HLK Art Group

02/04/2023

BIG BLING

Shining a light on this incredible work by Martin Puryear in recognition of . His 40-foot tall masterpiece titled BIG BLING debuted in in 2016 and traveled Philadelphia and . It was his largest public art piece to date. The curved tower is made of chainlink fencing and plywood and is topped with a shackle gilded in 22-karat gold leaf.

Through a minimalist lens, the artist adopts symbols associated with histories of freedom and enslavement. His work is rooted in the craft techniques of different communities which serves to confront contemporary political and social issues effectively merging with elegant craftsmanship. Brooke Kamin Rapaport stated, “For more than five decades, Puryear has created a body of work distinguished by a complex visual vocabulary and deeply-considered meaning.”

In 2019, Puryear represented the US at the 58th Venice Biennale. He was just the second African American artist to be awarded the role. He also represent the US in the 1988 Sao Paulo Biennale.



Photo: James Ewing. Courtesy of the Association for Public Art

01/21/2023

LUCKY🐇

Celebrating Lunar New Year with a very fitting work by the Chinese artist (born 1958).

Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads features large bronze statues of the twelve astrological signs. The work draws inspiration from the fountain clock at with sculptures designed by Italian painter during the China. 🇨🇳

In the Chinese culture, the rabbit is known to be the luckiest out of all the twelve animals. It symbolizes mercy, elegance, and beauty. People who are born in the year of the rabbit are calm and peaceful.

May your year be lucky and peaceful.
Gung hay fat choy!!! 🕊️☮️🕊️ 🎊🎊🎊🧧🧧🧧

Image Credit: via Princeton University
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12/25/2022

FURRY & BRIGHT ✨🙏✨
This holiday we welcome our newest family member—meet Duke, our Boston Terrier puppy! 🐶 Wishing our friends and family around the world a paws-itively healthy and happy holiday! 🐾🐾

07/19/2022

OPENING CREDITS🎊

So happy to have been invited back this year as guest curator for Kathryn Markel at her super charming eponymous gallery in Bridgehampton. Once an old parrish, years ago the entire building was picked up and moved across the street to its current location, rickety old wide plank floor boards and all. I was immediately drawn to it’s history and authenticity–great for intimate conversations around art! We had an amazing turnout at the opening with almost all the artists present👏.

Reclamation closes in 6️⃣ days so please stop by and see the show if you haven’t been already!📍 Markel Fine Arts in Bridgehampton. 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️🏃🏃‍♂️

A big THANK YOU to all my friends, colleagues and family who attended the opening on a hot summer day☀️. Special thanks to all the artists for their participation and involvement for which I’m eternally grateful 🙏🙏🙏

AND a very special thanks to Kathryn Markel! I am proud to say she's not only an incredible advocate of artists and the arts in general, she's become a dear friend too. I admire her encyclopedic knowledge of art and her infectious energy is undeniable. Kathryn - you are truly one-of-a-kind! THANK YOU!!

🌻For those who don't know, Kathryn’s
Hamptons gallery operated long before the art scene exploded during the pandemic opening it’s doors in 2010. She has championed artists around the East End and beyond from her Chelsea gallery since 1976. Her program has been unwavering and she has been an influential part of the Hamptons art community steadfastly helping to uphold its standards and unique artistic history. 💣

07/19/2022

06/28/2022

🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦
I’m thrilled to announce the opening of RECLAMATION, featuring 1️⃣4️⃣ Contemporary artists curated by yours truly.

🍷If you’re in the Hamptons please join us for a drink Friday for the Opening Reception 📆 July 1st, 5-8pm. 📍Markel Fine Arts, Bridgehampton 🌸

::The show was a result of thinking about the painful realities of the Ukrainian war, and the poignant idea of reclamation - reclaiming something lost, stolen, or forgotten, and returning it to a former or better state. It is evocative of not just notions of loss but also offers a semblance of hope in the current context of nonsensical atrocities. As such, the works can be viewed as subtle acts of bravery by each artist. The works present a unique interpretation of the idea of reclamation whether it refers to one’s freedom, an ancestral homeland, childhood or mother nature. 🇺🇦A portion of the proceeds will benefit Direct Relief to provide medical aid to Ukraine.🇺🇦

On view until July 25th.

For press, read innovateli.com/hamptons-art-exhibit-goes-to-war-brings-back-hope. Thank you

Featured artists include: .brownstein, , , , , , , , , , , , , and .

