Will New Paul Calendrillo Art Gallery Help Revitalize Roosevelt Island's Main Street Retail? You're Invited To Blake Emory's Zebra Love Exhibition Opening Reception November 17

As previously reported, resident Paul Calendrillo recently opened a new art gallery at Roosevelt Island's 507 Main Street.

I spoke with Mr. Calendrillo last September about his plans for the new Roosevelt Island Art Gallery.



and the impact his new art gallery may have on the revitalization of Main Street retail.



Mr. Callendrillo's latest gallery exhibition features the work of artist Blake Emory.



According to Mr. Callendrillo:

Blake Emory

Illusions of Grandeur

November 17th to December 3rd

Opening Reception November 17th

Reception Sponsored by Emory Vodka

6pm to 8pm

Paul Calendrillo New York Gallery

507 Main St. New York, NY 10044

All art is illusionist by nature. A skilled hand can magically take a two-dimensional canvas and add a third dimension of depth or ascension. The fabric of our social construct is manipulated by desire for beauty and the use of color and shading can trick the eye into seeing something, that when viewed closely, doesn't exist.

Painter and sculptor, Blake Emory's newest work explores the notion that elegance and grandeur are themselves illusions. Returning to his signature Zebra Love

subject in which women's bodies are synthesized from a web of zebra stripes or where the hair of seductresses are thick waterfalls of black and white cascades, Emory now obfuscates their sensuous nature in this collection by integrating spinning pinwheels in his paintings and levitating sculptural elements in his stonework, successfully modifying an old cliché that beauty is not in the eye of the beholder, but mere trick of the mind.

Blake Emory was born to parents who lived for the arts. From a young age, Emory explored the depth of his own creativity. Realizing his potential, he explored many avenues to express his vision. His journey began in early childhood when he sold his first piece. A crayon drawing of a famous baseball player he had sold to his classmate in the third grade. By the fifth grade, Blake had started his first tee-shirt business, guided by his siblings. It did not take long for this group of talented youngsters to grow in numbers and start making waves. He counted up the few coins in his pocket and came up with a meager eight dollars. He walked to a local arts and crafts store and bought a bottle of black paint and two bottles of white. He carefully selected his brush and strolled to a thrift store where he found old vinyl records by the hundreds. He painted iconic rock stars on the vinyl and began selling them in the street, where the pieces sold out in a day.

Emory was at a point in his life where things were changing. He came across another artist that had been creating art in an old warehouse. They joined and began to journey on a creative path that would eventually inspire Emory to create his own vision, Zebra Love. Riding the wave of creativity, Emory traveled to Miami, where he began to manage a gallery. The gallery was a hit. Blake brought back Zebra Love and built a mobile gallery where his path crossed with a New Yorker that invited him to bring his Zebra Love Collection to a New York gallery. Living at the gallery, he created art day and night; he finally had a chance to sculpt in stone. The art was flowing heavy: paintings, sculptures, and now film. Zebra Love continues to spearhead the movement as Emory strives to break through in all mediums of art. He currently lives in New York with his wife and children.

Paul Callendrillo New York Gallery hours at 507 Main Street, Roosevelt Island are:

Sunday Closed
Monday Closed
Tuesday 11:30am to 6:30pm
Wednesday 11:30am to 6:30pm
Thursday ​11:30am to 6:30pm
Friday 11:30am to 5:00pm
Saturday 11:30am to 5:00pm

Here's more about Paul Callendrillo's Roosevelt Island art gallery.