Matt Starr (visual artist)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Matt Starr
Known forExperimental art and film
Notable workMy Annie Hall (2018)
Websitematt-starr.com

Matt Starr is an American visual artist, poet, conceptual comedian, and experimental filmmaker known for his provocative viral works.

Early life[edit]

Starr obtained his BFA in studio art and a minor in Swahili from the University of Indiana.[1]

Art career[edit]

In 2015 Starr created and marketed a line of clothing called "Babycore" inspired by outfits he wore during his early childhood.[2] This trend quickly went viral and inspired Jeremy Scott's Fall/Winter 2015 ready to wear collection and Miley Cyrus's BB Talk (2015) music video.[3]

In 2016 Starr enacted and documented the performance piece "Amazon Boy," which was included in the piece of "Art on Amazon" in the March 2020 issue of Art in America.[4]

In 2017 to celebrate the fortieth birthday of the film classic Starr along with theater director and his artistic partner Ellie Sachs did a truncated remake of Woody Allen's "Annie Hall' with a cast of octogenarians from the Lennox Hill Neighborhood House.[5] The idea for the project arose from Starr's relationship with his grandmother in whom he noticed a measurable cognitive decline due to alzheimer's. Allen himself approved of the project and even suggested other films to be remade.[6] The effort was funded with a Kickstarter campaign.[7] In Starr and Sachs' version of the film Alvy Singer is played by the then 94 year old Harry Miller a designer for TV and stage who won two Emmy's during his career for his work on the CBS soap opera Guiding Light.[8][9][10]

In April of 2018 Starr and Ellie Sachs created the instillation "The Museum of Banned Objects", in the gallery at Manhattan's Ace Hotel, sponsored by Planned Parenthood, in a commentary on access to birth control.[11]

In 2020, during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Starr and Sachs founded the Long Distance Movie Club, "a virtual movie-watching group that meets every two weeks in an effort to not only engage seniors in a sense of community but also to help them find some escapism in the midst of self-isolation."[12]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Magazine, The Editors of New York. "Matt Starr, Studio Art B.F.A. Alumnus one of fifty artists to create cover art for New York Magazine: 2018: News: Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design: Indiana University Bloomington". Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design. {{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  2. ^ "Forget normcore. Meet babycore, the clothing trend's juvenile counterpart". the Guardian. January 26, 2015.
  3. ^ "Babycore is the New Normcore". www.yahoo.com. 3 February 2015. Retrieved 2021-04-18.
  4. ^ America, Art in (March 5, 2020). "Photos: Art on the Amazon Company".
  5. ^ "Artistic Collaborators Remake 'Annie Hall' With a Cast of Retirees". The New York Observer. November 6, 2017.
  6. ^ Marotta, Jenna (March 2, 2018). "'My Annie Hall,' A Charming Short Film Starring Senior Citizens, Has Woody Allen's Blessing".
  7. ^ Leland, John (March 2, 2018). "The Woody Allen Reboot You Won't See at the Oscars (or Maybe Anywhere) (Published 2018)". The New York Times – via NYTimes.com.
  8. ^ "An "Annie Hall" for the ages: Seniors star in a remake of Woody Allen's classic". www.cbsnews.com. 2 December 2018.
  9. ^ Sales, Ben. "An 'Annie Hall' remake, starring two senior citizens". www.timesofisrael.com.
  10. ^ "Harry Miller follows Emmy's guiding light to Riverdale". The Riverdale Press. 17 November 2019.
  11. ^ Aylmer, Olivia (3 April 2018). "Inside the "Museum of Banned Objects," an Art World Answer to The Handmaid's Tale". Vanity Fair.
  12. ^ Bobb, Brooke (12 May 2020). "This Millennial-Founded Movie Club Is for Senior Cinephiles Living in Isolation". Vogue. Retrieved 2021-04-18.