Works by Robert Cenedella, Andy Warhol & Kelly Sullivan
(New York, NY – July 13, 2022) – Carlton Fine Arts Ltd. is pleased to announce the Rock & Roll Art exhibition, featuring a collection of key works that pay homage to the gods of rock and roll. On view from July 20th through August 12th, the show will spotlight works by Robert Cenedella, Kelly Sullivan and Andy Warhol at the Carlton Fine Arts Ltd. location at 689 5th Avenue.
Robert Cenedella will present his newest painting So Many Roads, a 55” by 96” triptych on primed linen panels honoring the Grateful Dead. Also known as Grateful Dead 1965-Forever, this historic, mural-sized painting is meant to be enjoyed by all Deadheads. The beauty of So Many Roads is that Cenedella managed to concoct a Deadhead’s utopia on canvas that leaves your eyes scrolling from one panel to the next, all while pondering about the deeper meaning behind all the imagery within the painting. Similarly, Robert Hunter and John Perry Barlow effectuated the same sentiment through their lyrics. A portion of the proceeds of all Digital Archival Prints and Posters will benefit HeadCount, a non-partisan organization that uses the power of music to register voters and promote participation in democracy.
Kelly Sullivan will showcase Rock and Roll Voodoo an original 88” by 68” acrylic on canvas FingerSmear® painting created with the Rolling Stones. On October 31st, 1994, The Rolling Stones were in San Francisco for their Voodoo Lounge tour at the Warfield Theater. After their performance, they threw a Halloween party at the Warfield where artist Sullivan was bartending. The atmosphere was celebratory and festive, and she decided to enhance the elaborate scene by hanging a huge blank canvas on the wall of the theatre. She sketched out the faces of the band and surrounded them in iconic voodoo master tools and as guests arrived, she invited them to participate by sticking their fingers in paint and adding their marks to the painting. Amongst those who contributed to the painting were band members, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, and the late Charlie Watts. Proceeds from the sale will benefit the renovation of the Strand Theater in Lambertville, NJ.
Other works on view will include Rolling Stones by Mr. Brainwash from 2014; Jimmy Hendrix by DeVon from 2018; Mick Jagger by Andy Warhol from 1975; Musical Notes by Roy Lichtenstein from 1990; Beatles by DeVon from 2020, among others.
The Rock & Roll Art exhibition will be on display with all works available for purchase at Carlton Fine Arts Ltd. 689 5th Avenue location. Exhibition hours are Mondays - Thursdays: 10 AM - 6 PM; Fridays: 10 AM - 4 PM; Saturdays: Closed; Sundays: 11 AM - 6 PM and by appointment. For those interested in checking out the exhibition outside of open hours, appointments can be scheduled by calling 212-593-2800 or email: info@carltonfa.com. Visit http://carltonfa.com/ , for more information.
ABOUT ROBERT CENEDELLA
Robert Cenedella was born in Milford, Massachusetts in 1940. He received his formal education from The High School of Music & Art in New York, and from The Art StudentsLeague of New York. From 1988-2020, he inherited the George Grosz Chair at The League where he was invited to teach his Life Drawing Class and a Painting Workshop. Following a definitive tradition in art, like Brueghel, Daumier, Hogarth, and Grosz before him, Cenedella has devoted his art to chronicling the changing rituals and myths of contemporary American society.
In the last 35 years, Cenedella has amassed considerable international praise as well as inclusion in numerous public and private collections. His commissions include works for the famed Bacardi International and Absolut VODKA, a theater piece for actor Tony Randall, two murals of historical significance for Le Cirque 2000 Restaurants in New York and Mexico City, and most recently a visual jam to commemorate the history of the Grateful Dead.
