Barbie: Mark Gleberzon’s suave new tackle the popular culture icon

Summarize this content material to 540 phrases Astronaut. Physician. Engineer. Chef. A recreation present host and a paratrooper. In accordance with Mattel, over the previous 64 years, Barbara Millicent Roberts has pursued greater than 200 careers. However in the case of visible arts, this bold gal higher referred to as Barbie has at all times been extra of a dilettante together with her easel and pottery wheel.Even with none recognizable expertise, Barbie has made her mark on the artwork world, holding the place of chief muse. Most famously, in what would develop into his final portray, Andy Warhol captured her blond likeness and clean smile in his signature Pop Artwork fashion. To be honest, Warhol’s 1986 portrait wasn’t really of the doll: she was a stand-in for fashionable jewellery artist BillyBoy*, who owned greater than 11,000 Barbies. Embracing camp and glam, BillyBoy* was the primary designer commissioned to create his personal fashions for Mattel: there was 1985’s modern and stylish “Le Nouveau Theatre De La Mode,” who wore a mini model of BillyBoy*’s luxe gold-chain necklace. In 1986, high-fashion “Feelin’ Groovy Barbie,” together with her stylish darkish sun shades, black nail polish and eye-poking shoulder pads, appeared like she tippytoed off the set of a Janet Jackson video.Like Warhol, Toronto mixed-media artist Mark Jeremy Gleberzon didn’t envision his Barbie portrait sequence in 2015 as an try to seize the doll’s likeness.A protracted-time fixture at artwork festivals and galleries, a lot of Gleberzon’s colour-soaked textual work and mixed-media works over the previous three many years have been ongoing research of a single object, resembling a Louis-style chair he inherited from his mother and father’ residence and a gown kind that reminded him of his mom. A lot of his artwork pays homage to the robust beloved feminine figures in his life, significantly his mother and his grandmother, who was additionally a painter.As a ’70s child, Gleberzon grew up with all of the acquainted pop-culture icons however remembers not taking part in a lot with the toys of the day. Nonetheless, as he started analyzing his artwork follow extra carefully, he realized that some pop influences had seeped in. After his first go to to Barbie Expo in Montreal, the place he spent six hours learning the greater than 1,000 dolls on show on the underground mall exhibition, he made a connection between the doll’s fashion and his grandmother.“After I take a look at photographs of her and her pals within the early ’60s, she definitely didn’t have the look of a Barbie,” he says. “However folks would tart themselves up with the bullet bras and the girdles even simply to buy groceries.”Shot largely in opposition to a white backdrop, Gleberzon started capturing Barbies of this period with their sultry eyes and Cupid’s bow lips. He took some photographs throughout that first go to to Barbie Expo, a must-see for any aficionado (although at present closed for renovations). Recognizing that Barbie’s zero-fat determine has been criticized for upholding not possible bodily beliefs, Gleberzon’s portraits function head photographs revealing solely her giraffelike neck.“This fashion you actually don’t have any sense what her physique is like,” he stated. “I believe it’s essential that the story is being instructed primarily together with her face. Barbie, over the many years, has at all times represented a mirror, or she’s held up a mirror to what’s occurring in present traits and popular culture.”One in every of Gleberzon’s earliest photographs, “Rose,” happened as a contented accident. Whereas capturing, he didn’t understand that his digicam was not correctly set. After tweaking the out-of-focus picture, Barbie’s blond tresses, peacock-blue eyeshadow and fuchsia lips have been nonetheless immediately recognizable regardless of the fuzzy blur. Some folks discover the sequence unsettling, however they’ve develop into a few of his hottest works.“I reinterpreted it as the thought of it being a mirage of reminiscences,” he stated. “It’s the concept that once we attempt to recall somebody from our previous, we are going to bear in mind the fundamental shapes and hues, however the fantastic particulars are at all times lacking.”Apart from his traditional Barbie portraits, Gleberzon added a Marie Antoinette-style picture sequence to the roster with candy-floss pink hair and a cheeky “Allow them to eat cake!” tattooed throughout the place her clavicle can be if she really had a skeleton. “Sugar’s Daddy” Ken additionally entered within the combine, with steely arctic-blue eyes and his personal chest patterned with tattoos that nod to the mythology and to components of the dolls’ historical past. Utilizing sketches and inventory imagery, Gleberzon labored with a digital artist to create the tattoo designs that seem on his hairless plastic chest.For these needing one thing edgier, there are a number of shimmering Barbie-on-Barbie nudes having fun with a enjoyable evening in. Gleberzon at present sells his work, prints and customized work by way of his web site, markgleberzon.com, however you could find his Barbie portraits at Collective 131 gallery within the decrease degree of the Holt Renfrew Centre till the tip of July. Like many people, he’s hopeful that the Barbie film hits the precise observe of “tongue firmly in cheek” that the early trailers promise. However will it imply extra curiosity in his photographs?“It’s like several sequence that an artist does. We are going to at all times discover an ebb and circulation when it comes to the way it’s embraced. I’m definitely hoping that this faucets into one thing and evokes that sense of nostalgia and folks wanting the embodiment of one thing that reminds them of their childhood,” stated Gleberzon. “I’m hoping my artwork will play into that and would be the embodiment of reminiscences.”SCSue Carter is deputy editor of Inuit Artwork Quarterly and a contract contributor based mostly in Toronto. Observe her on Twitter: @flinnflonSHARE:JOIN THE CONVERSATION Anybody can learn Conversations, however to contribute, you have to be a registered Torstar account holder. If you don’t but have a Torstar account, you’ll be able to create one now (it’s free)Signal InRegisterConversations are opinions of our readers and are topic to the Code of Conduct. The Star
doesn’t endorse these opinions.