Mark Sink : September 2021

DateLine.. Pop Up Show and tell: Downtown NY 1980s Art, Ephemera and personal stories from the collection of Mark Sink

Curated by Jeromie Dorrance - Opens Friday Sept 3 and closes Sat Sept 18 2021 ( Closing Party 6- 11pm) 3004 Larimer St, Denver, CO 80205 www.ddaatteelliinnee.com

Andy Warhol Carl Apfelschnitt Chris Makos DAZE Edward Brezinski Felix Pène du Bois Gerard Malanga Jean-Michel Basquiat Keith Harring Mike Berg Nic Rule Rene Ricard Robert Hawkins Scott Covert Scott Kilgour Silvia Martins Stephen Sprouse Ouattara Watts Vittorio Scarpati Zabo Chabiland

Come see some rare works that are for the first time seeing the light of day since acquired by Mark in the 1980s. The 1980s never ceases to fascinate. Maybe it’s because that was the era when downtown New York really felt like a separate city, filled with struggling artists and performers who were more interested in making their art than in getting famous. It was a time when people started bands without any idea what they were doing. And it was a time when people could hold down part time jobs and pay their rent while working on artistic projects, art shows, horror movies, live music and theatrical performances, offbeat and irreverent shows and theme parties. The more ridiculous, the better, and music by under-the-radar acts that later became icons.

Andy Warhol I have written a lot about. How we met and my time with him. How he took my calls and took me on a few dates. How i nearly killed him by accident. How he changed my life. I was kinda a depressed kid afraid of the world. He opened the door of belief in myself. Words cant really express how lucky i am to have known him and called him my friend. @warholportraits

Carl Apfelschnitt Was a brilliant painter that i photographed work of in trade. He died of aids in the late 1980s he describes his hands-on, raw approach to abstract painting as the “expressionistic” work of a “primordial monster” He was best known for abstract paintings with a strong physical presence, whose thick, poured surfaces were often marked by cracks and craters #carlapfelschnitt

Chris Makos Chris is a close friend famous photographer sidekick and photo printer of Andy Warhol . One of the funniest and most interesting people i know. Chris burst onto the photography scene with his 1977 book, WHITE TRASH. This raw, beautiful book chronicled the downtown NYC punk scene. @christophermakos

DAZE 0 Chris Daze Ellis was born in 1962 in New York City. He began his prolific career painting New York City subway cars in 1976. I am close friends we talk often. He is a fabulous photographer. I have brought him to Denver a couple of times to exhibit. His career is booming internationally, including doing work with some top fashion houses. @dazeworldnyc

Edward Brezinski A charismatic Lower East Side painter on the fringe of success I photographed his work in trade for many years. He was picked on by other artists in his circle..until he got his show at MoMA. #edwardbrezinski

Felix Pène du Bois I have several major works/paintings she gave me .. i helped her out of some tough times. Once assaulted in New Orleans, Robert Hawkins and myself drove her paintings she abandoned back to her home in Boston. She was a fixture of 56 Bleecker Gallery in the 1980s who gained recognition for portraying allegorical scenes inspired by the city life around her. “Felix’s paintings are a source of light,” critic and poet Rene Ricard wrote in a lively essay on Pène du Bois—therein only referred to as “Felix”—for Artforum’s September 1986 issue. “This is an artist who has learned how to make pictures shimmer and they would work if they only had their paint, but they also take us to faraway places and advertise a vivid and personal world that is a vacation for the heart and an antidote for eyes poisoned by the toxic by-products of art history.” #felixpenedubois

Gerard Malanga - poet, photographer, filmmaker, actor, curator, and archivist. I did many projects with. He was the printer for Warhol in the 1960s He hired me for several amazing documentation projects. @gerard_malanga.official

