The National Arts Club in NYC Opens HALSBAND PORTRAITS

On Thursday April 2nd, the National Arts Club and its Office of Fine Arts, as directed by Dianne B. Bernhard, celebrated the opening of Halsband Portraits with a reception that was open to the public. The iconic collection of work from renowned American photographer, Michael Halsband will remain on display until April 25th and is free to the public.

Between 6pm and 8pm, guests including Jonathan Bricklin, Basquiat's sister Lisane, Sharon Bush, Angela Bernhard-Thomas, Dr. Alex Rosenberg, Maggie Norris, Franck Raharinosy, designers Maggie Norris and Lisa Jackson, artists Sid Kaplan, Anton Perich and Andrea Grover, and Eliza Callahan and Jack Staffen of songwriting duo Jack + Eliza, arrived at the historic location to view the collection and enjoyed wine and canapés.

The exhibition spans three decades of the artists work and includes two of the artist's never-before-exhibited works: a photograph from the Warhol-and-Basquiat-with-boxing-gloves series and an up-close 35mm film of The Rolling Stones' Live Performance during their Tattoo You tour.Hisphotographs depicting a canon of 20th century artists, writers and musicians, such as James Brown, David Byrne, Jim Carroll, Johnny Depp, Iggy Pop, LL Cool J, Klaus Nomi, R.E.M., The Rolling Stones, Hunter S. Thompson, Peter Tosh and AC/DC are also on display.

The exhibition marks the fourth installment of the Fine Arts 2015 program, under the direction of Dianne B. Bernhard, and it provides a contemporary compliment to prior shows, including the record breaking exhibitions: Charles James: Beneath the Dress,Dali: The Golden Years and Goya: Los Caprichos.

Additional guests included: Shane Anderson, Jersey Banks, Ted Beckstead Corinna Bidasio, Roman Bidasio, Katarina Benzova, Todd Brent, Stephanie Bower, Dr. Joe Caraccillo, Tiffany Charles, Xavier Cuppo, Thomas Cooper, Elizabeth Cohen, Will Cruthers, Pascual Dey, Shaina Danziger, Greg Druskisky, Yuri Davidoff, Alison Chernick, Alessia Elysee, Montgomery Frazier, Becky Ginsberg, Byron Hero, Laura Hughes, Lise Junkel, Joel Kaye, Sid Kaplan, Ed Keating, Leslie Koot, Michael Komoski, Wes Horbatuck, Mathilde Laderud, Chloe Lebrun, Marc Lewinstein, Jospeh Licata, Cha Cha Lopez, Daphne McWilliams, Sarah Matheson, Yuko Matono, Sharon Middendorf, Ben Mindich, Mark Patrick, Adrian Panero, Stacey Platt, Lisa Phillips, Brent Richardson, Greg Rills, Jane Rose, Rick Roper, Cole Rumbough, Anna Saab, Jessica Saab, Andy Shaw, Payal Parekh, Lisa Phillips, Joseph Ruiz, Shelter Serra, Richard Sigmund, Beth Smily, Trevor Smith, David Stark, Erin Sullivan, Barbara Tate, Rick Temerian, Edward Vilga, Dale Westreich, Ronald Wohlman, Dr. Lila Wolf and Anron Xu.

The National Arts Club takes pride in presenting iconic artists and their works to a wide audience, fulfilling its mission to educate, engage, and enrich its circle of creative-minded individuals. The Club's monthly Salon will celebrate the remarkable works of Michael Halsband with the artist himself on April 12th.

Born and raised in New York City, Halsband attended the School of Visual Arts and began professionally photographing subjects including The Rolling Stones and Andy Warhol during this time. After graduating, he worked for Interview, Avenue and Rolling Stone while his portraits of various cultural trailblazers in this time included Kurtis Blow, James Brown, David Byrne, Joe Jackson, and Alan Vega, among others. For the last decade, Halsband has continued to create 8 x 10 portraits of prominent artists, friends, and creative professionals.

For more information please visit www.nationalartsclub.org or call Office of Fine Arts at The National Arts Club on (212) 475-3424.