The Exotic and Lurid Art of RICHIE FAHEY
April 11 – May 2
Opening Reception Saturday, April 11th, 7-11pm
Harold Golen Gallery
2294 NW 2nd Ave.
(Wynwood Art District)
Miami, Fl. 33127
305-989-3359
haroldgolengallery.com
New York City photographer Richie Fahey paints on his pictures in a cold water flat, surrounded by his inspiration: a towering collection of 1930s-1960s musty paperbacks and detective pulp. With the help of a postwar hobbyist’s manual, Photo Oil Coloring for Fun and Profit, he learned to transform black and white photographs into glorious color by dabbling with pigments on snapshots from the ’40s.
Fahey’s Technicolor-like style evokes lobby cards in old movie houses, covers of dimestore novels and star portraits in fan magazines like Screen and Photoplay. In defining his style, Fahey is inspired by the posed photographs from detective magazines, cinematographers of the 1940’s-50’s like John Alton, portrait photographers such as George Hurrell, and painters and illustrators like Leeteg and James Avanti.
In creating his images, Fahey plays with the noir stereotype of beautiful women gone bad and the men who love them. He is painstaking about stylistic detail. Convincing art direction, combined with vintage lighting techniques and hand coloring conspire to create alluring, ambiguous works. The viewer’s inability to pinpoint the exact time frame in which a Fahey photograph was taken, lends a certain timelessness to the artist’s work.
Fahey has created book cover art for PENGUIN, SCRIBNER, WARNER BOOKS, VINTAGE, ST. MARTIN’S PRESS, KNOPF and SIMON & SCHUSTER. Other commercial clients include SONY RECORDS, ADOBE THEATRE CO. and SPOT DESIGN. His editorial clients have included SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, GOTHAM, BUST, ATOMIC and FLATIRON magazines. Fahey produced and co-designed the cover art for the reissued James Bond novels.
Fahey has been featured in JUXTAPOSE art magazine, CAMERA ARTS, YELLOW RAT BASTARD and GARAGE. His work has been shown at the Robin Rice Gallery in New York City’s Greenwich Village . His 2004 pinup calendar, Women in Crime, slyly depicts gorgeous women caught in the act of committing various amusing felonies.
