Brace yourself. You are about to be insanely jealous {but you’ll feel weird about it} and also totally inspired. Listen to this:
After a somewhat troubled childhood, and a pretty bad car accident in France, Skylar Fein was accepted into pre-med at the University of New Orleans, and moved there to get started on his future. Six weeks later, Hurricane Katrina hit destroying everything he owned. That should be the end of the story right? Wrong. In the aftermath he began collecting the wood that filled the streets and did what any pre-med student {with absolutely no art training} would do. He turned this wreckage into politically charged pop art {please refer to the founding fathers of America shown above}, had his first solo show in 2008 at the Jonathan Ferrara Gallery in New Orleans, and then dropped out of school to pursue art full time. Since then his work has been featured in Artforum, Art in America, New York Times, Style Magazine, The New Yorker, etc…
See what I mean? Insanely jealous… but you feel weird about it. I know, me too.
Amazing work – graphically appealing on a superficial level, and so sad when you know the backstory.
Awesome, i’m pleased for him….and very jealous!
As his gallerist, I can tell you skylar’s talent, thought process and respect for the work run deep. He is gifted and his work has a real appeal across societal lines. And the work you have featured here isn’t even his newest or best work, Chck out my website for more
Jonathan Ferrara
Hi Jonathan – thanks for writing! Yes, his work really is amazing. I had about 3 versions of this post because I couldn’t decide what to show from his vast body of work. I love ‘Remember the Upstairs Lounge’ too… truly fantastic.
{Here’s the link again to the Jonathan Ferrara Gallery for those of you who haven’t checked it out. Lots of other work from Skylar, along with many other very talented artists.}