PhoebeNewYork’s Larger-Than-Life Return to WCC

Mar 18

PhoebeNewYork has always had a larger-then-life presence in Manhattan, but the 20-foot-tall inflatable version of the city’s favorite fashion-forward street art icon is taking things to an entirely new level.

Phoebe @phoebenewyork and her creator, artist Libby Schoettle, are back at West Chelsea Contemporary @wcc.art, bringing their charming optimism and street-wise advice to the gallery’s temporarily transformed gift shop at 509 W. 23rd St.

On offer are dozens of new creations, each featuring the young philosopher and her clever words of wisdom for those striving to overcome the many challenges the big city throws at the feet of its womankind. “Deal With It,” “I’ve Had Enough,” “Never Say Never,” “What Should I Worry About Today,” are among Phoebe’s latest pronouncements.

Libby Schoettle, photo by Daryl-Ann Saunder

If you don’t know Phoebe and Libby, you’re missing something, but visiting our piece published last year by UP Magazine is a good place to get to know the paper-doll sprite and her creator. The piece is accompanied by the fabulous photography of Daryl-Ann Saunders @da_saunders, some of which are reprinted here. Here are some excerpts from the profile:

New Yorkers, of course, were acquainted with Phoebe, and by association Libby, long before her work made its way to galleries and museums. In fact, Phoebe has been offering up inspirational words streetside for nearly two decades.

According to Phoebe, you should not just “be yourself,” you should also “believe in yourself.” You should “never quit,” “be confident,” manifest “girl power,” but “be safe.” You should “own it,” “risk it,” and if they don’t like it, “fuck ‘em.” Hardly profound sentiments, but popping up as they do on big city streets where optimism and good cheer may not occur in ample measure, they do have the power to excite people’s brighter angels. Especially those of women and, perhaps even moreso, those of ambitious young women striving against life’s headwinds.

Schoettle gave birth to Phoebe after an extended gestation period that dates to a single event that took place in Paris in 2001. It was there that she snapped a photograph of a pale rose sweater and bright red slacks, acquired at a flea market, arranged on the floor as a humanoid with a fluff jar for a head.

“It has taken me almost 20 years to develop her and she keeps evolving. I didn’t know anything about street art back then. I was an inside studio artist, and how incredibly freeing it is to see it move from inside to outside,” she said. In recent years, though, the two have been gradually reversing course, making the move from the streets into the galleries like so many of today’s top street artists. “I think my original work is geared toward galleries. I wasn’t a street artist at first, so I believe that helped me. But I also feel very lucky to have been asked to do gallery shows. It’s not easy for any artist,” she said.

But are Libby and Phoebe one and the same? That’s a surprisingly tough question.

“At times, Phoebe is my emotional counterbalance. She is brightest when I feel darkest. She’s expressive and pithy when I’m feeling tongue-tied and forlorn. I’m similar to Phoebe in the things we both feel, but Phoebe is free in ways I am not free. And that is the difference,” Libby said.

Still, the two are inseparable, as they have always been. And after two decades, their evolution as individuals and as a couple is hardly complete.

“I think we, as artists, worry at times about whether our art can evolve or get better, or even if we will ever think of a new, and or better idea. I’m not competitive with other people but I am with myself, so that can be a fault, but it also pushes me. I’m in that place of uncertainty right now. I recently made a piece that says ‘midlife crisis’ which feels right,” Libby said.

Though Phoebe lives more and more in galleries these days, Libby remains respectful of the street environment and says the importance of street art as a movement cannot be overstated.

“As with weather, the street changes every day, here today gone tomorrow and so to stay up you have to get back up. There are always new artists to be found out there. Suddenly, like magic, there is a new voice,” she said.

“It’s exciting. It is what gives a city its edge, it’s necessary, and it is art.”