Carnival, the group show curated by the esteemed artist Joe Coleman at Soho’s Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, had an opening day that lived up to its name. Hundreds of friends and fans packed the huge space for an exhibit that is a perfect match of curator and concept.
The inspired pairing came from Deitch, who explained the show’s genesis.
“Joe Coleman asked me to participate in a public talk with him last August for the launch of the new book on his work,” Deitch explained. “My study of the book and my talk with Joe inspired me to ask him to curate an exhibition on the theme of the Carnival that has been the subject of many of his works. I knew that Joe could bring together many of the artists in his circle as well as accessing the historical material that he and his friends collect. We wanted to present an exhibition that celebrates Joe Coleman and his lively community of artists and performers.”
To which we say: mission accomplished.
The exhibit includes over 100 pieces of art, from Coleman’s remarkably detailed epic paintings to George Condo and Weegee, Kenny Scharf and Kembra Pfahler, in a variety of mediums and including circus and sideshow memorabilia as well.
The opening promised to be a wild affair, and it did not disappoint. After a brief speech to the assembled multitude, which included effusive thanks to his wife, muse and collaborator Whitney Ward (whose wonderful costume designs are also in the show), Coleman introduced the evening’s entertainment: Three burlesque performers who are all old friends.
Julie Atlas Muz brought a decidedly modern edge to the vintage art form with a performance that began with her covered from head to toe in a black bodysuit, saw her immersing herself into a large inflated black ball and concluded with the ball exploding to reveal, well, pretty much all of her in a joyous celebration of nudity for the sake of art.
Pearls Daily followed with a more traditional striptease, although said tradition rarely features an eight-months-pregnant performer with a pastie on her belly button.
“I’ve known Joe and Whitney forever,” she said afterwards. “This is like a big, strange, beautiful homecoming — it’s a special one. There’s so much positive energy, I feel very safe here. I’m proud to be a part of it.”
Jo “Boobs” Weldon, the woman who literally wrote the book on burlesque, performed a very classic fan dance — but on the steps, in stiletto heels.
“I was terrified!” she admitted later. You couldn’t tell, though, and attendee Leia Bradley was one of the more visibly appreciative audience members.
“It was incredible”, she gushed. “Jo is literally New York burlesque.”
Local entrepreneur Maegan Hayward was entranced the minute she walked in and encountered Raúl de Nieves’ When I look into your eyes I see the Sun, a full-size working carousel filled with fantastic creatures.
“When I first walked in I thought, I want to move this merry-go-round into my apartment!” she said. “Then I realized, I can’t do that, I live in New York City. But Carnival also reminded me of why I live in this city. This exhibit and NYC are exactly the kind of carnival I want to inhabit! What a show!”
Performer/artist Phoebe Legere had, unsurprisingly, her own take on the show.
“In a post-taste catastrophic political moment, Joe Coleman cuts to the cancerous essence,” she opines. “He is giving us spectacle and technique with almost heart-stopping precision.”
Musician Janice Sloane surveyed the crowd and noted that “you can’t tell the difference between the art and the people”. Of course, for many in the crowd, there is not much difference between art and life, and the show is certainly a celebration of what Lawrence Ferlinghetti famously proclaimed “A Coney Island of the Mind” (although, to be fair, he nicked the phrase from Henry Miller).
Although Coleman is very much associated with Coney Island, it all began for him as a nine-year-old kid in Times Square.
“I was blown away by seeing those huge burlesque signs. … When I went home, I couldn’t get it out of my mind,” he recalls.
Coleman’s mother was a glamorous, would-be actress and a strict Catholic who kept the young artist from fidgeting at church by letting him make art during services.
“I drew the stations of the cross,” he recalls, “and it ended up in an art show where Lady Bird Johnson singled it out for praise.”
Mrs. Johnson may have felt differently about his later works, which include renderings of serial killers and a self-portrait that included samples of his blood and semen (which, incidentally, was stolen from a show at Danceteria), but we digress.
On view at the Deitch is, in his words, “a kind of history of the New York that I cared for — who I consider the real people in New York. The alternative New York is the real New York. And I chose artists that are underappreciated — it’s nice to see them all together. The works are talking to each other.”
Many of the pieces were commissioned for the show, including Walton Ford’s Clara al Carnevale and John Dunivant’s Fool’s Journey.
“There’s a lot more people that I would have liked to have in the show,” Coleman admits. But that’s not to say that he’s disappointed in how it all turned out.
“It just blew my mind,” he says of the opening. “It’s a very personal show, so I didn’t know how it would be taken. The planning was the better part of the year, but it was a lifetime in the making. There were a lot of family and friends there, but it really surprised me to see all the people that showed up from different age groups who really connected with the work. It made me realize that an old dinosaur like me still connects with a lot of people. There was a lot of love around. It felt good.”
Joe Coleman’s website is joecoleman.com and he’s on Instagram at @joecolemanartist. A new documentary about Coleman and Ward will be screened at the Tribeca Film Festival in June — info here: tribecafilm.com/films/how-
For more info on the Carnival exhibit, visit deitch.com/new-york/
