BERLIN.- Renowned New York photographers Christopher Makos and Paul Solberg – The Hilton Brothers - will return to Berlin on August 31st, with an exquisite showcase titled “New York Stories” at the Waldorf Astoria in cooperation with Sleek Magazine.
The exhibition will feature portraits of iconic characters New York including such nightlife fixtures as Debbie Harry, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol.
Andy Dandy (2007), the key image of the exhibtion is part of a portfolio based on Makos’ legendary Altered image (1981) series of Andy Warhol paired with Solberg’s flower portraits from Bloom (2005).
The Hilton Brothers (2004) a Makos+Solberg collaboration, is inspired by the 1930‘s Siamese-twins vaudeville stars, the Hilton Sisters. As visual storytellers, they explore the freedom and parameters of collaboration, through a shared language spoken through their pictures and collage. Blurring and fusing two disparate styles, each of their collaborative works either subtly comments on the world today, or elides it. Their work has been exhibited internationally in museums and galleries, including La Casa Encendida (Madrid), Galerie Catherine Houard (Paris), Galerie Sho Contemporary Art (Tokyo), Christopher Henry Gallery (New York), Karl Hutter Fine Art (LA), and NSU Art Museum.
Christopher Makos was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, grew up in California, and moved to New York City after high school. During the 1970's and 80's, Makos traveled frequently with good friend and frequent portrait subject Andy Warhol. Makos works such as the Altered Image series (1981), along with the photos collected in Makos/Warhol (1987), are widely viewed as forming that era's most complete and compelling photographic record of Warhol and his milieu. Makos' works have been exhibited at galleries and museums worldwide, including The Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, The Tate Modern, London, The National Gallery, Washington, D.C., The Whitney Museum of American Art, and The Brooklyn Museum, New York. His work is in the permanent collections of The IVAM in Valencia, Spain, The Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid, and the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.
Paul Solberg studied Anthropology at the University of Cape Town, and traveled extensively through Bophuthatswana, Namibia, and South America before moving to NYC in 1996 from his native Minnesota. Solberg began his photographic career with his first published book, Bloom (2005), following Puppies Behind Bars (2006), Tyrants + Lederhosen (2011), Tattoos, Hornets & Fire (2012), and the monograph, Ten Years In Pictures (2014). First known for his acclaimed still life portraits, the same depth is seen in his human subjects, such as the portrait of Ai Weiwei (2008), and in his haunting portraits of the Armed Forces, in Service (2010), which resides in such collections as the Elton John Photography Collection. Solberg’s work has been exhibited internationally in museums and galleries, including: La Casa Encendida (Madrid), Subte Museum (Montevideo), Galerie Sho Contemporary Art (Tokyo), Galerie Hiltawsky (Berlin), Karl Hutter Fine Art (LA), Casa de Costa (NY), Peter Marcelle Project (NY) and Galerie Catherine Houard (Paris). Solberg lives in New York City.
