Photos: Tony Shalhoub, Ellen Burstyn, And More Attend Joseph Feury's Humanitarian Aid Art Opening

Many movie world favorites came out to support artist Joseph Feury and Ukraine as he revealed his humanitarian aid exhibit in New York City. See photos of guests including Ellen Burstyn, Elaine May, Jeannie Berlin, Taylor A. Purdee, Candice Bushnell, Tony Shalhoub, John Donchak, Dinah Manoff, Susie Essman, Joy Behar, Ed Bianchi, Marlo Thomas, and Brenda Vacarro, as they step out to support the Oscar-winning artist.

In 1987 Joseph Feury won the Academy Award for the seminal documentary "Down and Out in America." Directed by wife Lee Grant, the film is a portrait of homelessness and economic divide during the Reagan years. Last week he turned his artistry once again towards a humanitarian cause. Working as Joseph Fioretti, he filled multiple rooms at the Ukrainian Institute with original works of art including portraits of famous friends, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and mixed media. 100% of proceeds from the show will go to support Ukrainian relief efforts. 

Married to groundbreaking actor/director Lee Grant, Feury is no stranger to political action through art. On the heels of her first Oscar nomination in 1952, Grant was blacklisted from Hollywood. Returning to the screen after the fall of HUAC, Grant went on to become a favorite figure of New Hollywood, winning the Oscar in 1976 for her role in "Shampoo." Pivoting from her Oscar win to directing, she and Feury created an incredible run of documentary films exploring domestic violence, the women's penal system, and the Trans experience of 1980's America, eventually climaxing in an Oscar for "Down and Out in America," and a series of fiction adaptations of their documentaries. In recent years these films have been re-released by Hope Runs High and subsequently rediscovered by a new generation. More of Feury's films have recently been restored by The Academy and Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation and will be back on screens later this year.

The show is Fioretti•Family, Friends & Flowers, is on display at the Ukrainian Institute March 15th – March 29th. The stunning Upper East Side building is a work of art all its own, perhaps most recognizable as Sarah Michelle Gellar's lux and looming abode in "Cruel Intentions." 

Photo Credit: Gabe Boucher