Mark Kostabi

City of Enchantment featured 41 paintings and drawings by the internationally recognized artist Mark Kostabi, who was one of the key players in New York’s East Village Scene during the 1980s. The exhibition focused on imagery inspired by the artist’s frequent visits to Venice, Italy, a place overflowing, in Kostabi’s words, with “mystery and sheer beauty.”

As a young artist, Kostabi took his cues from Andy Warhol, whose “Factory” was a prototype for making art according to a business model. Early on, Kostabi developed a practice of employing a team of creative thinkers and skilled technicians to assist him in the production of his art. Kostabi soon established his own style or “brand,” which consists of faceless figures who engage in allegorical or metaphorical narratives.

In this exhibition, Kostabi’s anonymous figures are in Venice, Italy, where they are placed in situations that invite viewers to reflect on a wide range of topics, including art history, music, love and romance, dreams, spirituality, and the endangered environment. Executed mostly in bright and sometimes psychedelic colors, Kostabi’s paintings possess an aesthetic sensibility that reflects the high-tech domination of the 21st century.