Abelardo Morell Work Was Star of Pier 94 Photography Show

Abelardo Morell’s photography was a star of the photography show on Pier 94 this month. Cindy Farkas Glanzrock is a huge fan, and responsible for the Morell photographs you may see in your lobby. Every day she is looking for new talent as part of her job.

Cindy Glanzrock is such a New Yorker you could say Manhattan schist is her bones. Growing up in a fashion merchandising family – the name “Farkas” will ring a bell for those New Yorkers old enough to remember Alexander’s department store – she was exposed to architecture, design and culture from childhood.

A keen observer and art lover, she launched Glanzrock Curatorial Services, where she consults with real estate owners on art for their buildings. Her Building Art Curatorial Program (BACP) helps match art with real estate. Just as fashion brands need creative stylists, so do real estate owners. Glanzrock has built a reputation for curating and finding beautiful art to match handsome architecture.  

Her passion for art is practical and intelligent.  Two of her favorite photographers had work at the Photography Show /AIPAD, the photography and art exhibition at Pier 94 on 12th Avenue in NYC. The Cuban photographer Abelardo Morell is represented by the Edwynn Houk Gallery. The photo below was used as the cover of his 2018 book from Abrams, “Flowers for Lisa: A Delirium of Photographic Invention” 

Houk’s gallery represents another photographer Glanzrock likes, who also works with floral imagery, Sebastiaan Bremer. Bremer, who was born in the Netherlands, starts with a photograph, then begins a process of making marks, or sometimes peeling back layers of emulsion. His work is in the collections of the V&A, LACMA, MoMA and has been in a show at the Tate Modern. He has lived in New York since he was in his early 20s. Bremer’s work was at Pier 94 as well.

Glanzrock is also a fan of German photographer Georg Küttinger.  “I like the abstractness and infinity of his work,” she says. “I am about to place this at the Howard Hughes Corp. executive offices in New York.” While it may be hard at first to understand that this is a floral image, it is, in fact, tulips from a great distance.

This piece appeals to Glanzrock because it has a modern sensibility and is colorful, walking the line between real and imaginary. She originally saw Filler’s work at Sara Nightingale Gallery in Sag Harbor, New York which showcases emerging artists.

We are also fans of Filler’s work.  Filler says she is inspired by Marc Chagall’s quote where “art is the increasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers and never succeeding.”

“With my paintings, I do not wish to present the viewer with a realistic interpretation of the flower,” Filler said. “In fact, I have never created a painting from life. These floral landscapes are created in my mind. By blending colors and patterns into dreamlike images, my goal is to convey the impressions which flowers and nature leave behind in our memories. In creating these paintings I hope to evoke the same joy in the viewer that our experiences with flowers have brought to our lives.”

What a wonderful sentiment.

 – Jill Brooke