THE RePOP SHOP

On May 1st of 2013, I launched my online store, THE RePOP SHOP. The name has a long history and comes from my exhibit in Houston, called RePOP 1981. It was a Warholian take on my hometown at a young age.

The year before, I met and befriended Keith Haring, who at the time was a bus boy at a nightclub called Danceteria and would later become world-famous, and open The Pop Shop, his own retail outlet in New York City, really unheard of, at the time for an artist.

Two years ago, inside of my exhibit at Benrimon Contemporary, I had a pop-up store, called... you guessed it, THE RePOP SHOP... meaning both regarding and also "re", as in, again.

It's become more and more important to me for my work to reach a wider audience. The inspiration, vintage paint by number, has such a broad appeal that it virtually represents the very idea of making art, so this aspect of the work is as much conceptual as it is commercial.

Now, I look at different outlets; galleries, art fairs, retail, online... as different "message delivery systems" with diverse audiences. Hence, the continued collaborations (Trey Speegle xFab, later this year!) and this 2013 online version of THE RePOP SHOP.

You are now free to go shopping. http://www.treyspeegle.com/shop

The invitation to REPOP 1981 with the four faces of legendary newscaster, Marvin Zindler's transformation

The other luminaries in the show. Carolyn Farb's chauffeur bought her the piece from that show. We later met in New York and became friends.

Trey Speegle, Gold Carolyn, 1982

THE RePOP SHOP inside my exhibit, It's Not About You, Benrimon Contemporary, 514 West 24th Street, New York City, 2011

HEIRLOOM MODERN

I'm really happy to have my Catskill Mountain home, The Barn, included in Hollister and Porter Hovey's brand new book, HEIRLOOM MODERN. The sisters seem to be onto some new kind of modern, that integrates nearly all styles into a fresh, eclectic brew. I guess I'm an accidental "heirloomist"...

Below is my chapter. Get your copy here. http://amzn.to/YGeNj2

UNEXPECTED THINGS PEOPLE COLLECT

From a Glo.com story on Collecting

BY THE NUMBERS

• Trey Speegle, an artist whose own work is inspired by vintage paint-by-number paintings, is also a collector of the vintage originals, from the 1950s and '60s. Speegle inherited his first couple of hundred from his late friend Michael O'Donoghue. The other 2,500 or so, Speegle amassed on his own. Nudes, Mona Lisa and Queen Elizabeth are some of the subjects coveted by the paint-by-number collecting community, with the Queen fetching over $5,000.

  Though paint-by-numbers are considered kitschy by many, Speegle offers the counter-point that he transforms the vintage artwork by incorporating them into new pieces for a new perspective. When Speegle recently acquired 150 pieces in one fell swoop, he promptly reconfigured the lot to make an 8-by-16-foot mural entitled;

  Look With Wonder at That Which Is Before You.

http://on-msn.com/11CzCPW

MY FAVORITE LOGO - COKE

TREY SPEEGLE continues our series of reflections by artists and designers on their choice for the perfect iconic symbol.

I know. It’s too obvious, right? I couldn’t help but choose Coca-Cola’s logo, for multiple reasons.

I’d like to buy the world a Coke
First, it’s known as soda pop, and no logo is more pop than Coke.Coca-Cola is pop. I didn’t know this until I did a bit of research, but based on Interbrand’s polling for Best Global Brand in 2011, Coke is the world’s most valuable brand; I believe it is also the most recognizable one in the world as well. By the law of pop-culture transitive properties, then Coca-Cola is the best logo. Ever. Right?
     I’m a former magazine creative director who never studied design but ended up teaching both it and logo design, so I can speak with mock-authority. I have made a study of what makes a good logo, and I’ve designed a few myself (including the original branding for Bliss Spa, among others…) But nothing can compare with the Coke’s instant recognition on planet Earth.

Hang it on your wa-ho-ho-hol
Andy Warhol realized this instinctively when he decided to make paintings of Coca-Cola. In the same vein as his more famous Campbell’s soup can paintings, he repeatedly (and repeatedly) used the Coke bottle as his subject. I’m not sure whether at a distance of half a century and millions of collective years of brand indoctrination we can fully appreciate what a cracked idea this was in the 1960s. A painting of soda pop, with a logo? Whether he was the first or not, most people then, perhaps even today, would say, “That’s just stupid.”
     Recently, a single Coke bottle painting with a cropped Coca-Cola logo in black on white sold at auction for $33 million. Was this astonishing price the raw power of the Coca-Cola brand? Or Andy Warhol auction fever? Or the two combined? I’m pretty sure no single company logo ever sold for more—unless you got the whole company with it. Incidentally, when Coca-Cola decided to do a book about its 125-year history, out of the countless ways its brand had been represented over more than a century, what single image do you think landed on the cover of that $650 coffee-table monster? A Warhol.

