According to the date on this photo this was taken on December 8, 2012. It was my Art Basel debut in Miami, and like everything else in my life, I was just happy to be there. This occurred directly after my solo exhibition which was hosted by Bombay Sapphire. The thing I don't think I have recorded for the record was all of this was possible because of another Simmons brother, Danny. But per usual I get ahead of myself.
Prior to any of this good fortune I was just another artist on my grind. I had a very successful solo exhibition on Myrtle Avenue, which was reviewed by The New York Times, that show with an additional five pieces would go on to a featured spot at the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, a reception of which my late grandmother actually attended.
But in-between all these solo shows it was back to the regular group show-grind. I think by this time I had been approached by the South of the Navy Yard Artist to join their little group, and this was one of their exhibitions. Me and SONYA would part ways I think no more than a year or so later, I got a lot of energy for how aggressively I was pursuing exhibition, which looking back seemed odd coming from mid-career artist who should have understood how important getting seen was.
It was in this group exhibition that the future curator for Rush Galleries came to see the show my work was in. I had some face-mounted pieces in the show, which can be seen in the above photo. This curator was the late Charlotte Mouquin, she was a boisterous whyte lady of a certain age, and she was really digging my oxidation work, and asked me to be a part of her first exhibition at the Chelsea location of Rush Arts Gallery with three other artist. This was the Sculpted Memory exhibition, where I met Michael Mut who is also pictured in the above photo, and was one of the featured artist in the show.
I will assume you know little to nothing of the New York art scene, but the Rush Foundation was the not for-profit behind Rush Arts and the Corridor Galleries. This was a collaboration between the Simmons brothers Danny, Russell and Joseph "Rev Run". Yes the abstract artist, media mogul and rap royalty from the legendary Run DMC. And this Russell was the creator of Def Jam, which all the big hip hop stars were repped by. As I previously stated, I was just happy to be there.
Danny who wasn't quite old enough to be my dad, but more like a very young uncle, really pushed me into opportunities I would have never had otherwise. He was the one who suggested me for the Bombay Sapphire sponsored solo exhibition at Soho House, and I am sure it was with his blessings that I was now debuting in Miami at Art Basel. I have a lot of love for the elder Simmons brother, he was always warm and kind to me whenever I would bump into him around Brooklyn. I think he is now based in Philadelphia.
I think Charlotte and Michael were just as surprised as me when Russell Simmons showed up to our little spot at Basel. He took some pictures, and gave me a shout out via Twitter, albeit I didn't have a Twitter account, and still don't. This is when the platform was still called Twitter, and this was also before the Me Too movement took down Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Matt Lauer, Bill Cosby and sadly Russell Simmons.
I have been working in Notes on a list of celebrities I have either met or seen, the list is at about sixty people as of this writing. My position was to always be respectful and treat stars like regular folks. I have done that with Christopher Reeve, Jake Gyllenhaal and Alec Baldwin. I don't fawn all over them, I don't ask inappropriate questions, I just let them be. If we have work to do, they do their job and I do mine.
Mr. Simmons was attempting to put forth a very laid-back down-to-earth energy, but he seemed uncomfortable around me, as you can see from the above photo he is leaning ever so slightly away from me. Michael Mut hugged him for the photo they took together, I kept my hands to myself for our photo. He was polite, but not necessarily warm. I am not pulling up the tweet he sent out, because we are just not giving shine to men who don't deserve it. I am not sure of any of the specifics of allegations against him, but all I knew is I stopped sharing the photo I took with him, not that I ever really shared it more than a couple of times.
I have never been that person who was dying to get a selfie with someone because they were "famous", and that will never be me. I am learning more and more that celebrity types are regular folks and have problematic histories and poor decisions just like the rest of us. I am still getting over my having to step away from RuPaul after some of her more unpleasant traits came to light. I was devastated because I was such a huge fan since she first came out in the nineties. I have learned since then not to put anyone on such a high pedestal, because it just makes it worse when they tumble off of it.
The real celebrities of my own story was the late Charlotte Mouquin and Danny Simmons, they were the folks who actually talked to me, showed up for me, and supported my art. They didn't take a quick publicity shot, and throw me a bone by tweeting me out to their millions of followers. I think we need to give the shine to the real-folks in our lives who help us get to the places we need to get to, and leave all that other stuff to those who get more out of it. Celebrity never impressed me, and it never will.
