Stephen Romano Gallery - Paul Booth "Selected Works"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Paul Booth "Selected Works"

March 2 2016 - March 29 2016 
Opening reception March 2, 5 - 9 pm, the artist will be present

This exhibition opens concurrently with "Matthew Dutton: Midnight Paracosm" and the group exhibition "Saint Bowie"

Stephen Romano Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of works by renowned American tattoo artist and painter Paul Booth.

Paul Booth "The Glutton King" 2010, Oil on Board, 24 x 30 inches

Tattoo artist, sculptor, painter and filmmaker – Paul Booth combines his many passions with his exceptional capacity to transform horror and the macabre into dark art that inspires.

Best known for his 21 plus years of tattoo experience, Paul began honing his craft at the age of 21 in Butler, NJ. Since then, he has gained a cult following that includes heavy metal rockers, actors, musicians and fans, who wait over three years for an appointment. This following, along with artworks that speaks for themselves, has lead Rolling Stone Magazine to dub Paul “The New King of Rock Tattoos.” His celebrity clientele includes names like Greg Allman, members of Slayer, Slipknot, Pantera, Down, Lamb of God, and many more.

Paul Booth "Dominus Muscae" 2011, Oil on Board, 30 x 30 inches

In addition to tattooing, Paul has gained acclaim for his dedication to the evolution of his craft and his efforts to elevate the medium into the realm of fine art. This devotion and enthusiasm has given Paul the noted distinction of being the first tattoo artist ever inducted into The National Arts Club (NAC) – the oldest and one of the most respected art institutions in the United States today.

Paul Booth "Parasite" 2004, Oil on Board, 24 x 48 inches

In an effort to combine his many passions, Paul founded The Last Rites Tattoo Theatre and Art Gallery in Upper Chelsea, Manhattan in 2006. This legendary location blends the ominous, haunting atmosphere of a Paul Booth tattoo studio with a Fine Art gallery displaying a unique collection of dark painterly works. Described by Paul as “a surreal ride into the dark side,” a trip to Last Rites brings guests in contact with some of the finest tattoo artists from the four corners of the earth (including Toxyc [France], Little Dragon [China], Stefano [Peru] and a consistent roster of internationally acclaimed guest artists), and exposes them to an ever evolving collection of paintings, sculptures and instillations (featuring works by highly accomplished painters, such as HR Giger, Michael Hussar, Chet Zar, Shawn Barber and David Stoupakis). Together, the tattoo studio and art gallery bring emotionally intense and profound visual content that submerges the viewer in a distinctive creative atmosphere commanding the senses and moving them to the core.

Paul Booth "Life Sentence" 2004, Oil on Board, 22 x 48 inches

In 2000, Paul co-founded an international charitable art organization called The ArtFusion Experiment (AFE) with world-renowned peers, Filip and Titine Leu. In association with The International Child Arts Foundation (ICAF), AFE is devoted to bringing art to underprivileged children from around the world. This tattoo-centric art movement focuses its energy on a unique collaborative art concept and demonstrates the strength of the contemporary tattoo artist’s ability to work together as a community. This aspect of AFE allows artists to put their egos aside and collaboratively fuse their individual styles to achieve unequaled works of art. It also gives the artist the opportunity to be both a student and a teacher simultaneously. This unique nature of AFE provides artists from around the world a chance to work together to create a single piece.

Paul Booth "Fools Paradise" 2011, Oil on Board, 24 x 30 inches

Always searching for new ways to express himself and reach fans globally, Paul made his directorial debut in 2007 with a documentary chronicling the work of AFE. “The ArtFusion Experiment” took home the honor of Best Feature Documentary at The Newport Beach Film Festival. Paul’s second film, the experimental pseudo-documentary “Paul Booth's Last Rites: Volume I” deftly illustrates his unique twisted vision. The film provides a closer look into the process of Paul’s art, and a glance into the lifestyles that surround him.

For further information or visuals please contact Stephen Romano Gallery romanostephen@gmail.com or 646 709 4725

About Stephen Romano Gallery

Stephen Romano Gallery is a new addition to the Brooklyn art gallery community, having opened its doors in April of 2014 in Dumbo and having relocated to Bushwick in September 2015.

Prior to opening the current gallery, Stephen Romano was a private art dealer for 15 years specializing in masters of self-taught and visionary art such as Henry Darger, Martin Ramirez, Charles Dellschau, Bill Traylor, Darcilio Lima, and many others. The Gallery's most recent exhibition El Gato Chimney’s “De Rerum Natura” was well received and reviewed, as was the preceding exhibition "Trypophobia" by Colin Christian. Stephen Romano Gallery also mounted the most ambitious exhibition of works by pictorialist photographer William Mortensen to coincide with the release of the book "American Grotesque" published by Feral House.

Stephen Romano has been a participant in many art fairs including PULSE, The Metro Show, and the Outsider Art Fair.

In 2013, Stephen Romano produced a seminal 330-page monograph on visionary artist CHARLES DELLSCHAU designed by Marquand Books and distributed by DAP. The book generated several positive reviews from a wide variety of publications such as Bookforum, Raw Vision Magazine, The Atlantic, Slate, Antiques, and the arts and Design Observer, among many others. With an introduction by Stephen Romano, the book features the final published essay by renowned art writer Thomas McEvilley, as well as contributions from the founder of The Museum of Everything, James Brett, and the curator of Smithsonian Museum of Aerospace, Thomas Croutch.

In the same year, Romano also published the first ever post-mortem catalog of works by Brazilian visionary Darcilio Lima and most recently a catalogue of an previously unknown photographic series from 1925 by William Mortensen entitled "A Pictorial Compendium of Witchcraft," with an introduction by A.D. Coleman and essay by Tom Pattersen. Most recently, Stephen Romano Gallery had the honor of publishing a catalog of works by Pavel Kraus with an essay by David Ebony, as well as a catalog for Chinese artist Lu Zhang with essay by Robert C. Morgan. In 2015, the gallery produced a catalog of the "TRYPOPHOBIA" exhibition by Colin Christian with texts by Kris Kuksi, Allison C. Meier and Samuel D. Gliner. The most recent catalog was the gallery published was on Italian artist El Gato Chimney with texts by Martin Wittfooth, Pamela Grossman and Michela D'Acquisto.

In the summer of 2015, Stephen Romano curated the highly acclaimed exhibition "Opus Hypnagogia" at Brooklyn's Morbid Anatomy Museum. The exhibition was featured in the New York Times, as well as Juxtapoz Magazine, Hi-Fructose, Beautiful Bizarre, Brooklyn Magazine, among many others. This exhibition was followed up in the new Bushwick gallery with "Lexicon Infernali" and a solo show by Rithika Merchant and "Magica Sexualis" and a solo show by Los Angeles artist Jel Ena, and "Charles Dellschau: American Visionary", the third ever solo exhibition of this seminal outsider artist ever organized and "Hieroglyphica" a companion group exhibition.

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contact romanostephen@gmail.com or 6467094725 for inquiries