Drake Carr is taking a well-earned breather. For the past two weeks, the New York-based artist has been hosting live portrait sessions as part of his residency at New York Life Gallery. The Chinatown space, opened by photographer Ethan James Green last year, has served as both a studio for Drake’s sessions and a venue for the resulting exhibition, Walk-ins. Despite conceiving the idea for the show together with Ethan, Drake never intended to test his endurance levels so thoroughly, often completing between four or five portraits a day and sometimes with as little as 20 minutes break in between.
“It’s pretty physically demanding, but I also feel very energised by it,” Drake says. “It gives me a lot of life and a lot of adrenaline too, even if I never intended for it to be this marathon thing.” If the endurance element was accidental, pushing his abilities and the limits of his comfort zone certainly weren’t. Best known for his vibrant acrylic depictions of New York’s queer communities, the time constraints of this latest exhibition demanded a shift in tempo towards something more spontaneous and performative. The change has been embraced by the artist, who has not only noticed a dramatic improvement in his craftsmanship, but also his ability to perform under pressure.
“I’ve become better friends with people I didn’t know, and it’s encouraged me to ask people who I feel intimidated by if they’ll sit and pose for me,” he says. “And while I’ve never felt comfortable with the idea of performance [Drake drew two portraits during the exhibition’s opening], I feel like I took a lot of comfort from how it went.” Does he give himself a time limit? “You’re so focused that [you] never know how much time has passed. You’re staring so intently that the best indication [of time passing] is when you see their skin get dewier and they start to shake.”
Under such demanding conditions, collaboration is key and so too is the artist’s awareness of his sitter’s limits. “It’s very intimate and often kind of erotic,” he says of the sessions. “It’s sort of like that feeling you get sometimes when you’re having sex, where you feel like you can fully read the other person’s mind. I’m watching a list of emotions just run across their face, their pupils dilating or sweat appearing. It’s crazy to stare at someone so hard for so long.” Part of that intuition means knowing how to get the most out of his models. “The music I put on plays a huge role. I try to curate music that will activate the pencil, but also to fit the vibe of the person I’m drawing. If they need to sit down or shake it out, I’ll put on the right song and it can breathe new life into them.”
From close friends to virtual strangers, the casting process for each portrait combined moments of chance with Drake’s own proclivity for drawing “exaggerated features and drama.” As is common for the artist, sitters were selected from acquaintances made at Happyfun Hideaway, the Bushwick bar he’s worked at for a number of years, or were personally invited over Instagram. What remained constant, however, was a consideration for energy and specific features. “I’m drawn to severity in the face or even in the body,” Drake says. “But especially a strong nose, jaw, a long chin, a broad brow or eyebrows that are at an intense angle. It’s also about knowing someone can access this glamorous state where they can hit a pose and really enter this character.”
The resulting works are bold and invigorating, with a dynamism that stems from the chemistry between artist and sitter as well as the speed at which Drake’s eye is forced to work. Instincts are trusted and pencil lines appear uninhibited, moving beyond mere appearances and revealing something about who these people are. Together with their elaborate styling and makeup, it’s little wonder that Drake has looked to the world of fashion in the run up to his residency, specifically the work of legendary illustrator Antonio Lopez. “”I’m very inspired by him. The drawings [are reminiscent of his style] because they have to be fast and I can’t fully flesh out the colour as I would normally.”
With a little under three weeks left of the exhibition’s one month duration, Drake is already considering ways in which he could play with the walk-in format down the line. “It would be nice to make this a recurring project, maybe something that’s site specific,” he says. “It would be really interesting to set it up in a different city and do it with the people who live there. There’s something exciting about it being based on who’s here with me right now.”
‘Walk-ins’ is open until 9 February at New York Life Gallery in Chinatown, New York
Credits
Photography Jan Carlos Diaz