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Hamilton Spectator

Documentary about mysterious painter Edward Brezinski comes to Niagara Artists Centre

Edward Brezinski was an intense, clever and iconoclastic painter, but the world outside of the East Village of New York City did not know of him in his time. In the 1970s and 1980s, the neighbourhood was an artistic microcosm that nurtured artists like Madonna and Keith Haring. Brezinski was among them, a conceptional neo-expressionist painter who had what it took to make it, but also had an intensity, abrasiveness and outrageousness that hindered him as his peers found fame. By the 1990s, he all but disappeared. His life and fate are explored by filmmakers Brian Vincent and Heather Spore in the 2022 documentary 'Make Me Famous,' which continues to make the rounds in theatres and lands at the Niagara Artists Centre Wednesday for a one-time screening. The 93-minute film has some local roots. Edward Brezinski, seen here in his studio, was a conceptional neo-expressionist painter. Hamilton born-and-raised Lenny Kisko, an actor, singer, dancer and art collector, was a friend of Brezinski and later a friend of Vincent. The pair were working in a New York City restaurant when Vincent brought up his interest in Brezinski and learned Kisko owns a slew of Brezinski paintings and sketches, had key contacts in the art world and could attest to the private side of the unusual artist. Kisko was new to the city when he met Brezinski in a nightclub and the inspired artist encouraged the handsome Kisko to sit for him. 'I went a few days after,' Kisko remembers. 'He was charismatic and very attractive, suave and sophisticated … I also kind of got creeped out.' Kisko says Brezinski had an angst and anger that pushed through in his demeanour and in his artwork. He knew how to get people's attention. The pair became friends and saw each other frequently. They existed in a city that looked very different than it does now. New York City was an almost bankrupt city, with the East Village 'blown out and unsafe.' Yet the housing was cheap ('My first apartment was $90 per month,' Kisko says), and artists would find community together, staging unpretentious exhibitions and supporting each other with a shared appreciation for good art and cheap wine. Artist Edward Brezinski's self-portrait. One could simply walk through the burough and walk in and out of decrepit buildings to find the apartments and studios where artists lived, worked and played. Kisko often did this to find Brezinski. The artist was so broke he didn't always have a phone. Sometimes, he'd have to paint on both sides of his canvases. 'Make Me Famous' documents the setting and era with archival photos and video of all the activity in the crumbling yet vibrant neighbourhood. Footage includes artists Kenny Scharf, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Peter McGough, and actor/gallerist Patti Astor. The film makes clear their careers grew because they had the savvy and political correctness Brezinski did not have. He would drink too much, be too outspoken. In one instance, he ate a piece of conceptual sculpture by artist Robert Gober. The AIDS crisis and political climate of the 1980s would fracture their world, with funerals largely replacing art shows. Brezinski was deeply unsettled and bitter at the Reagan administration. He fled, leaving many wondering what happened to him. Vincent and Spore picked up on where he went and investigated a rumour he may have faked his own death. Contemporaries Marguerite van Cooke and James Romberger joined them and are included in the film. Lenny Kisko with actor and gallerist Patti Astor in Los Angeles. Through their friendship, Kisko amassed as many as 26 Brezinski pieces, including oil paintings, self portraits, sketches and still life prints, and has kept much of it hanging in his colourful Hell's Kitchen apartment. Kisko shared them freely with the 'Make Me Famous' filmmakers and has loaned them for recent exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art and Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. He later travelled extensively for screenings of the documentary. Vincent and Spore investigated Brezinski's life for 10 years and travelled from New York City, to Michigan, Arizona, Europe and France. They found that long unacknowledged artists were skeptical and protective of their stories, and it was up to them to prove intentions and build trust. 'Make Me Famous' premiered at the 2022 NewFest LGBTQ+ Film Festival in New York before it made its Canadian debut in January 2023. The next year, it screened at Hamilton's Playhouse Theatre and Waterloo's Princess Cinema. It continues global screenings, without a plan for distribution or entering the streaming service market. Lenny Kisko with Edward Brezinski's self-portrait. 'This is a film that's grassroots, a couple of filmmakers pushing it up the hill and people are really responding,' Spore says. 'We are getting the word out sort of old school … We had to create a run just like they did, in the '70s.' The 9 p.m. screening of 'Make Me Famous' at the NAC will be preceded by an art show featuring work by Geoff Farnsworth and Dave Oxner (Little Creatures). Oxner, also known as DJ Dave Stiles, provides music for the after-party. Tickets to the film, exhibit and party are $20.