See Inside the Sometimes Strange, Often Magical Studios of 10 of New York’s Most Famous Artists, From Cecily Brown to Julie Mehretu

For eight years starting in
2011, photographer Marco Anelli made pilgrimages to the studios of
some of New York’s greatest artists, camera in
hand. 

Training his lens on the diverse creativity that makes the city’s art world so special, he
captured everything from the late Joyce Pensato’s sprawling,
paint-stained enclave (which is every bit as weird and messy as her
work), to the bizarre creative space of Terence Koh, which is
covered in mirrors and waiting-room-white paint.

Now, the results of Anelli’s
work are captured in “Artist Studios New
York,” published this
spring by Damiani. The book features the studios of 43 famed
artists, including Alex Katz, Joan Jonas, and Jordan
Wolfson.

“Since their earliest days,
artist studios have been defined by their isolation from the
outside world,” Anelli recently told CNN.
“And us photographers love to capture things others can’t
access.”

For those in love with the
mythic lore of the artist’s studio, where cigarette smoke dances
and unbridled creativity flows like wine, you’ll get your fix in
Anelli’s book, which includes images of Jonas Mekas’s bohemian,
book-filled den and the spooky, still-untouched studio apartment of
legendary writer William S. Burroughs. 

But for the most part, the
studios look more modern, more real: they’re spacious and
industrial, and often filled with assistants and rows of shelves.
Often, they are simply in an artist’s apartment. 

The most memorable studios are
those that look exactly like what you’d imagine.
Banks Violette’s workspace looks
like the aftermath of a metal show in a mechanic’s garage. Kiki
Smith’s space is filled with feathers and twigs. Ryan Sullivan’s
studio is so splattered with paint, that he dons a hazmat suit when
he works.

Born in Rome, Anelli lives and
works in New York. He is perhaps best known for his official
portraits of the subjects that sat across from Marina Abramović
during her landmark 2010 performance piece, The Artist is
Present, at the Museum of Modern Art. More than 1,600 of those
photographs were collected in “Portraits in the Presence
of Marina Abramović,”
published by Damiani in 2012.

See more images from
“Artist Studios New
York”
below. 

The post See Inside the Sometimes Strange, Often Magical
Studios of 10 of New York’s Most Famous Artists, From Cecily Brown
to Julie Mehretu appeared first on artnet News.