Tag Archives: Margaux Hemingway

Art Business

Instagram Graphic Novel Shines Critical Light on American Corporate Business

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Los Angeles born artist touches global nerve with endearing character who calls out polluters, chemical companies, and corrupt government officials.

SANTA BARBARA, CA (Sept. 1, 2016) — “The Creature NU” has blossomed into an international phenomenon on Instagram, currently considered leading social media outlet for the Arts. Los Angeles native, Metrov—painter, filmmaker, writer, & designer—chose Instagram to launch his sustainability awareness campaign. With strong support from #organicmoms and other eco-friendly groups, Metrov’s unorthodox tale has quickly garnered an army of passionate “Green” followers.

“For quite some time,” says Metrov, “I’d been looking for ways to integrate messages of sustainability into my work. I wanted to do my part as an artist. When Leonardo DiCaprio purchased an artwork on Instagram, the entire art world, it seemed, boarded the burgeoning social media platform. Artist Amalia Ulman’s make-believe Instagram story about a troubled Beverly Hills socialite landed her a show at London’s Tate Museum. I knew Instagram would be The Creature NU’s stage.”

   NU, a small, loveable, noble savage, embarks on a mission to Earth to “find out what’s gone wrong.” In the beginning, he discovers spectacular, natural grandeur. But as he travels across America, he falls ill from toxic drinking water. He witnesses the horrors of strip mining, morbid obesity, and land forever destroyed by oil production. He meets other creatures who tell him he must go to Wall Street to find the perpetrators. When he arrives, however, he’s taken in by a gang of uber rich, subterranean rats who secretly control the stock market. It’s not until he falls for the allure of materialism, acquires his own wealth, then becomes homeless and nearly dies from cancer, that the Creature NU finally awakens to his destiny—to become a sustainability role model for the youth of the world.

Metrov began his career as portraitist for superstars like Margaux Hemingway and Mick Jagger. His work is exhibited and collected internationally, though his priority is to explore “the ever-evolving potential of artistic mediums and technologies.” Learn about All Things NU at: www.DoYouNU.com.


Art Business

Metrov: Commission A Portrait to Rival #AndyWarhol

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Born in Los Angeles and schooled in art at UCLA, Metrov began his career in New York City doing illustrations for major publishers such as MacMillan, McGraw-Hill, New York Magazine, and ultimately Push Pin Studios, the only graphic designers to ever exhibit in the Paris Louvre. He eventually segued into Fine Art painting after studying with Prix di Rome scholar, Gilbert Stone. Metrov began doing portraits of celebrities and international socialites. He quickly became renowned for his uncanny ability to capture his subject’s “spiritual essence.” “It’s not something I try to do, it’s simply what comes naturally. Some have called it a psychic ability,” says Metrov, now living and working in Santa Barbara, California, America’s  “Côte d’Azur.”

When Margaux Hemingway saw her finished portrait, she couldn’t stop crying for an hour. Ben Vereen stood speechless before his likeness. Mick Jagger hired Metrov to paint his wife, Bianca. Metrov began competing with his neighbor, Andy Warhol, as portraitist of New York’s elite high society. Growing restless, however, with static artwork, Metrov became fascinated by the potential of motion pictures to be “paintings that moved and made sound.”

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“Margaux” by Metrov (1977)

After spending many years in the motion picture business, Metrov once again began accepting portrait commissions in 2012. His style has evolved over time, but his art, whether digital (as seen  below) or photographic with synthetic polymers, continues to reflect his subject’s inner nature as well as their common human struggle to balance the often chaotic energies around them.

 

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Digital portrait of the artist’s wife, Dr. Maureen O’Brien (2014)

Metrov was recently invited to conduct a public portrait session at the Santa Barbara Museum of Contemporary Art as part of Marinella Senatore’s, highly acclaimed “Building Communities” exhibition. The event was a huge success. Some of the portraits from the exhibit may be seen on his website: http://www.metrov.org/mcasb-portraits/


To learn more about this exciting opportunity to commission Metrov for your portrait, please contact Marie Kazalia via email here.