Jean-Michel Basquiat Jean-Michel i was friendly with and photographed his work for several years. He was very kind to me I have a lot of stories that started with an introduction by my friend Robert Hawkins at his studio on Great Jones Street where he made a small painting for me on the spot. Or dancing with him at the dinner club Indochine where he then stole my girlfriend. I was very jealous of him. He drew on the poster for me at his last show at Vreg Baghoomian Gallery. Thats also where took the image used in many documentaries of him standing in front of his painting with the word " Man Dies " which was just weeks before his death. My last conversation with him was about his struggles with Andy Warhol's death. @poparttrio @basquiat_archive

Keith Harring Keith was very kind to me.. he was everywhere around town and at all the clubs all the time. Very accessible and very friendly even when he rose to a celebrity .. he drew on my bicycle light once ( since stolen) .. he drew on my swatch watches and traded art for documentation. #keithharring

Mike Berg Longtime friend i shot a lot of his work in trade ..i have wonderful pieces i live with every day. He is once was represented by RULE in Denver and shown at The Boulder Museum of Contemporary art. He is a great painter and sculptor ..he got a great loft early .. moved to Istanbul after 911 and now is back in NYC and career doing well. “Berg is a kind of aesthetic anarchist, disrupting the natural processes of decay and organizing his interventions into exquisitely layered abstraction.” – Linda Yablonsky @whos_mikeberg

Nic Rule I traded for documenting his work. He has done well. He is in collections worldwide. Recently reviewed by Jerry Saltz in NY Magazine Rule paints words, families of words, naming words. (In the past, he has worked with genealogies and “bloodlines.”) @nick_rule Rene

Ricard Rene is my superhero, I think is one of the most important figures coming out of the 1980s. He discovered Jean-Michel, Julian Schnabel that was just a short order cook, of course Keith Haring and countless others. I have a lot of great memories ..some upsetting some that touch my heart. One foot in the gutter and one foot in royalty. Rene came to Denver a couple times for Robert Hawkins's show at the Lynne Ida gallery in the early 1980s .. he loved Denver and in particular El Chapultepec. Ricard's landmark essay The Radiant Child for ArtForm magazine defined the East Village gallery scene of the early 1980s. This essay is credited with launching the public career of Jean-Michel Basquiat, as well as naming Keith Haring's ubiquitous "crawling baby" character. In addition to Basquiat and Haring, the essay also highlights the work of Judy Rifka, John Ahern, Ronnie Cutrone, Izhar Patkin, Joe Zucker, and other artists showing at the numerous independent New York art exhibitions of the period. #renericard

Robert Hawkins One of my best friends is a brilliant artist with a wonderful macabre dark sense of humor. Robert comes to Denver and exhibits often. He has shown at Lynne Ida Gallery, MCA Denver and currently has a great permanent climbing tower in Boulder at Seidel City where a large body of his work is in the collection of Terry Seidel. He most recently showed at MoMA NYC. Robert is who introduced me to everyone in this exhibition. We lived together on and off in Denver and NYC. I documented his work in trade for much of the 1980s. Hawkins' is best known for his "ferocious" style of realism. During the 1980s, Hawkins created a presence within the early 80's art scene in lower Manhattan. His first group showing titled "Three Americans" at Club 57 was with fellow artists Edward Brezinski and Brian Goodfellow in 1981. In 1980, Hawkins participated in a group show at the Mudd Club Gallery at the Mudd Club curated by Keith Haring. Hawkins' first solo show was at the Anderson Theatre Gallery in 1983 curated by art dealer Patrick Fox, who would represent Hawkins throughout the 1980s. Fox opened the Patrick Fox Gallery in 1983, where Hawkins had another solo show. In 1985 Hawkins had a solo show at the Lynne Ida Gallery in Denver, Colorado.That year, Hawkins also had a solo show at Alexander Wood Gallery in New York.[5] Hawkins then participates in a group show with artists, Jack Barth, Vincent Gallo, Bruce Mellett and Gustavo Ojeda at the Luhring Augustine and Hodes Gallery in New York in 1985. In 1986, Hawkins had another solo show with Patrick Fox and 56 Bleecker followed by a collaborative show with the fashion designer, Stephen Sprouse at 56 Bleecker Gallery in 1987. "Dead Things by Living Artists" was Hawkins next 1987 show at Bond Gallery in New York.[wiki] @robertodellh - Glenn O'Brien wrote, “Robert Hawkins is not a big famous artist because he has resisted all attempts to make him that”. Cookie Mueller wrote he is “sensational”. Gary Indiana wrote of his “nauseating brilliance”. Rene Ricard wrote he was “Jean Michel’s favorite artist”. Robert says these quotes are “decades old and tired, already”. #glennobrien #renericard #cookiemueller #garyindiana #jeanmichelbasquiat #makemefamousmovie #eastvillageart

