20 original photographs on display will provide an intimate though accurate panorama of the glorious artistic scene of the 70s and 80s in New York. Juxtaposed with Altered Images series they will calibrate the epoch, when pop art and punk were born. In the former, celebrities like Salvador Dali, John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Liza Minnelli, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat and drag queen Divine captured while chilling together or posing occasionally for Christopher Makos. Whereas in Altered Images series Andy Warhol himself posed for camera in drag thereby broaching issues of cross-dressing, role-playing, artifice and eventually construction of identity. These unmistakably refer to Man Ray’s famous photographs of Duchamp disguised as his female alter ego, Rrose Sélavy. Notably Warhol didn’t try hard enough to conceal his masculinity behind make-up and wig, on the contrary, he fearlessly exposed his vulnerability, uncertainty and gender duality of human nature. Such outspokenness could be read as a manifestation of being different, being who you really are, despite generally accepted conventions. In both series proximity and friendly affection between the subjects and the photographer created nuanced, delicate and sincere snapshots of New York artistic scene and its main protagonists.
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Altogether this travelling exhibit has toured extensively in Europe and America and has been featured in innumerable publications worldwide, playing an important role in creation of New York underground culture myth.
American born Christopher Makos collaborated with many magazines, like Interview, Rolling Stone, House & Garden, Connoisseur, New York Magazine, Esquire, Genre and People. His works have been exhibited at the Tate Modern in London, The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. His work is in the permanent collections of the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, and The National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.
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Exhibition schedule: July 20 – September 28, 2017, Monday to Sunday, 12 – 8 PM
Address: IZONE Creative Community, 8 Naberezhno-Luhova Street
Source: https://izolyatsia.org
