DMX and Aaliyah on 8th – 24″x36″ (sold)

DMX and Aaliyah on 8th

Oil on linen, 24″ x 36″, 2021, private collection

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The setting is a Mobil station on 8th Avenue at the corner of Horatio Street in the West Village. It’s a summer evening, near sunset. Featured is an interpretation of Alec Monopoly’s stylized black and white mural of DMX and Aaliyah. Here, the spotlight provides color to the otherwise grayscale portraits, which blend in with their surroundings. DMX’s intensity contrasts with Aaliyah’s cool.  There are a number of different spaces that surround the mural wall — Horatio Street on the left, the Mobil station in the foreground, and the Monopoly “scene” and back yard on the right.  There are a few color patterns.  Greens are repeated in the trees and potted shrub on the left, the dumpster in the center, and the trees and plants on the right.  Blues are repeated in the windows in the top left, the Mobile sign, the recycling bags, and the Monopoly scene.  Finally, reds are repeated in the buildings on the left, the Mobile sign, the man’s shirt, the lit bricks, and the folded umbrella.