🦑Special thanks to our sponsor,, a Sag Harbor-based artisanal brewing company 🍻

05/19/2022

Frieze NY Picks💥💥💥

04/10/2022

ART TODAY🎯🎯🎯
The Whitney Biennial’s 80th edition opened this week and is a fascinating survey of contemporary art today in America. As I toured the museum I found it refreshing to see such a well curated selection of art together under one roof as well as exhilarating to see how artists have responded to these most difficult of times. 🎯 (get a glimpse of my faves in the REEL 👆)

Despite a year delay and other obstacles no doubt, I thought the curators and captured the cultural zeitgeist to present a poignant and pithy showcase of newcomers and veterans alike.🙌🙌🙌 I especially loved the fact they added their own symbol to succinctly sum up their vibe: )( , emphasizing the importance of openness and inclusion as the driving concepts of their curation.

the title, ‘QUIET AS IT’S KEPT’, a phrase borrowed from Toni Morrison aptly captured the vibe of the show speaking to the unspoken dark realities of recent years. 😶‍🌫️🌪

Be sure not to miss this one! 💪

🧑‍🎨👩‍🎨👨‍🎨






# DenyseThomasos

03/17/2022

ART FOR UKRAINE 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦
Next month, in an effort to raise funds for Ukraine medical relief, the indomitable will recreate her epic meditational piece originally performed at the Museum of Modern Art titled, ‘The Artist is Present’ (2010).

During Abramovic’s original legendary performance, she silently sat in a chair while museum visitors took turns sitting across from her (including yours truly) for eight hours a day. The performance lasted nearly three months, for a total of 716- and a-half hours. The experience, for me at least, was intense, raw and deeply moving. 🕉

The benefit performance will be held at on April 16. The lucky winner will not only experience transcendence with a master and be part of an historical moment but also have the experience documented by renowned photographer, , who painstakingly shot every sitting of Abramovic’s first performance.

online bidding is open now exclusively on Artsy🏓💪 (closing March 25th).🔗in bio 👆

🏥All proceeds from the benefit auction will support , which is working with Ukraine’s Ministry of Health and other groups in the region to provide requested medical aid from oxygen concentrators to critical care medicines.

📸 credit 😘 (me fangirling with Marina Abramovic☺️), ‘The Artist is Present’, 2010, MoMA.

02/11/2022

02/11/2022

BTS:::TEAMwork makes the DREAM work👯👯👯👯

Even a single art acquisition can entail a great degree of project management where the various phases of the workflow are meticulously choreographed and executed. The objective? 👉a beautifully installed work of art that inspires the owner every time they look at it.💘💘💘

Everyone from the artist, collector, gallery, designer, framer, art shipper/handler, installer, advisor and even the building supervisor plays a critical role. Like a well-oiled machine, each component needs to be in perfect synch in order for the acquisition to go as smoothly as possible and open communication is paramount. ⏰

I thrive on great teamwork and am so grateful that I can rely on my fellow art professionals for being punctual, responsible, outside-the-box problem solvers.🙏 📣📣 A big SHOUT OUT to all the committed industry folks out there who work tirelessly in making dreams come true. 🥂🙌🥂🙌

Of course, the client’s role is critical for success—their responsiveness, understanding and patience is always appreciated 🙏🙏.

Each player is essential for making the process flow seamlessly even when unexpected obstacles arise🚧 (global supply chain issues and framing delays anyone?)…and dare I say even make the most tedious moments fun!😎

📷👆 art acquisition professionally installed by the terrific art handlers at for a happy client 👏👏👏

🖼 !!! 🤩🦋🦋🦋🦋 PSSSTT, Be sure to check out this amazing artist. Sarah is one of the most talented artists to come on the scene. I haven’t been this excited since sliced 🥯🥯🥯🥯

🤳Swipe to see BEFORE and AFTER 💎

02/02/2022

COMEBACK📈
2022 may have gotten off to a slow start with Omicron hindering New Years eve plans (including yours truly. Thankfully we were all doing OK!) BUT the outlooks for this year continues to look rosy albeit flushed🥀.

So for the first post of the new year I’ll start by looking back at the art market, impressive as it was. 💪
2021 was a remarkable comeback year for the global art market where aggregate auction sales worldwide reached a new all-time high.

Last year we saw a new generation of buyers enter the art market at an alarming rate. The number of billionaires (many from Asia) rose 7% in 2020 due to the booming tech and crypto areas, with the wealth they held growing 32% over the year, according to Clare McAndrew, art economist.

