Backlit Beauties

Last night I went to the opening of Joel Fitzpatrick's exhibition, Backlit. It will be on display through October 14, 2008 at GalleryBar on Orchard Street.



The space at GalleryBar is ideal for Joel's art. As the place is dimly lit, the artwork illuminates the space.

The DJ was excellent, playing classic 80's - Rod Stewart, Talking Heads - you get the idea.

Madeleine Crowther (my sista), Michael Fitzpatrick (musician and Joel's brother), Cynthia Tomasini (correspondent for the fashion spot), and Murray Fitzpatrick (Joel's uncle) taking time out from admiring the art.

Tom Sachs (artist, Hello Kitty/Lever House) and Madeleine reminiscing about their days at Bennington.

Andrew Kromelow, Artist and Friend of Joel's, Clowning Around

Andrew with Lisa de Kooning (artist and daughter of Willem de Kooning), left, and her friend enjoying the show.

Joel's father, Robert Fitzpatrick and Andrew are catching up. Joel's father was formerly the Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Dean of the School of the Arts at Columbia University, President of CalArts and CEO of Euro-Disney. Currently, he is Haunch of Venison's International Managing Director which is set to open Haunch of Venison New York in Rockefeller Center on September 12, 2008 with the exhibition, Abstract Expressionism - A World Elsewhere featuring paintings, sculptures and photographs by artists such as Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and David Smith.

As I was leaving Joel's show, his friend Marisa Tomei was just arriving. She is absolutely lovely and gorgeous to boot.


U r 24K!

xoxo,
Krom

Sachs and the City

Now you get to find out, who was superfabulous who? at the Tom Sachs gala plus a little extra.

Joel Fitzpatrick (mixed media artist), Andrew Kromelow (artist extraordinaire), and the legendary Malcolm McLaren are hanging at the turntable.



The guest of honor, the sensational Tom Sachs, and amazing Andrew



Tom's Mom and friend



Tom's Dad



Andrew is catching up with Cecilia Dean of Visionaire and David Selig, owner of the Rice restaurants. David recommended a celebrated spice shop called Kalustyan's (123 Lexington Avenue). He told me that it is really something to see, and that all the great chefs from New York shop or have shopped there, including Julia Child.



Bowman Hastie, Hayseed (Tom's assistant) and his girlfriend, Jenn are enjoying the party. Bowman's boss is the renown artist, Tillamook Cheddar aka Tilly, a Jack Russell Terrier from Brooklyn. He was formerly a member of the band Whizzy Beat with Peter Dinklage. Right now Bowman is listening to Notorious BIG-Party & BS remix by Ratatat, and his most prized possession is his Tilly art collection. Hayseed's song of the moment is Stranger by the Kinks from the movie Darjeeling Unlimited, and his favorite object is a beautiful wood ashtray from a machine shop.



Pictured are Sharon Ryan, Josh White, Mark Rossi, his girlfriend, and a Gagosian Gallerina. Sharon Ryan and Josh White are artists from Los Angeles. Josh is a photographer specializing in the documentation of architecture, and has worked with Frank Gehry, Rem Koolhaas, Richard Meier, Jeff Koons, and Robert Therrien. Mark Rossi is a fabricator for Jeff Koons. His most prized possession is a tiny aluminum capsule with a love note from his girlfriend inside. He and Josh make custom bikes, and just delivered one to Tom. Mark's song of the moment is Bron Yr Aur by Led Zeppelin. His girlfriend's song of the moment is Train in Vain by the Clash.



Don't you love their glasses?



Doug Starn of the brilliant Starn Brothers and his wife, Nancy Bressler, were taking in Tom's amazing work.



Painter and sculptor, Hope Atherton, Anne Pasternak, and Mike Starn, the other brilliant Starn Brother, were catching up. Anne is the President and Artistic Director of Creative Time, a nonprofit organization responsible for public art projects all over the City. Her organization commissioned and presented The Tribute in Light, the two beacons of light that rose from the former twin tower site 6 months after September 11th to honor the lives that were lost.



