WHOISBWHITEY Sells Out in Debut Show
Artist WHOISBWHITEY with his partner Lia Fik. Photo by Gabriel Dean Roberts, courtesy of the artist.
NEW YORK – The red dots were flying in Soho during a recent solo art show featuring dozens of new WHOISBWHITEY paintings based on photographer Mondo Muff’s @mondomuff iconic disco-era Polaroids. The artwork sold out in one night.
WHOISBWHITEY @whoisbwhitey art provided an engaging interpretation of Muff’s polaroid images, taken at Studio 54, 12 West and other clubs and after-parties in New York between 1973-1983. Along with providing visitors with a modern-day visual reinterpretation of a vintage photography collection, the exhibition served to document and celebrate a defining period in New York’s cultural history.
Buyers represented both well-established collectors and a younger crowd of art aficionados. “I purchased three WHOISBWHITEY works with my girlfriend as both an investment and to give our growing art collection the edge I’ve been looking for,” said Tommy Macari, the well-known NYC wine purveyor. “B. Whitey’s art is always totally unexpected. He's not at all what anyone expects to discover in such a young painter. I mean, he's only twenty-two.”
The exhibit was organized by independent curator Blake Miller. "This show—this collaboration—marked a powerful melding of Mondo Muff’s Polaroid portraiture with a bright young mind,” said Miller. “B. Whitey’s truly ‘off-the-wall’ interpretation of Mondo’s work gave event-goers a truly vibrant and wholly unexpected look back at one of New York’s most famous cultural chapters. B. Whitey is an artist to keep your eye on, and the success of this show speaks volumes of his potential as an emerging talent.”
