London in New York

Artist Alexander Charriol, an up and coming French-American artist, in collaboration with KiptonART and Whitewall Magazine, celebrated twenty new paintings at the opening of his show, Human Flow. The evening celebrated his new body of work focusing on the mystery behind the human touch. Each painting tells the story of an overpowering energy that feeds our desire to connect to each other while exploring the feeling of loneliness, our instinct for survival and the inevitability of death which all unite us towards an ultimate goal, LIFE. For the reasons which I outline below, Charriol’s exhibition at a rather significant pop up art gallery at 4 east 27th Street, between Fifth and Madison Avenues, across the street from The Gershwin Hotel, which runs from April 15-May 15, during the midst of recessionary times may in fact be one of the more timely cultural exhibitions in this town.

Truth told, I do not write to make friends or to enhance my relationship with a certain publishing cogniscenti who serve as mainstream media gatekeepers with the hopes that some day they will advise me that I can ditch my blog and write for theirs. No thanks.  I bask in my continuing irrelevance rather than to receive what amounts to a golden shower of platitudes from the ethically and morally compromised. For to be told how great I am from those who truly suck even more than I do, is hardly a major accomplishment nor anything to aspire to or get heady about. Like a bum stumbling through society’s garbage looking for something meaningful to digest, I forge onward nightly. Instead of meaningful culture often, as my expanding waist line represents, it is more often eggs, bacon and home fries at an ungodly hour that I am consuming.

Over a year ago I wrote about The End of Social Life in New York City and while I was  summarily dismissed by Cityfile, my point was in fact missed.  “A cultural re-awakening and re-enlightenment is what is needed in New York City. Andy Warhol is dead and the Studio 54 crowd that continues to have a lock on New York Nightlife and whom or what gets promoted and written about, needs to go the same route and step aside or get more creative for our culture to evolve.”  Our culture had seemingly devolved into what the SEO Drek Queen(s) and social aggregator/blog GuestofaGuest.com (“GOFAG”) “writer” could pull from a press release and run with two or three images of their friends partying with the same 10 people who get photographed nightly and then run it under a signatory byline, all in the spirit of debasing journalism for yet another day; is their motto “all the drek thats unfit to print.?”

During this recession I have watched as “Society”, and I mean that inclusively, not exclusively, in terms of intellects, writers, the bold and the beautiful, the culture-ites, socialites, fashionistas and antagonistas, the relevant, the reverent and the irreverent and irrelevant all split off into their various pockets or mini fiefdoms in the city. Truth is that there was rarely anything to unite or bring us together even briefly. While some looked in earnest for their 15 Minutes, others were looking to extend the expiring clock on the 15 minutes, still others trying to freeze the clock while some even attempted to get rid of the clock even as the vast majority spend their time looking for the next Andy Warhol or Tommy Hilfiger (nice Jeans, comfortable clothes—NOT ART), without considering that the “next thing” so to speak might be something none of us have imagined.

In the midst of observing one of the most eclectic gatherings I have seen in New York City in a while, Upper East Side meets Chelsea, Williamsburg, Soho and the Lower East Side all in one, intelligentsia, fashionista, antagonista, the bold and the beautiful and the curious if not delirious,  I was snapped to  my attention by the anarchy of The Stumble Bums Band performance at the Charriol’s  opening reception, when in the middle of one of their songs the lyrical refrain emanating from a megaphone manned by the Mohawk styled band member screamed “F_ck Lady Gaga…..F_ck Lady Gaga.” As humorous as it was disjointed it nevertheless awakened me to the possibility that by shattering the myth and illusion of our current creative icons that liberates us even further to smash down the temples of the faux icon’s, cultural manipulators and celebration of the over celebrated to get our culture to a place where there are fewer barriers of understanding if not a reduced hierarchy or pecking order. Maybe that is not what Charriol intended but it is what I felt, some form of unification of the masses.

All in all the experience covering the event, witnessing Charriol’s work on display in this environment was enlightening.   I was legitimately impressed if not “wowed” by the artistry and imagination if not the simple elegance  of the motivation for his work.   But moreover Mr. Charriol he may have done something else entirely, through unification of different societal factions he may be bringing an end to the recession and bringing back The Human Flow into meaningful cultural/social life in this town. To see photos from this event, click here.

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website