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Hamilton Spectator
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- 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.
Daily Mirror
28-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
I read every day — these are 10 of the best books I would recommend to anyone
There's no feeling quite like sitting down after a long day and diving into a good book. But with countless reads to choose from, finishing one book and selecting another isn't always as easy as it sounds. While I do try to make time for the classics, as well as books published in previous years, I do always find myself gravitating towards the new releases, eager to find a new favourite I know I'll return to again and again in the future. If you're in need of some inspiration for your summer reading list, here are 10 of my absolute top reads of 2025 so far, with picks across all kinds of different genres. For more book recommendations, reviews and news, click here to subscribe to our free weekly newsletter, The Bookish Drop, on Substack. It's officially Love Island season, with both the UK and US versions airing right now. While I don't religiously watch dating shows anymore, I still gravitate towards any fiction inspired by or based on the world of reality TV. The Compound sees 20 contestants trapped in a remote desert compound and filmed 24/7 as they compete for luxury prizes and basic necessities - while also trying to find love. I don't want to give anything away, but this is a brilliant debut, with some unexpected twists, a simmering uneasiness and an ending I've thought about since I finished reading it. It's out on July 3, and I'd definitely recommend adding it to your summer reading list! Some books need to be read in one sitting, and Make Me Famous is one of them. The book revolves around Cléo, an aspiring singer who is obsessed with becoming famous. We see her rise to fame, as well as her present day, where she jets off on holiday to a remote island to focus on writing her fourth album in peace. Cléo is one of the most dislikeable protagonists I've ever read, which can sometimes be a recipe for disaster, but not in this case. The book is so immersive, so addictive and so twisted. Bonus points for an ending that literally made me gasp aloud. You know a book is good when it's over 500 pages long but you get through it in a matter of days. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil tells the story of María, Charlotte and Alice, three very different women from very different worlds. V. E. Schwab's signature atmospheric, lyrical writing style transports you across the centuries, with a perfect mixture of obsession, yearning and Sapphic love. It's another addictive read, and once it sinks its teeth into you, you won't be able to put it down. Park Avenue follows Jia Song, a junior partner at a prestigious law firm who takes on a hush-hush case working for one of the most famous Korean families in the world. As Jia travels the world finding answers, contending with feuding siblings and uncovering dark secrets, she finds herself starting to fall for the family. When I saw Park Avenue described as 'Crazy Rich Asians meets Succession', I knew it had the potential to be a five-star read for me. I was hooked all the way through; it's so messy and brings has elements of mystery, romance and thriller. It's also a perfect travel read. I read this while on a weekend away and felt like I was watching a (very entertaining) film in my head the whole time! Sometimes you know before reading that you're going to love a book. But other times, a book you weren't so sure about just blows you away. I am someone who tends to steer clear of anything even remotely scary, so Make a Home of Me by Vanessa Santos has been one of the biggest revelations of the year for me. This collection of short stories, all set in houses that should provide protection but instead turn on their inhabitants, is unsettling yet inviting. The collection opens with a dinner party with a gruesome twist and goes on to tales of people driven to despair by a neighbour's crying baby, a family torn apart by strange notes and a woman's relationship with her new partner's strangely shy daughter. I ate every single story up, and would recommend this book to anyone, horror fan or otherwise. If you'd told me last year that some of my favourite reads of 2025 would be young adult novels, I wouldn't have believed you. But after falling in love with Rebecca Ross' Divine Rivals duology, I went on to Immortal Consequences, the first book in a new YA dark academia series following students at a boarding school on the fringes of the afterlife. In Immortal Consequences, the students must compete in the Decennial - a series of magical trials held once a decade. We follow six different students, all with their own motivations and hidden agendas. With chapters from so many characters' perspectives, I was initially worried they wouldn't be fleshed out enough, but I needn't have worried. I was so invested in each and every one of the characters, and cannot wait to see where the series goes next. I clearly have a thing for books with chapters from lots of different points of view, because My Other Heart has been another favourite read of the year for me. In 1998, Mimi and her baby daughter Ngan are on the way home from Philadelphia to Vietnam when Ngan suddenly goes missing. Seventeen years later, best friends Kit and Sabrina plan trips to Tokyo and China respectively to find out more about who they are. This is a beautiful coming-of-age story, spanning decades and several different continents. And with universal themes of identity, friendship, love and motherhood, everyone will see a little part of themselves in the characters. Sunstruck follows a working-class Black man as he attempts to navigate the lavish world of his university friend Lily's affluent family. Over the course of a summer spent holidaying in the south of France, the man finds himself drawn to Lily's charming brother Felix. But when they return to London, things shift and the cracks in the Blake family's facade begin to show. As the winner of the #Merky Books' 2022 New Writers' Prize, I knew it was going to be good, but it surpassed all expectations and I can't wait to see what the author does next. Sunstruck is an intoxicating read, and one I finished in one sunny weekend earlier this year. Don't just take my word for it though; it's also one of the shortlisted titles for Waterstones' 2025 Debut Fiction Prize and would be a worthy winner. Saraswati is another of my stand-out reads that has also been nominated for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize. Gurnaik Johal's debut novel sees the lives of seven individuals changed as an ancient sacred river springs back to life. Part political satire, part ecological parable, this is a great novel to sink your teeth into if you want something that will both entertain and make you think. As a lover of short stories, I really appreciated the format and pacing of Saraswati; each chapter introduces us to a new character, with each of the seven strangers getting their own moment in the spotlight before everything comes together. I was enthralled, and will definitely be reading We Move, the author's collection of short stories, soon. Atmosphere is a love story set against the backdrop of the 1980s space shuttle program. It follows Joan Goodwin, an astrophysics professor who finds love, friendship and rivalry while training to become an astronaut. But then, on a mission in December 1984, everything changes in an instant. As a big fan of both romance and science fiction, I had high expectations going into this. Luckily, it did not disappoint. Joan's relationships are complex, and the side characters are so fleshed out they actually feel like real people. I'm not someone who tends to cry a lot while reading, but this book had me in tears on multiple occasions, and I couldn't stop thinking about the ending for weeks.
