Acrylic on cardboard and wood
Not on view
Argentine-born artist Luis Frangella landed in New York City in 1976 and soon became a recognized figure of the East Village art scene. As a painter, he moved beyond traditional canvases, producing murals throughout the city at unexpected sites like nightclubs and construction zones. His work evokes downtown New York’s artist and queer communities, who congregated and created in public spaces in resistance to the city’s deindustrialization. Originally displayed within Pier 34’s dilapidated interiors (seen in Marion Scemama’s film in this gallery), Frangella’s colossal cardboard heads and torsos were painted in his signature expressionist figurative style. This example depicts his friend and collaborator, the artist David Wojnarowicz.
2024
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