Frank Holliday on New York's 1980s Art Scene and His Black Mirror Paintings

Artist Frank Holliday recounts his arrival in New York in 1977, the founding of Club 57 with Keith Haring, and his artistic evolution from black monochrome works to vibrant color fields. Holliday moved to New York on January 7, 1977, after studying at the School of Visual Arts. He met Haring at SVA and together with other artists like Kenny Scharf and Ann Magnuson founded Club 57 in a church basement at 57 St. Marks Place. The club became a hub for experimental art, music, and performance, operating without rules and attracting a diverse crowd. Holliday's Black Mirror series (1980) used black paint burned with a torch to create a reflective surface, later seen as a premonition of the AIDS crisis that devastated the community. He describes the East Village as a war zone in the 1970s, dangerous and dirty, but cheap rents allowed art to flourish. After the AIDS epidemic, his work shifted to white paintings expressing the light of death. Over decades, his palette expanded through study of color science, aiming to create visceral, luminous experiences. In 2016, Holliday lived in Rome, where he created a series of paintings for a solo exhibition at Museo Carlo Bilotti. The works were painted in a dark garage and feature pink and yellow light inspired by Rome. He cites Titian and Bernini as influences, and titles his works after songs, like TVC15 by David Bowie. The exhibition includes 36 large-scale paintings.