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1/11/2011

Gilles Larrain

Steven Kasher Gallery, New York

"I moved to New York City because of people like this. I wanted to be around the art crowd and the weirdos and the freaks...and here was a full-on book of them. I was like, where do I sign up? I wanted in."
—Ryan McGinley, from the Foreword to Gilles Larrain: Idols

Steven Kasher Gallery is pleased to present Gilles Larrain: Idols . The show will featuringe 35-40 never - before-printed for exhibitedion large-scale photographs of New York’s most wildly colorful, often scandalous denizens of style that he shot during the revolutionary early 1970s. Larrain’s now legendary SoHo studio became a haven for the glamorous misfits who were exploring their sexual identity and re-creating the city’s night life.

Through Larrain’s vision and friendship with his models, the lush photographs capture the soul and emotion beneath the surface of the Halloween glamour of the transvestite world. Larrain probed beneath the glitter and posturing to expose joy and unbridled excitement, but also the desperation and vulnerability during that revolutionary time.

The exhibition Idols is an authentic compendium of 1970s New York style and attitude. It began with an awestruck Larrain visiting Max's Kansas City in the explosively liberating early years of the gay rights movement, then initiating his own wild salons where friends came to play music, dress up and fantasize. The images, originally published in the book Idols in 1973, captured the individuals who transformed the era. Original from 1970-72. These large-scale color prints are powerfully emotional portraits of some of the most colorful New York denizens of a most frenzied, creative era. Idols are revolutionary images from a revolutionary artist whose work defined a generation. Idols, the book, was originally printed in 1973; copies of the book are coveted collectors items; a. A new edition byfrom Powerhouse will beis being launched simultaneously with this exhibition.with our opening.

"I moved to New York City because of people like this. I wanted to be around the art crowd and the weirdos and the freaks...and here was a full-on book of them. I was like, where do I sign up? I wanted in."
—Ryan McGinley, from the Foreword

Idols is an authentic compendium of 1970s' New York style and attitude. It began with an awestruck Larrain visiting Max's Kansas City in the explosively liberating early years of the gay rights movement. Featuring a generation of New York's most talented, outrageous, and glamorous personalities, the unique photographs in Idols are testament to countless hours his subjects spent donning creative makeup and costumes in Gilles' now legendary SoHo studio.

These arresting photographs may delight you, or offend you; they will not leave you cold.

le souls. You will find people living out their fantasies gallantly, brilliantly, and desperately. They pose the disturbing challenge, "Who do you think YOU are?"

“Gilles contributed to the anthropological timeline of New York history, and by photographing them, he made these people into the people they wanted to be. Gilles has the magic touch; it seems he is effortlessly able to glamorize his subjects and make them look like the most fascinating people in the world. His photos are sophisticated but also playful. Finding the balance between those two opposing things is really hard to do; it’s something I’m always striving for. But there’s a kind of dark side to it too. You see the glossy surface of who they want to be, and then you get a glimpse of the reality.”
——Ryan McGinley
, from the ForewoIn Idols, there is a sense of searching and reaching out – without judgment or coddling, but with complete openness towards others. Larrain set a stage for people to come and be themselves, and to transcend themselves. Beauty and panache, love and lust, dance and joy met ridicule and fear, horror and hate. Extremes of debauchery play out the eternal exchange that is humanity in all its wondrous vulnerability.
Born in Vietnam in 1938, Gilles Larrain began an atypical life moving that would see him to living in Vietnam, Chile, Argentina, Canada, France, and the USA, all before the age of 16. He would have to learn many languages, and integrate into each new world. Gilles Larrain honed his craft studying at l'École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and MIT, Boston.

Gilles Larrain has since worked with artists in a wide range of creative disciplines, including the the same care and curiosity with other subjects including the American Ballet Theatre, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Salvador Dali, Miles Davis, Sting, Billy Joel, Roberto Rossellini, Norman Mailer, and manyy, many more.

Image: Gilles Larrain, Alexis del Lago, ca. 1970

Opening: 2 november 6pm

Steven Kasher Gallery
521 W. 23rd St., New York
Hours: tuesday through saturday, 11 am to 6 pm.
Admission free

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