Between the Keys, 2023, oil on canvas, 91 x 121 cm, 4-19-23-Free Stone 

(STONE HARBOR, NJ) -- Mark Kostabi: The New Direction houses an unparalleled collection of original artworks by celebrity superstar Artist Mark Kostabi. These works will be on exhibition and available for acquisition in a limited engagement May 25-29, 2023 at Ocean Galleries, Stone Harbor’s premier Fine Art Gallery. Rare in person Meet-the-Artist appearances have been announced: Saturday, May 27 from 6:00pm-9:00 pm & Sunday, May 28 from 6:00pm-9:00pm in the evening.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet the Contemporary artistic legend Mark Kostabi and experience this newly curated body of work, which is nothing short of extraordinary. Mark Kostabi: Fine Artist, Composer, & Pop Culture Icon. His world-renowned works are housed in over sixty of the world’s most venerable Museum Collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome, and the Groninger Museum in Holland.  Kostabi is unquestionably one of the most important post-Modernist visual artists & Kostabi pioneered the space in which Fine Art meets Pop Culture: Kostabi World.  He has designed album covers for Guns 'N' Roses, The Ramones & Jimmy Scott as well as the Iconic 1980’s Bloomingdales shopping bag.

All appearances are complimentary and open to the public with RSVP’s strongly suggested at www.oceangalleries.com or 609-368-7777. You do not want to miss this. The gallery, located at 9618 3rd Avenue in Stone Harbor accepts private viewings by appointment.

Afternoon Ecstasy, 2022, oil on canvas, 71 x 71 cm

A staunch supporter of figurativism, Kostabi once stated:  "No matter how brilliant, amusing or intelligent the creek of abstraction, Dadaism, Minimalism and Conceptualism of the 20th century was, it didn't much affect the historical river of figuration".  The Artists’ distinctive style carries vestiges of both Giorgio de Chirico and Fernand Léger. Kostabi himself summed up his art as "simplified faceless protagonists in narrative contexts that are universally relatable".

Retrospective exhibitions of Kostabi's paintings have been held at the Mitsukoshi Museum in Tokyo (1992) and the Art Museum of Estonia in Tallinn (1998). The famous Italian art historian and curator, Vittorio Sgarbi, curated a vast exhibition of 150 Kostabi paintings at the Chiostro del Bramante in Rome in 2006.

His permanent public works include a mural in Palazzo dei Priori in Arezzo, Italy, a large bronze sculpture in the central square of San Benedetto del Tronto, Italy, a bronze portrait of Pope John Paul II in Velletri, Italy and large bronze sculpture in Largo Villa Glori, Terni, Italy.

Mark Kostabi. Photo by Jean Kallina 

Certainly  one of the most prominent figures in the Art World: Kostabi is the subject of numerous documentary films, most notably Bottom Line: The Kostabi Phenomenon directed by Peter Bach, Con Artist directed by Michael Sladek, and Everyone - Jedermann directed by Paul Tschinkel. Full Circle: The Kostabi Story, directed by Sabrina Digregorio, My Italy, directed by Bruno Colella. Kostabi has a prominent role in the Emmy award winning documentary The Art of Failure: Chuck Connelly Not for Sale directed by Jeff Stimmel.

Kostabi has been profiled on 60 Minutes, Eye to Eye with Connie Chung, A Current Affair, Nightwatch (with Charlie Rose), The Oprah Winfrey Show, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, Nonsolomoda, West 57^th, Between the Keys, CNN, MTV and numerous television programs throughout Europe and Japan. In print he has been featured in The New York Times, People, Vogue, Architectural Digest, The Face, Playboy, Forbes, New York Magazine, The Sunday Telegraph, Domus, Corriera Della Sera, Panorama, Artforum, Art in America, ARTnews, Flash Art, Arte, Arte In and Tema Celeste. The many books published about Kostabi include Sadness Because the Video Rental Store Was Closed, Kostabi: The Early Years, Conversations with Kostabi, The Rhythm of Inspiration, Mark Kostabi and the East Village Scene 1983-1987 and Mark Kostabi in the 21st Century.

New Worth, 2023, oil on canvas, 101 x 133 cm, 4-19-23-Free soiler