Hope Atherton's arm candy (some YSL mixed in with some ethnic jewelry)
A great style statement!



Joe Coleman, the apocalyptic visionary painter, and his wife, Whitney Ward, the photographer, very graciously let me take their picture and go on a little adventure with them. As it turned out, Whitney is the gatekeeper to the dungeon beneath the Hello Kitty Robot sculpture.



Joe Coleman, Andrew Kromelow, Gian Enzo Sperone of Sperone Westwater Gallery sharing a drink.



Mischievous Joe and Whitney trying to unlock the door to the dungeon,



...still trying...



...still trying...



...still trying...


to no avail. Oh well, it was an adventure trying. The key worked, but the latches were stuck.

The fashion photographer, Mario Sorrenti, was also enjoying the show and the evening.



John Ferguson, a sculptor and former assistant of Tom Sachs, catching up with friends.



The only person who refused me a photo was Jeffrey Deitch, the cutting-edge art dealer and adviser; he was camera shy, but I bet he regrets not finding himself on this superfabulous blog. I wonder if he would have posed for me if he knew we went to the same university. I hope you enjoyed meeting this unusual cast of characters. Tune in for some more party antics early next week.

U r 24K!

xoxo,
Krom

Superfabulous Tom Sachs

The most superfabulous place to be last Thursday night was Lever House. The occasion was the celebration of Tom Sachs's Bronze Collection. For the Lever House outdoor installation, Tom fabricated a huge Hello Kitty, My Melody (both characters produced by Sanrio), and Miffy (the Dutch character illustrated by Dick Bruna) in bronze, painted white. Hello Kitty and Miffy are fountains, and look as if they are crying. There is also a huge Hello Kitty robot. The very pleasant weather made the outdoor party scene very exuberant.






















The indoor installation includes a dumpster reduced to the size of a jewelry box making it a beautiful object, piles of bronze car batteries on bronze bases having the texture of the original materials - wood, cinder block, and metal, and lastly, 2 bronze quarter-pipe skateboard ramps. Earlier in the evening children were skateboarding on the ramps. We found the guest of honor, Tom Sachs inside.

My brother, Andrew, met Tom at college and they have been "partners in crime" ever since. Andrew first introduced me to Tom in 1990 when I was visiting LA from Tokyo. At the time, Tom was working for Frank Gehry. The three of us went to dinner and the conversation was quite lively. When I asked Tom a question about chairs, he pulled out a napkin and pen to illustrate his point; my brother joined in, and I knew that napkin was special even then. I still possess that napkin today despite several moves halfway across the globe.











The drinks and hors d' oeuvres were flowing like there was no tomorrow. Aby Rosen hosted the shindig; it was a real who's superfabulous who? So many artists and designers were present along with titans of the business world. Among the designers were Thom Browne and Cynthia Rowley. Other notables were Terry Richardson, Anh Duong, Hamish Bowles, Ingrid Sischy and of course Tom's parents. Malcolm McLaren was the DJ. It doesn't get much more spectacular than that! Tomorrow's post will be more about the guests.

U r 24K!

xoxo,
Krom

Malcolm McLaren is Superfabulous

I met the superfabulous Malcolm McLaren last night at the most superfabulous party ever, the opening of the superfabulous Tom Sachs's Bronze Collection, MUCH MORE on that in my next entries. Anyway, I spoke with Mr. McLaren, and he told me his favorite song is "Somewhere over the Rainbow". His favorite possession is a painting he did when he was 21 and in art school; it's a self-portrait on a grid with "I will be so bad" written all over it.

Anyway, here is an awesome music video of his, not classic, but still superfabulous!




For those of you whom prefer his classics with the Sex Pistols, here's "God Save the Queen". Fashion note: the superfabulous Vivienne Westwood designed most of the Sex Pistols' clothing.




U r 24K!

xoxo,
Krom