A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting artist Lars Klingstedt, but had no idea just how talendted he was until last night when I attended the opening reception for "Pop Art 2.0" at the Susan Eley Fine Art Gallery on the Upper West Side. I have gone to countless art gallery openings, and I have to say that this one was a huge success! There were two rooms of art displayed and each room was filled with guests enjoying the graciousness of the host (the passionate and warm Susan Eley) as well as the obvious talent of the artists.
Featured at the opening alonside Lars were British-born Alex Wood (who works with acrylic and spray paint to question our relationship to verbal & visual communication), and Charles Buckley (who uses paint on canvas to examine how the human form is used to sell products to customers). Buckley's rendition of the instantly recognizable "mud-flap girl" amidst swirls of saturated color was one of my favorites of the night.
Lars uses a process completely new to me that creates a super-modern, technology-influenced style. With a fine art photography and fashion design background, Lars takes digital pictures of iconic images like Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and classic cars, strips them down to their barest in Photoshop and prints them onto gorgeous ombre-shaded paper in colors like cobalt blue, bright orange and mustard. They are then mounted behind plexiglass and hung frameless. As a personal lover of modern art, they were immediately appealing to me, and "The Girl" (Marilyn) was definitely my favorite.
In attendance at the opening were art-lovers, other artists, members of the fashion industry, proud members of the artists' families (Lars' parents came all the way from Texas!), publicists and the always-recognizable Suede from Project Runway. We all had such a good time that a few of us even continued the night at dinner afterward. If you would like to see the exhibition, it will be at the Susan Eley Fine Art Gallery (46 West 90th Street, 2nd floor) through October 23rd. With an endorsement like "Pop Art 2.Oh So Wonderful," how could you not?!
~ Alison
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