Far Left: Alex Melamid: 50 Cent, 2005, oil on canvas.

Left: Alex Melamid: Kanye West, 2005, oil on canvas.
Above: Alex Melamid: Snoop Dogg, 2005, oil on canvas.

Holy Hip-Hop!

Russian-born Jewish painter exhibits portraits of African-American rap artists at MOCAD.

Suzanne Chessler

Special to the Jewish News

N

ew York painter Alex Melamid
believes that hip-hop entertain-
ers show a lot of chutzpah, and
he conveys that attitude in 12 portraits of
the most famous among them.
The artist has combined his images into
a series — "Holy Hip-Hop!: New Paintings
by Alex Melamid" — and will have them
on exhibit Feb. 8-April 20 at the Museum
of Contemporary Art Detroit.
The artist, in town for the opening
reception and a presentation the next
afternoon, may discuss two of his subjects
with Motown ties — 50 Cent (Curtis
James Jackson III), who was discovered by
Detroit's Eminem, and Common (Lonnie
Rashid Lynn Jr.), who has collaborated
with the city's MC J Dilla. Others repre-
sented include Lil Jon, Reverend Run,
Marc Ecko, Russell Simmons, MC Duke,
Snoop Dogg, DJ Whoo Kid, Don "Magic"
Juan, Easy Mo Bee and Kanye West.
"This is the view of the rappers by a
nearsighted man:' says Melamid, who was
raised in Russia, moved to Israel and relo-
cated to America. "I wear glasses, but my
vision is still not 20/20.
"I worked on this for more than a year,
and I didn't sleep very long while painting
Snoop Dogg. He works at night, and we
did the painting in his Los Angeles record-
ing studio."
Melamid, who didn't find much conver-

sation during the painting sessions, links
the performers with shades of fiery red
and orange and distinguishes them with
different poses, none static. The introduc-
tions came through his son, Dan, a pro-
ducer-director of music videos.
"My talk will depend on the audience
says the painter, whose projects generally
are completed in a studio near his home.
"I'll try to explain that even people like
me, at 62, can discover new things, espe-
cially if they rely on their children:"
"Holy Hip-Hop!" is Melamid's first
solo show but not his first exhibition in
Michigan. Years ago, he was represented
in a group exhibit at the Detroit Institute
of Arts.
"I don't think I work in any style the
artist says. "I just paint what I see'
Melamid collaborated for many years
with fellow Russian-born artist Vitaly
Komar. Before deciding to end their part-
nership in 2003 to explore their individual
talents, the two took turns working on
each project.
"I was recently in Russia for the 90th
birthday of my mother, and I found a
small oil painting, a seascape, in her
apartment:' Melamid recalls. "That was my
first oil painting, done when I was 12, and
I now have 50 years experience in painting
with oil:'
Melamid studied at the Strogonov
Institute of Art and Design, where he met
Komar, and the two founded the Soviet
Realist Pop Art Movement, Sots Art, which

satirized Soviet Socialist Realism.
The two, known as rebels, participated
in an outdoor exhibition bulldozed by the
government in 1974 and were expelled
from professional organizations.
Melamid, who earned his living as a
freelance visual artist, continued his work
in Israel in the 1970s, where his wife,
Katya Arnold, continued her artistry and
taught. Since moving to America in 1978,
she has completed 16 children's books,
creating the text and illustrations.
"I consider myself Jewish, but I don't
have any religious sentiment:' says
Melamid, who also has another son,
Andrew, a computer specialist.
Melamid's career advanced in the
United States with the help of gallery
and museum shows. The first exhibit of
the Melamid-Komar team was at Ronald
Feldman Fine Arts in New York. Their
first museum exhibit, "Komar & Melamid:
Matrix 43," opened at the Wadsworth
Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford,
Conn.
Melamid's paintings have since joined
the collections of New York's Metropolitan
Museum of Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim
Museum and Museum of Modern Art.
Before parting ways with Komar, the
two found some unusual painting part-
ners — elephants. The Asian Elephant
Art and Conservation Project, a nonprofit
initiative, is promoted as teaching the
animals how to paint and then selling the
images to support their care.

"It's interesting to work with ani-
mals," says Melamid, whose concern for
elephants developed after he read about
their survival problems. "I've been doing
this for more than 10 years and have seen
amazing progress:'
The artist spent most of last year
in Rome, where he painted a series of
Catholic religious leaders.
"I wanted to work on this [Catholic]
series because these people don't change
in an ever-changing world:' Melamid says.
"They dress as they've been dressed. I
paint traditionally, and it's interesting to
paint a tradition:"

❑

"Holy Hip-Hop!: New Paintings
by Alex Melamid" will be on view
Feb. 8-April 20 at the Museum of
Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD),
4454 Woodward. Gallery hours
are noon-5 p.m. Wednesdays
and Sundays and 11 a.m.-8 p.m.
Thursdays-Saturdays. Admission is
free. The opening reception, costing
$5, begins at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8,
with performances by Mike E-Ellison
and Underground Resistance. The
artist's talk, given with no fee, is at
3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9. Children and
family workshops on fashion, por-
traiture and hip-hop, free and open
to the public, are scheduled 1-3 p.m.
Sunday, Feb.10. For information on
other related events, call (313) 832-
6622 or go to www.mocadetroit.org .

February 7 • 2008

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