INSIDE BENJAMIN BROUGHAM'S ADLER-FIED MINI-LOFT IN WILLIAMSBURG

Benjamin Brougham is the Director of Interiors for Jonathan Adler. For years now Jonathan Adler shops have sold my works on paper across the country, and Benjamin was once in charge of acquiring art, so we became friends. In 2013 he organized an exhibit of my work, called Pop Queen, in their London shop during the Queen’s Jubilee. His boyfriend at the time was in the House of Lords and commissioned a portrait of the Queen for the show, and for the opening he brought along Sarah Ferguson, the former Duchess of York. He’s now Jonathan’s right hand with regard to interiors, so when he scored a new flat (he’s British) in Williamsburg, it was a cinch to make it look like THIS in just two months. 

It’s not all Adler that you see but the sensibility is, since our man is in charge. Lot’s of vintage pieces mixed-in along with velvet chairs, a guest-friendly sofa and Adler’s iconic ceramics sourced from the brand’s collection. Have a look around.

(Photos, Maura McEvoy; via Design Sponge)

DRAMA AT MY HOLIDAY PARTY AT THE W UNION SQUARE! GUY IS EJECTED FOR COLORING OUTSIDE THE LINES!

So, doing collaborations for me now is like second nature at this point. I’ve done a backdrop painting for Stella McCartney in Paris, an exhibit for the Queen’s Jubilee in London for Jonathan Adler and a mural/ exhibit for the Newport Folk Festival for Squarespace in Rhode Island among others. This holiday I partnered with W New York Union Square to create a color by number from my #WithYouseries around their worldwide theme of #StopTheClock2016. I based the linework on their photo of word balloons that spell out the theme. I worked with my longtime assistant, artist Jamie Meehl & W’s Jessica Saraniero to create a postcard coloring project for the Living Rooms of W New York Union Square & Lexington Avenue locations, along with a giant partially colored mural on their Park Avenue facing windows. 

Last night, we had a fun holiday coloring party with a giant version for guests to paint. It was great fun. Champagne, food and lots of fun people; writer Christopher Mason, artist Mel Odom, photographer and Downtown diva Maripol, DJ of the moment Valissa Yoe, International Playground‘s Johnny Pizzolato, actors David Ilku & Ryan Landry, promoter Daniel Nardicio, Saks’ Tim Hemmeter, designer Katy K and too many more to list. You always try to invite a good mix of your friends, “influencers” and fun people and that's exactly what I got. One uninvited guest pushed past me, rushed the easel, grabbed a brush and paint and started attacking the painting! Jessica and I looked at each other, like “WTF!?”… I tried to get him to calm down and not go nuts but when he grabbed my friend Cameron‘s wine, slugged it down, I realized this was only going to get worse. So, security came and took him out in a quiet, respectful way. Most of the guests were unaware of what had just happened. Crisis averted, but EXCITING! As friend said later, 

“It’s not a party until someone gets kicked out!”

Party guests, along with hotel visitors, get a marker set and are invited to color in the postcard anyway they like. Once they decide it’s done, they post it on Twitter and Instagram with the hashtags & handles  @WNYUnionSquare @WVieques @TreyNYC #WithYou #StoptheClock2016. Yeah, I know it’s a lot of hashtags but here’s a payoff! The chosen winning post gets two nights at W Vieques in 2016. I’ll give you a chance to win here. Click on the line work below to enlarge and drag it onto your desktop to download and print it out. Follow the instructions and you really might win. Here’s a tip: not that many people have entered so far and “real creativity” might get you an edge. Be inventive about how you color it in and with what. If you’re having a holiday get together, print them out on card stock and have a group coloring event.

I made a limited edition of 61 signed #StoptheClock prints for the party guests last night, so we’ll keep an eye for people posting those as their own. Otherwise, knock yourselves out! Good luck! Happy 2016!

QUEEN ELIZABETH, NOW THE LONGEST REIGNING BRITISH MONARCH, IS ALSO "POP QUEEN"

Queen Elizabeth, the 89-year-old monarch of the British throne said the title was 

“not one to which I have ever aspired”.

At 17:30 BST she had reigned for 23,226 days, 16 hours and approximately 30 minutes – surpassing the reign of her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria. Prime Minister David Cameron said the service the Queen had given was “truly humbling”.

Dressed in turquoise with her trusty black handbag at her side, the Queen spoke briefly to the gathered crowds earlier.

“Inevitably a long life can pass by many milestones – my own is no exception – but I thank you all and the many others at home and overseas for your touching messages of great kindness”

The exact moment the Queen became the longest-reigning sovereign is unknown. Her father, George VI, passed away in the early hours of 6 February 1952, but his time of death is not really known.