In September 1985, Cenedella exhibited at the Bagatelle in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, a show sponsored by Mr. Jacques Chirac, then mayor of Paris. In 1988, he held a one-man show at Saatchi & Saatchi’s headquarters in New York, and in 1990, he was included in the prestigious Amnesty International Exhibition in SoHo, New York. In December 1994, he had a major retrospective at the Galerie Am Scheunenviertel in Berlin, Germany, which was a tribute to his former mentor and ran concurrently with the George Grosz Centennial Exhibition at the Berlin National Gallery. That same year, Cenedella’s concept of selling shares of stock in his painting 2001 - A Stock Odyssey was disclosed in a New York Times feature article. The idea prompted Leo Castelli, the SoHo gallery owner, who once compared the art boom of the 1980s to the rise of junk bonds, to call the experiment “a conceptual work of art.” Cenedella was also featured in Norbert Bunge’s award-winning documentary film George Grosz in America: Life’s Fine in the Labyrinth presented at the Berlin Film Festival in 1995.
From 1995 to 2000, Robert Cenedella exhibited and lectured around the United States. From March to May 2003, a full retrospective of the artist’s political works was sponsored by The Nation Institute. This exhibit, The Nation Hangs Cenedella, was held at the New York executive offices of The Nation magazine and covered subjects ranging from the Selma riots to the preemptive war on Iraq. It was the first exhibition given to an American artist by The Nation. On March 11, 2004, Cenedella unveiled “The Easel Painting Revival” at Le Cirque 2000. In the spring of 2005, Robert Cenedella had a solo exhibition at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, and conducted a lecture entitled: “WHAT isn’t ART.”
Cenedella’s art and life was the subject of a book, “The American Artist as Satirist,” by M. Kay Flavell. Cenedella was also the protagonist in Art Bastard, a historical documentary film on his life and work, which was released in the spring of 2016 by Concannon Productions, Inc. to critical acclaim. It was written and directed by Victor Kanefsky, produced by Chris T. Concannon, and edited by Jim MacDonald.
Robert Cenedella maintained a studio for 60 years in Tribeca and Midtown Manhattan; In August 2020, Cenedella moved from New York City to Maine with his wife, Liz, where he paints full-time. During the summer, Cenedella spends his time on his private island in Maine in a rustic cabin he personally built many years ago. He uses this time for reflection and inspiration. He is currently working on a coffee table book that revolves around his art and life story, which is due to be released in 2023, titled Robert Cenedella | 60 Years of American Art.
For more information about Robert Cenedella, you can visit his website at RobertCenedella.com, or follow him through social media:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/RobertCenedellaArt
Instagram: @Robert_Cenedella
Twitter: @RobertCenedella
ABOUT KELLY SULLIVAN:
Born and raised in Clinton Township, New Jersey, Sullivan knew she would be an artist when she was five years old. In her early years Sullivan focused on musical portraiture, painting those that inspired her, including Bruce Springsteen, John Lee Hooker, BB King, Pete Seeger, Jimmy Rogers and more. Her musical works graced the walls of BB Kings Blues Club in New York for years and showed in the Ambassador Gallery in Soho alongside that of Jerry Garcia and Ronnie Wood. Sullivan began producing multi-artist/discipline shows in the 1980’s that evolved into hands-on experiential events featuring working studios set up to introduce inner-city kids to the power of art. Forced to worked under the constraints of a tight budget to provide a “painting experience” for guests over a week-long festival, Sullivan invented a collaborative way of painting she called FingerSmears®. Incorporating hundreds of painters, FingerSmears® use only one canvas, and no brushes.
Since that week in 1994 when Sullivan staged her first FingerSmear®, over 100,000 people from around the world have participated in her collaborative paintings. Everyone from Fortune 500 CEO’s, to rock stars and other celebrities (including The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Edie Falco, Carol Burnett, Harrison Ford, and William DeFoe, among many others) have dipped their fingers in paint for Kelly. FingerSmears have continued to shape her career throughout her life.
In addition to creating new works in oil and mixed media, Kelly’s current focus is on renovating the old Strand Theatre in Lambertville, NJ. Gutted by fire in 1969, and shuttered as a warehouse for over 50 years, the building offers Kelly a new type of blank canvas. The new Strand Arts will be a multi-use art house with a mission to inspire bold and collaborative artistic experiences. www.kellysullivanfineart.com.