Maripolarama: Perverse City June 12, 2008

Deborah Colton Gallery is pleased to present Maripolarama: Perverse City, featuring a collection of monographic Polaroid works by renowned Polaroid artist and fashion-icon, Maripol. The exhibition features a new body of work and the artist’s trademark color Polaroid portraits with new techniques, documenting the subversive social scene of artists, celebrities, and scenesters of early 1980’s New York.
Deborah Colton Gallery has shared a long and successful relationship with Maripol. The gallery’s inaugural show, Reviving Downtown: My Address Book, was a solo exhibition of Maripol’s large format black and white Polaroid portraits, exhibited during FotoFest of 2004. Maripol’s work as an art director, designer, and film producer has influenced popular movements in music, fashion, and art since the early 1980s. Maripol never went out without her Polaroid SX 70' camera. She was the founder of Maripolitan Popular Objects Ltd., a fashion accessories company, which also designed merchandising for Madonna's "Like a Virgin" tour, following the success of her styling for the cover of Madonna’s album of the same name, shot by Steven Meisel. She directed the documentary "Crack is Wack" on Keith Haring for French TV as well as other shorts and has art directed films by Marcus Nispel, and Abel Ferrara, and music videos for Cher, D'Angelo, Elton John, Luther Vandross and others. She has produced films including “Downtown 81”, directed by Edo Bertoglio and written by Glenn O’Brien which she also art directed, “Just an American Boy” by Amos Poe, and “Face Addicts” by Edo Bertoglio.

Maripol's work has been exhibited at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Deitch Projects, Robert Miller Gallery, New York, Musée Maillol, Paris, TriennaleMuseum, Milan and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She has been published in The New York Times Magazine, WWD, Time Out New York, ELLE, i-D, Numero Japan, and Rolling Stone Italy. Maripol's books include Maripolarama (powerHouse Books, 2005), New York Beat: The Making of Downtown 81 (Petit Grand, 2001) and Mes Polas: 1977– 90s (Art Random, 1990). She was just featured in Nuke magazine with a cover of Madonna celebrating the singer’s 25 year career. Maripol’s work is currently in traveling exhibitions around the world in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Milan,Berlin, Paris and London.

Official Website: http://www.deborahcoltongallery.com/exhibitions/