and gouache paintings and drawings as “wild whirlwind’s of color and design” that plaster the surfaces of old book covers, found paper, and other materials.
“His small works of art compile clever compositions comprised of remastered “graphic cues and amorphous narrative” using bold color, embellished texture, and pattern punctuated by the original surface”, Jen said.
She continued, “As Schoonebeek’s first Solo show in the big apple, what better place to address advertising than amidst its swarming residency all over New York City!”
So next time you see that McDonald’s breakfast burrito advertisement call to you from the side of a 12th Street building, hopefully you will have seen Erik Schoonebeek’s show — we’ll see you there!
- Ava Cotlowitz
Erik Schoonebeek Phantom Hand Jeff Bailey Gallery
June 14 – July 13 Opening Reception: THIS THURS, June 14, 6-8pm
625 West 27th Street
New York, NY
Tessellation Figures (2) by Terry Winters at Matthew Marks Gallery
With the exhibition Cricket Music, Tessellation Figures, & Notebook at Matthew Marks Gallery, you’ll experience Terry Winters’ explosive works–colorful, joyful and almost psychedelic.
The artist works with patterns and grids to create spatial illusions. Taking inspiration from nature (honeycombs) and mosaics, also known by the Latin term “tessela”, the shapes in the large works in this show convey power, but also give the intensity a little room to breathe.
Throughout the Brooklyn-born artist’s carrer, he has explored art through nature and mathematics. Winters attended Pratt in New York City, and continues to live and work in NYC as well as Columbia County, New York.
Cricket Music by Terry Winters at Matthew Marks Gallery
The 522 W 22nd Street gallery is just one of Matthew Mark’s four New York locations. Take a stroll down the block to 502 W 22nd St. for a continued Terry Winters experience with Notebook, a collection of collage by the Winters never before viewed in the US.
Terry Winters Cricket Music, Tessellation Figures, & Notebook Matthew Marks Gallery Feb. 4 – Apr. 14 Opening Reception: Fri. 2/3, 6-8pm
522 West 22nd Street
New York, NY
posted by JenWallace in Gallery Opening and have Comments Off
