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Vivian Horan hosted a reception for the artist Colette in her
Fine Arts Gallery at 35 East 67th Street. The event opened the
show Intriguing Faces: Portraits by Colette, which featured
portraits of filmmaker Katharina Otto Bernstein, Gabriel
Byrne, collectors Audrey Nevins, James McLaren and R. Couri
Hay as well as the artist herself as Frida Kahlo.
Colette’s involvement with the commissioned portrait began
early in her career and became highly publicized with a 1991
Munich solo exhibition: the Aristocrats. She has been well
known over the years for self-transformation in her work. Her
portraits involve a process that uses photography, and paint
and incorporates materials such as satin, silk, veils,
flowers, glitter, statuettes and other objects which she
crystallizes in an alchemical process that.
she defines as Colette sizing. Often placing subjects in a
fabricated environment, Colette chooses artifice to create her
portraits. Paradoxically, by using this approach she manages
to capture her subject’s essence and spirit. Working in
portraiture allows Colette to continue her exploration of role
playing and archetypes.
Colette's work has been presented all over the world,
including Bologna, Banff, Montreal, East Hampton, Berlin and
Tokyo, P.S.1 in Long Island City, the Downtown Whitney and
Studio 54. Rarely, however, has she had an exhibition on the
Upper East Side. |