She remarked, “From the buying side, there were a lot of people with a lot of time and cash, and there weren’t that many outlets for their spending.” As such, the global art market reached new heights with a record-breaking year. Global auction sales at Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips ended at $12.6 billion (up 70.2% from 2020). Read my market recap for last year for more insights full post on my Artwise blog. 🔗in bio 👆👆👆

12/26/2021

✨’TIS THE SEASON✨🎄🕯
As the holiday season is upon us, we find ourselves reflecting on the past year and those who have been supportive and kind. There is so much to be grateful for! We hope that 2021 was favorable for our friends, colleagues and loved ones. Wishing everyone a peaceful and restful holiday and a new year filled with belly laughs, long vaxxed hugs, and epic moments. 🎉🎊🙏

12/20/2021

👾MINTED👾
Partly out of curiosity and partly out of FOMO, I walked into 's NFT showcase which took place earlier this month. Not surprisingly, the MCH Group had jumped on the crypto bandwagon. Their marquee fair partnered with self-taught computer aficionado and AI art pioneer, , known for his work with neural networks, code, and algorithms, to create an interactive experience for fairgoers to make our own NFT artworks and help us dip our toes in the wonderfully cryptic world of crypto.

Quasimodo, as he likes to be called, created a mini arena around which people could walk in front of six animated AI-generated portraits of non-fictional characters ranging from a young southeast asian woman to an elderly blue-eyed caucasian male.
As I stood in front of each flat screen, a camera affixed above shot my photo and morphed it into a Bacon-esque portrait made by Quasi to create a one-of-kind AI avatar, or "generative art", a written code that produces images (just to make things more complex;)). Afterward I could choose to mint my creation as an NFT artwork on the open source, energy-efficient blockchain , which of course I did without hesitation. Had enough??

A meld of both , I found the resulting artwork to be both riveting and addictive--I couldn't help but make not one NFT artwork but all 6 NFT artworks (with some help from the staff LOL).....and , I not only walked away an but an . Who knew could be so...fun??

12/09/2021

MINDFUL METAVERSE 🪐🌍💻
What an honor it was to meet one of my spiritual heroes, the indefatigable many thanks to my brother from another mother and 🙏🙏🙏 We were fortunate to step off the ABMB express for a moment to partake in a talk about humanity and alleviating suffering followed by an enlightening group meditation appropriately held .
We left with a better understanding that we as humans must unite together to address the urgent issues putting humans and the planet at risk. ’s message was clear- LOVE is the basis of everything and art can play a meaningful part. ❤️
Through .seva, his and new NFT and metaverse platform, we can come together to build a more sustainable future💪 and why not use the metaverse as a mission-driven tool that’s built on empathy, integrity, and compassion and yes, ART too for community empowerment??
Much gratitude to and all those working to make this world AND the digital world, a better place for us all.
Thank you for your time and generosity to hold space for us and for spreading SO.MUCH.LOVE.🙏🙌

10/27/2021

MOTHER OF ABSTRACTION:: What is Essential is Not Visible ✨❕✨

Born this day, Hilma AF Klint would’ve been 159 years old today. She was a maverick painter, pioneer of modern art and early medium and mystic. Scholars now say invented abstraction too! 🔲

Over 60 years, she had produced 100s of works of art and 1000s of note pages outlining her artistic intentions resulting in one of the most remarkable oeuvres in history. Her strikingly original paintings have long been under-recognized and her ground-breaking work wasn’t shown 2018 when the Guggeneheim presented the first major solo exhibition for the artist in the U.S.. It was an incredibly fortuitous event as the artist herself had written that should her works ever be shown that it would have to be in an ascending spiral staircase—enter Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece🌀 😮

Born in Stockholm on Oct 26, 1862, Af Klint dedicated her life to making the invisible visible through the medium of art and was one of the earliest women to study at the Royal Academy of Arts in Stockholm. Considered an 'artist for the future', she was deeply influenced by spiritual movements and scientific discoveries of her era. Her goal was to express abstract concepts beyond what the eye can see. Her work easily preceded Vasily Kandinsky (b. 1866), Kazimir Malevich, Piet Mondrian, and others so I guess it’s possible to now call her the Mother of Abstraction. She kept her work from public life and stipulated in her will that her work not be shown for 20 years after her death (perhaps with the belief that her audience lived in the future?).

✅ Fun fact:: In 1906, she was commissioned to prepare "an artistic message for mankind" which subsequently became the basis of her life's work as she attempted to capture the spirit of the world and how the universe was put together, often resembling sacred geometric languages. She even created an entire library of ideas indexing her use of symbolism in the depiction of different forms and colors.

📷 Hilma af Klint, The Ten Biggest, No 2 1907, Oil and tempera on paper, 328 x 240 cm