Anthony Feyer
Collection
"I'm in my early sixties and grew up on the Bowery, back when it was in a state of glorious decay, rife with hookers, winos, dope fiends and flop houses. I have spent the last three decades documenting sub-cultures as diverse as snake handlers in West Virginia to Furries at their conventions.
These experiences and others have informed my visual vocabulary to execute thought-provoking and compelling work in both paint and video.
I am not an art world insider; like the sub-cultures I explore, I have remained on the margins. I have had a number of shows in New York, and Toronto and various art fairs throughout Europe"
As an allegorical realist painter, my work involves documenting unusual aspects of North American culture. I have a keen interest in the cultural anthropology of the groups that I am attracted to. My artistic themes have required extensive research and field work over the past three decades. The five major themes that I have explored include snake-handling churches throughout Appalachia, small town stock car races, also known as "Enduros", a series of paintings depicting the harsh and unforgiving landscape and rough inhabitants of Southeast Alaska, the New York City of the 80s during its period of decline, and my most recent subject, "Furries".
I am drawn to subjects and experiences which are new to me. The process of studying them becomes an educational experience that I chronicle in my paintings and videos. The people in my work are often outsiders, working-class and marginalized, who are hesitant to open themselves up to outsiders. I focus not only on the dramatic visual content but also on the various hidden, often doomed subcultures that exist in our society.