Structured around the plot-line of a sexually frustrated private detective and his suspect - a 'sexually deviant' dentist - Matthew Brannon's arresting murder mystery first courted visitors at this year's Frieze Art Fair. His graphic body of work, which makes use of text and narrative and incorporates his trademark intermingling of print and sculpture, went on to sell out on day one. Now Brannon's tale is being played out in full in a show entitled 'Gentleman's Relish' at New York's Casey Kaplan. Told through silkscreen and letterpress prints, paintings and sculptures, together with collaborative artworks by designer Carlo Brandelli - it is once again giving visitors the chance to indulge in an old-fashioned spot of mystery-solving.
To navigate the show, you find yourself weaving through a graphic set of props, personas, sets, and scenarios, separated into three rooms within the gallery. The 'Adult's Only', 'Powder Room' and 'Police Station' - venues central to the story - are entered through a sculptural door, hand-painted in back-to-front signage.
Brannon invited designer and artist Carlo Brandelli to design two contrasting coats for the characters in the story. To give visitors a greater sense of the 'private detective' and the 'dentist', Brandelli has devised scents for each character, comprising notes of whisky and tobacco for the detective and mint and chloroform for the dentist - to be sprayed on the coats daily as part of the artwork. Little details like these, combined with Brandon's trail of clues along the way, result in a show that intrigues and puzzles in just the right balance.
Separated into three rooms within the gallery, the ’Adult’s Only’, ’Powder Room’ and ’Police Station’ venues central to Brannon’s tale are entered through a sculptural door, hand-painted in back-to-front signage
Courtesy of the artists and Casey Kaplan; Photograph by Cathy Carver/NY Photo
Installation view of the ’Police Station’ room
Courtesy of the artists and Casey Kaplan; Photograph by Cathy Carver/NY Photo
’Early Retirement’ by Matthew Brannon, 2011
Courtesy of the artists and Casey Kaplan; Photograph by Cathy Carver/NY Photo
’Horror Formal’ by Matthew Brannon, 2011
Courtesy of the artists and Casey Kaplan; Photograph by Cathy Carver/NY Photo
Brannon invited designer and artist Carlo Brandelli to design two coats for the characters in the story. To give visitors a greater sense of the ’private detective’ and the ’dentist’, Brandelli has devised a scent for each character, sprayed on the coats daily as part of the artwork. Pictured here is ’Murder Weapons’ by Matthew Brannon and Carlo Brandelli, 2011
Courtesy of the artists and Casey Kaplan; Photograph by Cathy Carver/NY Photo
Pegging the ’sexually deviant’ dentist suspect as the sort to fantasise about his uniform, Brandelli created a typical white dentist coat style garment, featuring a seam made from white medical tape, and a heady scent of mint and chloroform
Courtesy of the artists and Casey Kaplan; Photograph by Cathy Carver/NY Photo
Brandelli has also produced some hand-embroidered handkerchiefs for the coats
Courtesy of the artists and Casey Kaplan; Photograph by Cathy Carver/NY Photo
Laced with a scent containing notes of whiskey and tobacco, the detective’s dark trenchcoat was created as a stark contrast to the dentist’s, with the seams and detailing in blood red
Courtesy of the artists and Casey Kaplan; Photograph by Cathy Carver/NY Photo
’As it turns out...’ by Matthew Brannon, 2011
Courtesy of the artists and Casey Kaplan; Photograph by Cathy Carver/NY Photo
’Song & Dance’ by Matthew Brannon, 2011
Courtesy of the artists and Casey Kaplan; Photograph by Cathy Carver/NY Photo
ADDRESS
525 West 21st Street
New York
NY 10011
-
Earthscape Studio: an Indian architecture studio of elevated simplicityBased in India's Coimbatore, Earthscape Studio places craftsmanship, sustainability and a refreshing site-specific approach at its heart; resulting in designs that appear simple but unexpected, and elevated
-
Maserati unveils the Fuoriserie By Hiroshi Fujiwara MC20 Cielo modelHiroshi Fujiwara, the so-called Godfather of Streetwear, lends his talents to Maserati’s in-house bespoke division, creating a stylish take on the company’s open-topped supercar
-
Diffar is a new Japanese hair brand making perfume oil at the foot of Mount FujiDiffar, a newly founded Japanese beauty brand, creates perfume oils for hair in its Mount Fuji laboratory that are set to travel the world
-
Inside Luna Luna: the amusement park designed by artists lands in New York‘Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy’ – featuring rides by Basquiat, Lichtenstein, Hockney, Haring, and Dalí – has opened at The Shed
-
Henni Alftan’s paintings frame everyday moments in cinematic renditionsConcurrent exhibitions in New York and Shanghai celebrate the mesmerising mystery in Henni Alftan’s paintings
-
Brutalism in film: the beautiful house that forms the backdrop to The Room Next DoorThe Room Next Door's production designer discusses mood-boarding and scene-setting for a moving film about friendship, fragility and the final curtain
-
'There’s an anxiety under all of it': Violet Dennison in New YorkViolet Dennison debuts abstract paintings with new show 'Damaged Self' at Tara Downs Gallery
-
‘Gas Tank City’, a new monograph by Andrew Holmes, is a photorealist eye on the American West‘Gas Tank City’ chronicles the artist’s journey across truck-stop America, creating meticulous drawings of fleeting moments
-
Mark Armijo McKnight’s bodily landscapes capture the tactile serenity of the American WestThe artist’s new exhibition at the Whitney Museum, which is organised by the museum curator Drew Sawyer, offers a succinct window into his contemplative suggestion of queering a landscape
-
Dark, glamorous and hedonistic: a photography book captures New York in the 1990sNew York: High Life, Low Life, by Dafydd Jones, goes behind the scenes of New York society
-
Derrick Alexis Coard’s portraits are a sensitive, positive testimony to Black menThe late artist Derrick Alexis Coard’s retrospective ‘I Am That I Am’, at New York’s Salon 94, honours his ‘symbolic expression for possible change for the African-American male community’
