Paper Cup Drawings by Gwyneth Leech at the Flatiron Prow Artspace

The glass-walled ground floor of the iconic triangular Flatiron Building has been converted by Sprint into an art exhibit space called The Flatiron Prow Artspace. The gallery has been showcasing artwork that is as unique and engaging as the building itself, emphasizing pieces that reflect the company's commitment to eco-friendly living, technology and interaction. The current exhibit features the work of Gwyneth Lynch called "Hypergraphia: The Cup Drawings" – illustrations on upcycled take-out paper coffee cups, inspired by mobile technology and the rapid pace of 21st century life. The artist works in the display space five days a week, Tuesdays to Saturdays (11:00 AM - 2:00 PM) illustrating coffee cups, visible to viewers. Since 2007, Gwyneth's drawing surface of choice is the cardboard coffee cup. She turns coffee cups into  beautiful works of art using the jet-black India ink of her Rotring art pen as well as the earthy colors of Faber and Castelli brush pens.  The exhibition runs through December 31, 2011. For more information about the artist, visit her website here.

Construction Site Art: "RENDERING LEONARD" by Helen Dennis

RENDERING LEONARD  is a public art installation created by artist Helen Dennis along the 200 ft of plywood wall that surround 56 Leonard Street (corner Church Street) in downtown Manhattan. It is part of the Downtown Alliance Re:Construction public art program initiative. 

From the caption of the installation:

Dennis’ work portrays ghostly traces of the surrounding urban environment around Leonard Street and beyond. Through layers of hand-rendered drawings exposed onto photographic paper, Helene manages to capture the energy of the City and it’s constant state of flux. The large scale of the work physically immerses the viewer into a portrait of New York and the urban architectural environment across the Downtown area. Through her continuous study of the metropolis that surrounds us, Helene Dennis offers us a complete 3 dimensional vision of the city’s kinetic energy. Her unique technique sits on the boundary of photography and drawing. She introduces layers of intense fine white lines, which build up the image before the viewer. These architectural renderings are then introduced to the photographic process in a similar way that one would use a negative. The result challenges the conventional reading of a photographic image and enhances the infinite traces that compose the City.

"DEGAS: DRAWINGS AND SKETCHBOOKS" and "ROY LICHTENSTEIN: THE BLACK-AND-WHITE DRAWINGS, 1961-1968" Open at The Morgan Library and Museum

The Morgan Library and Museum main entrance on Madison Avenue

Cover of Fall and Winter Schedule featuring Roy Lichtenstein's "I Know How You Must Feel, Brad" (1963) graphite pencil, pochoir and lithographic rubbing crayon

Two exhibitions opened today at the Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum, "DEGAS: Drawings and Sketckbooks," and "ROY LICHTENSTEIN: The Black-and-White Drawings, 1961-1968." The former features more than twenty drawings by Edgar Degas (1834–1917) from the Morgan's collections that capture the artist's dynamic and varied use of drawing and includes some of the most quintessential subjects - from his earliest portraits of himself, family members, and friends to his later intensive studies of dancers and performers. The Lichtenstein exhibit presents an important series of large-scale, black-and-white works as a group for the first time and examines Lichtenstein's less known exploration of the medium of drawing. Created during the early and mid-1960s, the fifty-five drawings on view offer a revealing window into the development of Lichtenstein's art, as he began for the first time to appropriate commercial illustrations and comic strips as subject matter and experimented stylistically with simulating commercial techniques of reproduction—the famous Benday dots. The work represents an essential and original contribution to Pop Art as well as to the history of drawing. These exhibitions run until January 2011.

The Morgan Library and Museum is located at 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street.

Illustrations by JOHN ROMBOLA, Backdrop for the New Bergdorf Goodman Window Display

Artworks from the new book JOHN ROMBOLA: ECLECTIC ECCENTRIC provide a colorful and whimsical backdrop to the new window display at Bergdorf Goodman. John Rombola started his career illustrating for magazines, and his work frequently appeared in Life, Holiday, and Town & Country. Recently rediscovered by a new generation of art and design lovers, John Rombola's rambunctious, spirited art is gathered in this first-ever comprehensive monograph of his work. Art and cultural critic Veronique Vienne explores Rombola's career through selections from his most well-known series, including his line drawings of the New York skyline, his scintillating take on Manhattan's society women, and lush gouache and ink drawings from his travels, both real and imagined, to the tropics and to Europe. Lively and often funny, the drawings in this volume reveal the spirited style of an eccentric artist who moves to his own, whimsical rhythm. Rombola works primarily in gouache and ink on paper; his art is in the permanent collection of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.