In the early 1980s, Hambleton was New York City’s precursor to Banksy, a rogue street artist whose silhouette paintings haunted the sides of Manhattan buildings. Like so many others of his time, he fell victim to drug addiction as his work continued to rise in both demand and value. He is still living and making work in the Lower East Side.
Guests spanning the film, fashion and art milieu celebrated Richard Hambleton’s legacy, including: Michael Avedon, Katya Bankowsky, Ann Dexter-Jones, Logan Horne, Young Kim, Rick Librizzi, Josh de Lisser, Maripol, Clara Mathilde McGregor, Eric Mitchell, Mia Moretti, John Newsom, Meredith Ostrom, Michael Phelan, Sophie Plimpton, Polina Proshkina, Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld, Eniko Mihalik, Julia Restoin Roitfeld, Micol Sabbadini, Eve Therond, Nora Vai, Ouattara Watts, Tyrone Wood
Richard Hambleton was born in Vancouver in 1954, currently living and working in the Lower East Side of New York City. He is the surviving member of a group of emerging artists from the 1980s including Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. His earliest notorious works are from the “Image Mass Murder” concept between 1976-79 on the streets of 15 major cities in the US and Canada, and his “Shadowman” paintings across hundreds of buildings in New York City, Paris, London, Rome and the Berlin Wall. Hambleton’s work has been shown internationally, in the Venice Biennale in 1984/88, and in numerous permanent collections including MoMA. He is represented by Andy Valmorbida and frequently shown at Woodward Gallery in New York.
Andy Valmorbida is the lead investor for the film Shadowman, a curator and entrepreneur, closely tied to the artist Richard Hambleton and his work. Valmorbida’s career re-focused from finance to the arts in 2006. Known as the pioneer of the art gallery pop up, Valmorbida held over 45 pop-up exhibitions in 12 different countries and has collaborated with the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the Serpentine Gallery, Phillips, Belstaff, Puff Daddy, Jimmy Iovine, Bombardier Aerospace, Amfar among many others. In 2009, Valmorbida and Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld collaborated with Giorgio Armani on the exhibition “Richard Hambleton – New York” where thirty five pieces of Hambleton’s work spanning from the early 80s to the present were shown side-by-side, and all works sold.
Nemo Librizzi is a New York arts and cultural icon, curator, artist, filmmaker, DJ and advisor. He is the son of the artist, poet and art dealer Rick Librizzi, a contemporary of Warhol, Basquiat, Haring and Schnabel. Nemo is a long-time collaborator with Andy Valmorbida, curating multiple pop-up gallery shows and making the first introduction to the artist Richard Hambleton. Librizzi is credited as a creative consultant on major projects including Jim Jarmusch’s films Ghost Dog and Broken Flowers, among others. Nemo is the Cultural Director of the art program at San Remo Café.
Oren Jacoby has directed award-winning documentaries including: My Italian Secret, Constantine’s Sword, and the Academy Award®-nominated, Sister Rose’s Passion, winner of Best Documentary Short at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2004.