Three years ago for QUE II’s 60th Jubilee, I had an exhibit at Jonathan Adler in London called Pop Queen. It has since occurred to me that she’s inspired a lot of work in her 60 plus years. Many painted portraits and photographs by some of the 20th century’s best; Snowdon, Beaton, Leibovitz, Condo, Freud. My portrait, below, was based on a rare 50s paint by number of the young Queen to which I added her nickname given by Private Eyemagazine; BRENDA. (The title is her actual full title.) Andy Warhol 70’s portraits along with The Sex Pistols’ classic album cover, God Save the Queen show what a great pop subject she can be.

Long live the Queen! That seems to have come true with this Queen.

Queen Liz today

Queen Elizabeth II, by Lord Snowdon, 1957

Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Beaton, 1968

Queen Elizabeth by Annie Leibovitz, 2008

George Condo’s 9 portraits of the Queen

Lucien Freud’s unflattering portait, 1999

Andy Warhol, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, 1985

Album artwork for seminal Sex Pistols album “God Save the Queen”, design by Jamie Reed

Trey Speegle, HER MAJESTY ELIZABETH THE SECOND, BY THE GRACE OF GOD, OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND, AND OF HER OTHER REALMS AND TERRITORIES, QUEEN, HEAD OF THE COMMONWEALTH, DEFENDER OF THE FAITH, ON THE OCCASSION OF HER DIAMOND JUBILEE, TWO THOUSAND AND TWELVE (The Eyes of Brenda Windsor), 2012

WE ARE NOT AMUSED: THE QUEEN DISSES HER PORTRAIT BY A GERMAN ARTIST

Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth IIwas presented with a portrait from German President Joachim Gauck during her state visit to Germany. On being presented with the painting by German artist Nicole Leidenfrost at the president’s official residence in Berlin, the Queen was heard to ask:

“Is that meant to be my father?”

“Don’t you recognize him?” Gauck enquired

“No,” said the 89 year-old monarch.

The queen was seen to look back and forth from the painting to Mr Gauck. She then laughed and asked.

“Have you seen the photo?” her majesty was heard asking the German President as she walked away.

The work was painted from this childhood photograph of the princess taken in 1935, on a horse lead by the reigns by her father King George VI. The painting with a blue horse and the young princess rendered in bright pink, and her father, the King, wearing a bright yellow riding jacket is “Impressionist-inspired”.

It has been questioned that two of the most successful living painters on earth, Gerhard Richter and Anselm Kiefer, are German, so why would this artist be chosen? –but to be fair, their interpretations might have been even LESS admired by the Queen. The snarky British press have had a field day with this story making fun but in an interview with Monopolo Magazin, the artist said she is not taking the mockery to heart;

“I’ve seen it, but i’m very relaxed about it. A lot of great artists, which cost millions today, were once attacked by the press—so I’m on the right track.”

Leidenfrost also added that the color she had chosen for the horse in her painting was a reference to the early 20th century German art group, The Blue Rider, which I suppose better that a Nazi reference.

Both the artist and the Queen have every right to stand their own ground. The painting is the painting, but the subject of it is now 89 years old, and given that it contains a representation of a king, who happens to be her father and she let her appreciation or lack thereof, be noted. The artist wasn’t present so, she was personally insulted but, if you take into consideration, it was an official presentation and that the British are notoriously polite, I feel you can take from the exchange that it’s safe to say that the longest reigning monarch on the British throne ever REALLY hated it.

So, it’s pretty safe to say this Queen would also HATE my portrait of her, as well. During her 60th Jubilee in 2012, I had an exhibit of my work with Jonathan Adler called Pop Queen and I created a portrait just for the occasion. The work, Brenda, based on a somewhat impressionist vintage paint by number from 1952 of the young Queen. Btw, this is the holy grail in the PBN collecting world and I’ve never even SEEN one. I once bid up to $5000 online for one while being filmed for a documentary, but I ultimately lost out. My work contains letters spelling out her given nickname. In the 70s, Private Eye magazine printed a story revealing the royals implausible made-up monikers, the Queen being BRENDA. Needless to say, I feel HRH QE2 might hate B–R–E–N–D–A very M–U–C–H. For the record, I am of German, English and Irish descent.

Trey Speegle, HER MAJESTY ELIZABETH THE SECOND, BY THE GRACE OF GOD, OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND, AND OF HER OTHER REALMS AND TERRITORIES, QUEEN, HEAD OF THE COMMONWEALTH, DEFENDER OF THE FAITH, ON THE OCCASSION OF HER DIAMOND JUBILEE, TWO THOUSAND AND TWELVE (The Eyes of Brenda Windsor), 2012, 36 X 48”, archival pigment, acrylic on canvas, private collection