Lenox Lounge
Product Description
Lenox Lounge by Randy Hage
26″ x 20″ x 8.75″, 1/12th Scale Model, Miniature Sculpture, unit comes housed, framed and lighted
Material Used: Wood, Metal, Styrene, Glass, Paper, Cloth, Resin, Acrylic, Spray, Oil Paints, Water based and Petroleum based Adhesives
Lenox Lounge Storefront Address: 288 Lenox Ave, Manhattan, NY
Current Exhibition at Flower Pepper Gallery: Facade by Randy Hage from October 10th to November 18th, 2015
Previous Exhibitions at Flower Pepper Gallery:
- 3rd Year Anniversary Show from December 6th, 2014 to January 6th, 2015
- Group Show: Minuscule from May 3rd to June 6th, 2014
- Solo Show: Fleeting Moments – The Art of Randy Hage from October 5th to November 15th, 2013
- Solo Show: NYC Store Fronts by Randy Hage from May 19th to June 21st, 2012
Lenox Lounge, opened in the 1940’s and has housed the music of Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, and John Coltrane within its historic walls. However, after a doubling of rent costs shut it down in 2013, this Harlem venue tried to move locations but a lack of investors has put a halt on any plans to re-open. In Hage’s incredible replication of the Lounge, we not only see the threat to this venue and others like it, but we see glimpses of what it used to be in all of its Art Deco glory. You can almost imagine what it would be like to walk by at night and see the light glowing from the windows and hear the inspired music of the masters wafting down the street. In this way, Hage keeps the memory and spirit of The Lenox Lounge alive and allows us to imagine an era frozen in the past.
Artist Biography:
Visual artist, Randy Hage, has always been fascinated by the character and often overlooked beauty of aging structures. In the late 90s, he began photographing the cast iron facades in the SoHo area of New York as possible subjects for future art projects (The cast iron and brick structure on this site is a product of that original research). His interest soon moved to the unique street level Mom & Pop storefronts with their hand painted signs, layers of architecture, wonderful patinas and intriguing history.
As he continued to photograph these storefronts, it became clear to him that this was becoming more than an art project; it was becoming a documentary project as well. These neighborhood storefronts were closing at an alarming rate, falling victim to large-scale redevelopment that was exceeding a normal pace for neighborhood change.
Hage’s work not only seeks to preserve a vision of the past, but also to call attention to the loss of established and diverse neighborhoods as urban renewal and gentrification displace the store owners and the area residents who make up the tapestry of these communities. Over the past 12 years, Hage has photographed more than 450 storefronts and in that time, more than 60% of those have closed or have been torn down.
Hage’s storefront project reflects a love for these iconic structures, as well as a passionate interest in the communities that they serve. His sculptures represent more than fading facades, they honor the very soul of the city, its people.
Randy Hage has been creating sets, models, and props for the TV/Film and small-scale hobby industries for over 25 years. He is a former instructor at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, where he taught set and prop fabrication.
Artist Website: http://newyorkstorefronts.com
New Mini New Works by Jeremiah Moss at Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York Blog on September 14th, 2015: http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2015/09/new-mini-new-yorks.html
News & Articles About Randy and His Works:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/09/29/nyregion/album-storefronts.html?_r=0
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=9275290
http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2013/09/new-work-from-randy-hage.html
http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2013/09/10/its_a_small_world.php
http://gothamist.com/2013/09/10/photos_amazing_miniaturized_nyc_sto.php#photo-1
http://laist.com/2013/09/25/river_cats.php
Lenox Lounge on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenox_Lounge
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