It’s the real thing
The Coca-Cola logo was created in 1885 by Frank Mason Robinson, bookkeeper to Coke’s founder John Pemberton. You can look up the rest of the history and evolution of the Coca-Cola logo and bottle, if you’re interested. I won’t bore you with the details here. Its origins were not that special, really. So why is it indellibly etched on our collective retinas? It may be only through all the sheer repetition and marketing on such a massive global scale that Coke has stayed on top. (Sorry, Pepsi. You can sponsor all the Super Bowl half-times you want; you’ll never make a dent in Coke’s dominance.)
     When wwword asked what my favorite logo was and I said Coke, I was then asked if I drank it as a child. Well, believe it or not, my mother put in in my baby bottle. I’d say my love of Coke started pretty early. So now I can truly say, I am a child of POP.
—TREY SPEEGLE

http://wwword.com/3164/featured/my-favorite-logo-3/

CHARLES LUTZ @ THE ARMORY SHOW

My friend, the brilliant, young artist Charles Lutz has got something for you. His installation at The Armory Show, which opens tomorrow in New York at Pier 94, is hundreds (1500 to be exact) of stacked, cardboard Brillo boxes from his Warhol denied series. Each day visitors are allowed to take a box, yes, FREE OF CHARGE. 

How's that for a rarity in the art world? Something for nothing.

Check out his other work.... and remember that name. http://www.charleslutz.com

A few hundred Brillo boxes "backstage", waiting to be installed at The Armory Show

Art is nothing if not political. Mayor Bloomberg and Co pose with the installation, prior to the opening

People lining up to take their Brillo boxes... and walking around the fair with them.

LITTLE COLLECTOR PRINTS

GIVE ME A 'Y'. WHY?: Art consultant Yolande Whitcomb's favorite things in Cosmo (including my alphabet prints for Little Collector)... http://www.littlecollector.com/view-all-art/trey-speegle.html

COLOR-BY-NUMBER OSCAR BALLOT

Here's the PBN Oscar placemat/ ballot I made for my caterer pal Mary Guliani's party, in the Huffington Post today ... 

http://huff.to/ZwJ8mM

Click on the image below to download an 11 x 17" PDF of my Oscar Color by number placemat/ ballot for your own Oscar party.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

One is loved because one is loved. There is no reason needed for loving. -Paul Coelho

Trey Speegle,  SEND YOUR LOVE, 2007, 24 X 24", vintage paint by number "tiles", acrylic on vintage paint by number panel in vintage frame, private collection

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO WONDER...

Today, it's finally OUT.  The World According To Wonder, the 400 page, 50,000 word history of the last 21 years of World of Wonder Productions. I played a small role in the art direction of the book, as WOW's founder, Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato and I are old friends and they asked me to help out. As well, they included me in the some 250+ original portraits mostly shot by the fab duo of Idris + Tony, over the last 3 years.

I couldn't be happier for them that the book is being SO well-received ... but why wouldn't it be? There's a LOT of love for these two, from the hundreds of productions and people they've chronicled through the years, as well as from the general public that is now finding out about them through their well-known productions, like RuPaul's Drag Race, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Party Monster, Becoming Chaz and on and on...

Available today on Amazon... 

http://amzn.to/XZwbeL

TREY SPEEGLE, Artist 

A canvas print of his paint-by-number YES painting, originally created for Stella McCartney, hangs in our office to bring positive vibes to our meetings and - hopefully - turn NO (we won't be in your show) into YES (we live for the opportunity!)

Photographed by Idris + Tony, at home, Meatpacking District, New York City

May 25, 2010, (from The World According to Wonder, out February 5, 2013)  

TS PHOTOGRAPHY

These are photographs, circa '79-80, from my class assignments when I studied photography at The Glassell School in Houston. I was very influenced by Guy Bourdin & Helmut Newton at the time, which perplexed my teachers... they didn't know what to make of this work. Years later, neither do I... After one class, I remember, I went over the CAM (The Contemporary Arts Museum) across the street to hear a talk by a young photographer who was showing her work there for the first time. After the talk, I asked if I could photograph her outside... her work had to do with self-portraits. I shot a black and white roll of 36 on her for about 15-20 minutes. She was really nice but quiet and kind of shy. It wasn't my camera and I wasn't really sure of aperture settings and they came out all over-exposed. The photographer was Cindy Sherman... you'll have to take my word for it, no photographic proof.