We were lucky to catch up with Laurence GARTEL recently and have shared our conversation below.

Laurence , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Surely creating the one of a kind Grammy Statue for the 57th Annual Grammy Awards has to be one of the most meaningful projects I’ve worked on. I was set on creating an object that is globally recognized and transforming it. It is always my goal to make anything instantaneously recognizable as my Art and at the same time make it unique. The Art has to resonate its own energy. It should have a vibration all on its own. The executives at the Grammys were aware of my Art Cars as the Feature of the New York Auto Show. They asked me if I could work on the Grammy Statue in a similar form. They did not want a Photoshop image but a physical object. Something that had dimension. Real 3D vs something flat. They got exactly what they desired. The finished Statue then became the Official Announcement, VIP tickets, program, poster and used in marketing and promotion materials. Millions have seen the Art through print and electronic medium. The Statue is currently on view at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles as of January 2023.

Laurence , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have been pioneering Digital Art for over 47 years, which equals= A very long time! I started working on analog systems in 1975 at Media Study/Buffalo in upstate New York. I was working with video guru Nam June Paik. I had the notion that electronic imagery could replace painting as an aesthetic. It was an unheard of concept. The personal computer had not been in the public consciousness. I had several breakthroughs by exhibiting and being collected by the Museum of Modern Art in my.mid 20s. Articles and magazines with my Art started to appear: Camera 35, Video Magazine, Lens on Campus, along with a pivotal exhibit at Nikon House Gallery at Rockefeller where the greatest photographers of the day were shown. It was the first time electronic imagery was shown. Shortly after I had met Andy Warhol at Studio 54. We struck up a conversation and he was asked to create the album cover of Debbie Harry (Blondie). He asked me to show him how the Amiga Computer worked. I went to his studio and showed him Deluxe Paint on the Amiga 1000. I was all of 26 years old. I went to Australia to be the keynote speaker of the First Pan Pacific Computer Conference in Melbourne, Australia. I landed on the Front page of The Australian Newspaper. This whirlwind evoked my producing the first Digital Art Cover of Forbes Magazine which then lead to my revolutionary ABSOLUT GARTEL ad commissioned for Absolut Vodka. This ad ran for over 10 years and adorned 100 million magazine pages. Suffice to say it was a wake up that Digital Art entered the main stream consciousness. Another great defining moment was when I created the first Art Car to launch Tesla for Elon Musk. This took place at Nikki Beach during Art Basel 2010. The news went viral to over 25,000 websites. It triggered my being the Feature of the 113th NY International Auto Show with my own Pavilion of 30,000 square ft of space at the Jacob Javits Center filled with my Art Cars and Motorcycles. My career of decades holds many stories to present time.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I always say I have had an ongoing successful career. All hard fought. I only ponder “What If” the million people that rejected me, would have said, “YES!!” People still say no, and to me it shows their own insecurity. A long career needs resilience as part of its backbone. The most important element is to do what you love. The greatest most remunerative projects take the least amount of effort. “It’s never work when you are putting in your passion.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

My opinion of NFTs are they are a new way of collecting trading cards on your phone. I personally would rather have a physical object on the wall that I could admire and appreciate. NFTs are very different to work with as trading gas fees are high, transferring money is difficult and things change rapidly. People collect anything and everything and NFTs are just another way to acquire. People get addicted to shopping and/or gambling. It is just another method. I myself do not have much interest.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.gartelmuseum.weebly.com
• Instagram: Laurencegartel
• Facebook: LaurenceGartel
• Linkedin: Laurencegartel
• Twitter: Laurencegartel
• Youtube: Laurence Gartel
• Other: Google Laurence Gartel or review Laurence Gartel wikipedia