Adam Handler became fascinated with art at a young age, inspired by his youth in his grandparents’ framing factory in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. “I not only observed everything from Picasso to Warhol but also saw the importance they had to the collectors and artists creating them—and it stuck,” says Handler. He studied art history and fine art at Purchase College and started his career shortly before graduation, yet Handler says it took him seven years of experimentation to come to his current style which he prefers not to label. “It’s extremely difficult for an artist to brand himself with a style,” he says. “Although I believe it’s important to develop your own brand, one never knows what the next canvas will bring.”
The Piece: “Boom Boom Girl,” oil stick on paper, $1,650
The Inspiration: This piece was a preparatory study for a large-scale work and an attempt to create a figure “that was uniquely mine yet at closer examination influenced by such artists as Dubuffet, Basquiat and De Kooning.” Find It: The Greenwich Exchange, 28 Sherwood Place
This year’s 19th annual Art to the Avenue runs from May 5 to May 30th. Judges included Robbie Kestnbaum (VP of the Greenwich Arts Council), Fereshteh Priou (artist & executive board member GAC), Dorianne Samuels (Bendheim Gallery Curator), Tatiana Mori (Bendhem Gallery Curator), Dinyar S Wadia (Principal and founder of Wadia Associates, LLC) Lisa Meipala Kennedy (Editorial Director, Serendipity), Francesca Pacchini (Deputy Art Director, Serendipity)
