Has any modern artist had a posthumous life like David Bowie? Maybe not since Elvis started wracking up the afterlife sightings, has anyone been as lauded and essential after death (and The King & The Thin White Duke do share a birthday – also your correspondent’s…). In the two years since his passing, Bowie has had multiple tribute concerts, including one just two weeks ago (QRO live review), an amazing extras EP, No Plan (QRO review), and was even featured in the recent Justice League movie (The Daily Planet asked if all the recently deceased aliens were returning to their home planets: Superman, flanked by Prince and Bowie). And on Thursday, February 22nd, Morrison Hotel Gallery had its own David Bowie Photographer Exhibit.
Morrison Hotel Gallery originally began down in SoHo (QRO venue review), but has since expanded to Los Angeles and Maui, so for this exhibit all three got in on the action, on the same night (not quite simultaneously, what with time zones). Los Angeles might have had actress Mena Suvari (American Beauty, American Pie) and guitarist Billy Morrison (Billy Idol, The Cult), but Bowie’s home had long been NYC (more than one attendee described meeting the star on the street). The upstairs gallery was packed with folks, including photographers Mick Rock and Bob Gruen, who were among the artists whose pictures of the icon were on the walls.
David Bowie stretched identities and musical genres, and that was on display, with photographs that went from his early days to later years, and all the madness in between. Of course his iconic seventies glam period was heavily featured, Ziggy Stardust to Cracked Actor (one picture had him crashed on a couch next to bottles and bottles of wine), with his eighties New Modernist suits providing an interesting contrast. And he always looked gorgeous (he was in Zoolander…).
So well attended that the gallery ran out of drinks, BOWIE will be on exhibit in all three galleries from February 23rd thru March 23rd. All images in the exhibitions are available for purchase at each gallery and via the website – www.morrisonhotelgallery.com.
