Pushing the Limits

Monday, December 12, 2011 | Category: Art, Material Girls Projects

One of my assistants said to me the other day, “through decorating my own apartment I realized how much fun it is to push the limits of decorating,” and I couldn’t agree more! While I respect and admire the historic and traditional (I have lived in many historic homes myself and I have a major obsession with antiques, after all!), infusing my projects with a modern flair is central to my design mantra.

One way I love to incorporate contemporary style in my projects is through art. I often find myself juxtaposing the traditional (18th Century Colonial Oil Portraits which I found antiquing in Boston) with some of the most cutting edge artist’s out there today.

Right now, one of the artists who is inspiring me the most is Marilyn Minter. Her provocative, beguiling work left me captivated from first glance. To me, her work is just as much a conversation piece as the 18th century oil portrait hanging in the next room. I have coveted a book of her work that was given to me by one of my intern’s as a gift over a year ago.

To quote a recent blurb from Artinfo…

“If you missed Marilyn Minter‘s most recent show at Salon 96 in the Bowery, which closed on December 4, you missed one of the purer pleasures of the fall season. The show featured a few of her large-scaled, hyper-detailed paintings — she hates the term “photorealist,” so we won’t use it — of some of her signature themes: close-ups of women’s mouths and high-heeled shoes, all rendered with her signature atmosphere of dirty glamour.

The real stand-out of the show, however, was the new video work. Minter’s long-time interest in video has been receiving increased attention, since her short clip “Green Pink Caviar” — a closeup of a mouth smearing colored caviar on glass — was unveiled in 2009. The standout new work at Salon 94, “Play Pen” (2011), features toddlers splashing around in a pool of viscous silver liquid, presented in super-slow-motion, so that the dynamics of the goo — and the looks of mixed joy and confusion on their faces as they discover these dynamics — are captured with dream-like emphasis”.

I can’t wait to place a work of Marilyn’s intensely mesmerizing work-it is only a matter of time!