Street Ladies

Artist Katy Grannan has a keen eye for the pretty that exists in the odd. Her work is a body of mostly photographs that shows viewers what they may not think to look at in a way that makes it so they can't stop staring. The artist's latest work centers around a decidedly older group of subjects. In a two part solo exhibition entitled The Happily Ever After at Salon 94's Bowery and Freemans locations (see the site for details) Grannan presents The Believers and Boulevard. The Believers is an unscripted video work featuring a cast of faces familiar to Grannan's cannon; and Boulevard is the artist's rendition of street style photography. In her characteristic way Grannan stopped and snapped an intriguing (beautiful, unsettling, maybe unhinged) set of strangers against a stucco wall, as bright as the California sun.

The photos of Boulevard are of a varied set of passersby that present with their own peculiarities. Each subject carries out some form of visual delusion, whether a dyed mustache masking grays, a teeny tank top defying calendar age, a masculine jawline, or a host of ill-fitting clothing relaying an ill-fitting persona. The thread between them is a molding of reality to match the mind's life, the one that the subjects are living happily ever after. The photos themselves are saturated with sunshine, and glisten with brightness. The shots of older women, in their outfits and with their smiles, are most intriguing. Age is such a taboo in our culture, that we associate it with demented minds and feeble bodies, rather than a mark of life well lived and well spent. Grannan's photos raise that point without any pointedness, just great sitters and a stucco wall.

Glamour is Gross is Gorgeous

As one of the fashion world's favorite visual artists Marilyn Minter is obsessed with glamour and bodies and slick, shiny, color-poppy, giant closeups of dirty, pretty, things. Her latest work is an HD video of models licking sticky sweet substances off of glass surfaces. Tongues make big cameos and so do strands of sticky hair, tips of noses, sucking lips, and regurgitated candies. If an 8-minute film of gorgeous women slurping in and spitting out sugary sweets isn't fashion-related art, I don't know what is. It's gross, it's gorgeous, and it's so Minter. The full length feature will be shown throughout the month of April on a jumbo screen in Times Square. I can't wait to see middle American Spring tourists figure out what exactly the giant swirl of pretty colors is. Mmmmm. Sweet.

Read more about the piece here. Marilyn Minter is represented by Salon 94.

Marilyn Christmas!

Artist Marylin Minter has created a Christmas Tree cool enough for the secular fashionista. It's a giant die-cut wall decal. You can have a merry sticker on your wall instead of pine needles stuck in your carpet. Minter's work is always a full-on texture explosion, where you get to see the nitty-gritty of the beautiful. Here pine branches in close-up can be decorated with four slightly creepy stick-on ornaments, and topped off with a star of lips and teeth clenching pearls and gold. If the full kit's $100 price tag is a bit steep for you, you can spend a 10-bucker and get the star sold separately.

In fact, the star's not particularly seasonal when taken out of context. I say spend a few Hamiltons and start yourself a gallery of Minter sickers.

Here's a few other Marilyn Minter pieces just because I love them:



You can see more of Minter's work at the site of super-cool downtown gallery Salon 94.

Click any of the above images for full details or ordering information.