Scott Covert Scotty and i have been friends ever since we met in the mid 1980s. Again i provided high quality slides and transparencies for trade for work. His career is doing very well. He stops in Denver time to time while he is criss crossing the US from LA to NYC to FL. He was a founding member of Playhouse 57 at the storied Club 57. Incorporating the everyday method of “rubbings” to transcribe epitaphs from graveyards and mausoleums, Scott Covert creates text-driven drawings and paintings that engage collective consciousness and reference a wide range of human experience. @the_dead_supreme

Scott Kilgour Ever since the 1980s Scott has stayed intouch and even dropped by my home recently where he gifted me the piece presented in this show. Knot-work designs, embarking on a decade-long study exploring the spatial relationship of continuous line drawing in Scottish Celtic Interlace. @kilgourscott

Sylvia Martins is a Brazilian painter i traded with. A beautiful smart woman. She studied at the School of Visual Arts in 1978 and at the Art Students League of New York from 1979 to 1982. She has shown work in solo and group exhibits around the world. For a number of years she dated Richard Gere, before marrying billionaire Constantine Niarchos in 1997. Her paintings are mainly abstract. @sylviammartins

Stephen Sprouse Stephen was a fashion designer and artist credited with pioneering the 1980s mix of "uptown sophistication in clothing with a downtown punk and pop sensibility he ran with the fast pack. Warhol and Haring ..Duran Duran. I met Stephen at the 56 Bleecker gallery around 1986. I photographed his work and some fashion. He gave me one of his leather vests in trade and the Iggy Pop painting presented in trade for a shoot large transparencies of his paintings. He hung out with Warhol and i photographed them together with Polaroid. He was very kind to me and often invited me to dinner. @stephensprouse

Ouattara Watts Ouattara is from Ivory Coast. He studied at l'École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In Paris, he met Jean-Michel Basquiat at an exhibition opening in January 1988. Basquiat was impressed by Watts's paintings and convinced him to move to New York City. That is where i met him with Jean Michel and photographed them together and later i photographed his painting. We have stayed friends and comment time to time on social media. His career He has shown with Gaggosian gallery and museums and foundations around the world.. he made it to the other side. @ouattarawatts

Vittorio Scarpati I live with this image of the dolphin visiting a sad man at the aquarium ..it touches my heart. I traded for it photographing his show at 56 Bleecker. Vittorio was an Italian artist, political cartoonist and jewelry designer. He met art critic and actress Cookie Mueller (John Walters film star) in Italy, in 1983. Three years later they married in New York City. Scarpati died on 14 September 1989. He was 34. Cookie died a couple months later also .. both of aids.Its a very sad story.

Zabo Chabiland Visual artist working across a number of mediums – Installation, photography, sound performance, video and sculpture. She graduated from the full time studies program of The International Center of Photography of New York in 1988. Zabo is a fabulous amazing forward artist. A close friend faraway making art in France. She was a music mixing VJ mixing music and projections on the spot from her laptop in the mid 1990s ..way way early. It blew my mind and i said to myself that is the end of photography as we know it. He also made X-ray prints and black and black ..black dark silver prints wet stretched on frames like canvas ... great artist and friend i miss terribly. @zabochabiland

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