Last week, I popped into the new show Intimate Portraits at The Impossible Project Space NYC, which is up through June 17. It's a dual show, featuring Polaroids by Maripol and Slava Mogutin.
An intimate peek at Intimate Portraits.
Maripol, the woman who gave Madonna her "Boy Toy" look, has been shooting Polaroids for over 30 years. She has a collection of some indescribably beautiful '80s shots (I am proud to own an original), but this collection was less about Downtown personae and more about sensuality, featuring models Adele, Clemence, Alessandra and Aurele. So French, so erotic, so fun.
I couldn't wait for Slava to shoot him, so I went ahead and did it myself. Want to again!
Mogutin, whose work I also own, told me his were all commissioned especially for this show. They, too, focus on the erotic; he captures flesh in a way you can smell it. Speaking of which, a ripe, absolutely eye-popping dancer walked in wearing a Tintin tee and sporting Technicolor rain-streak tattoos down his arms. I told Slava, "You have to shoot him, and I'll buy it." He joked in his Russian accent, "I would like to get him between the sheets."
Maripol told me she was jet-lagged, so I didn't see her by the time I left. Artists! But I did spot Brian Kenny and Robert Richards...and I own their stuff, too. I swear, almost every living artist whose work I have bought was in attendance. It made me feel like some crazy-important collector (which I am most certainly not).
Flex appeal.
Check out the show if you can—it's as tiny as the medium it celebrates, but packed with sexual abandon and represents a remarkable melding of styles from two artists I've always admired.
