GUY PHILOCHE STANLEY

The New York artist premiere series Give Us Our Flowers

By Rebeca Herrero. Photography by Michael Goldman

One of the top contemporary artists from New York City who is taking the world of art by storm is Haitian born American artist, Guy Stanley Philoche. As his name says, the French word “Guy” represents an allegorical interpretation of the male component that interacts with the daily experiences of modern city living, which is in fact, a true statement of what Philoche represents. As soon as you enter into his studio in East Harlem, we see the white walls sweetly adoring some of his artistic statements written on the walls. “Post No Bills”, an allegory on his view of city living in New York, where we are constantly bombarded with signs that direct us not to advertise or not to post anything, is a true testament of his due diligence as an artist.

On the window, next to a table full of cans with brushes and accumulation of acrylics and oil tubes, is a piece of paper resembling a rat with a paint brush. The sweetness of his art is a compilation of dynamic and contrasting metaphors that allege the true beauty of one of the most vibrant, if not the most, city in the world, New York City.

As a 5-year-old child of immigrant parents from Haiti, Philoche learned English watching cartoons and daytime TV while living in Connecticut with his very blue-collar oriented parents, who thought being a doctor or having a government position with a pension was the ultimate goal for their offspring. “But I took another route, I wanted to be an artist,” confesses the handsome and charismatic painter, whose refined art education comes from the prestigious Paier School of Arts and eventually Yale University. “I left my home at 17, just after graduating from High school and I never looked back.”

He sustained his college years with bartending jobs, making a decent amount of money, just paying 500 dollars for a studio in

New Haven. “As soon as I graduated from Yale, I learned how to do portraits, color theory, the fundamentals, but in my mind, I really wanted to understand what would make me the greatest artist. I was like a horse with blinders, I just had one goal, I wouldn’t look elsewhere to achieve a considerable status as an artist, in a period of time.” Hence the world of Guy Stanley Philoche.

Beautiful paintings and series concocted from his imaginative and festive mind that has depth and feeling. “This new series was inspired by death. One of my most beloved friends, David Brown, passed the people in our lives today and give them their flowers on this side, while we can. His aura is not of a regular male painter, thus the significance of his art. It is a dichotomy between forces that perpetuate our psyche. Good or evil, ugly or beautiful, life is complex. It is in this realm of opposite attractions and ideas that his art has evolved to the level of a great living artist. But the path to conquer his ambitions, had a deeper method than most artist.

“I see so many artists whose focus is just to sell. Make money. I’ve seen recent graduates achieve immediate recognition and money. Yes, even selling at 200,000 away recently and I couldn’t understand the pain that I was going through. It was a feeling of sadness which followed the wake. At his funeral, I saw all these wonderful people that truly loved him saying, ‘I should have told him how much I love him and thank you, etc’. I thought to myself, why didn’t we do it while he was alive. Thus, the title to my paintings, which combine images of people that I admire with the flowers that adorn our gardens, or even our coffins”, said Philoche while wearing these creative modern outfits that are just exquisite. These works show strength, resilience in families that are rarely celebrated. The intention is to celebrate and give people recognition, love, respect every day. Too often we wait to honor people when they are gone, we should be saluting and toasting dollars apiece, or entering a museum exhibit right away. But artists need to understand their work, be patient with it. Compartmentalize paintings, lives, processes, just living is what it is all about at the end of the day, because there is a long time forward, is a long road ahead where sometimes you go back in time. I give you a great example. Fifteen years ago, I did a series titled No Comment, women of the world with high profile careers that struggled to get ahead in a male dominated world. Paintings of women with duct tape on their mouths, like prisoners of the boy’s clubs they were in. At the time I introduced them to art collectors and galleries and received no interest. As an artist we have two options either paint over the work or wrap them up and put them away. I put them away in my studio. Fast forward years later the emergence of the “Me Too Movement” happened. These paintings would have their moment after all, their voices finally heard. The same collectors and galleries now clamoring to have them as part of their collection. The paintings were my absolute best, they were created ahead of their time,” explains the philosophical Philoche, whose business savvy tactics also propelled his art career.

“Stuffed, stuffed, stuffed, that’s all I did with business cards and flyers we produced at the time. I would go out and leave my cards in taxis and best-selling books at Barnes and Nobles. I only wanted to do art. At the beginning, not being known, I had a goal. I went out every night meeting people. Started selling my paintings at 2,000 dollars each. Soon after, I realized why not stuff the flyers in the Village Voice, the weekly newspaper most in demand. People saw so many of them, they realized, wow this guy must be famous. Eventually I got my first art dealer, Art Gotham. Kimberly, the dealer, was amazing. We worked well together; she understood the value of my work as an artist. The more exposure she gave me, the more the work became valued. Every step of the way, I didn’t stop.” It’s been more than 20 years since the journey began and now Guy’s work sells between 30k and 110k. It is sacrifice and more sacrifice of keeping a paint brush in his hand, his two mottos tattooed on his body “live by the brush, die by the brush and without risk there can be no glory,” is what makes artist Guy Stanley Philoche, succeed.

Guy Stanley Philoche currently lives and works in New York City and is represented by Cavalier Gallery which locations in New York, Greenwich, Nantucket and Palm Beach. Follow him on Instagram @guystanleyphiloche.

Or, a vision in a dream. A Fragment. In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round; And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover! A savage place! as holy and enchanted

As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted By woman wailing for her demon-lover! And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething, As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing, A mighty fountain momently was forced: Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail, Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail: And mid these dancing rocks at once and ever It flung up momently the sacred river. Five miles meandering with a mazy motion

Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, Then reached the caverns measureless to man, And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean; And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far Ancestral voices prophesying war! The shadow of the dome of pleasure Floated midway on the waves; Where was heard the mingled measure From the fountain and the caves. It was a miracle of rare device, A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!