The Bootlegs are home made copies of work by more than 100 different contemporary artists. The series includes paintings, sculpture, photographs, drawings, collage, video, and other media.
Most of the paintings are created using a combination of collage and acrylic paint. This allows me to reproduce them quickly while maintaining the look of a hand-painted picture.
I usually sell this work outside on West 24th Street in Manhattan alongside galleries like Barbara Gladstone, Metro Pictures, Andrea Rosen, and Gagosian. Occaisionally I'll set up elsewhere. In 2004, I produced a series of Bootlegs of work by artists featured in the Whitney Biennial and sold them outside of the Whitney Museum during the opening week of the Biennial. Recently, I have begun to take the Bootlegs to art fairs around the world, including the Liste Art Fair in Basel, the Frieze Art Fair in London, Art Basel Miami Beach, Scope art fairs in London, Miami, and the Hamptons, Flash Art Shows in Bologna and Milan, art LA, and the Nova Art Fair in Chicago.
Like the vendors of bootleg CDs and handbags, I sell my pieces at a fraction of the prices charged by "legitimate" galleries. I originally thought most people buying the work would be people who couldn't afford to buy the real work. To my surprise, many of my clients have been art collectors who own work by the artists I'm copying.
I've met many of the artists I've copied while I've been out selling paintings on the street. Most of them have been supportive. So far I've only had a few artists demand that I stop selling my Bootleg versions of their work. In the fall of 2005, they tore down the garage where I used to sell my Bootlegs to build a new gallery building. I moved across the street, but after a few weeks an art dealer with a gallery near my new location called the cops to evict me. Apparently, he felt I was a threat to his business. Click Here to read the full story. Since then, I've secured the necessary paperwork to return to Chelsea -- look for me on 24th Street on Saturdays when the weather is nice. If you can't make it to Chelsea, you can also if you are interested in purchasing any of the Bootlegs.
CLICK HERE TO SEE THUMBNAILS OF ALL THE BOOTLEGS
