Armando Alleyne : A Few of My Favorites

The first book to bring together the eclectic iconography of jazz musicians, boxers, black American icons and friends of the New York painter. "A Few of My Favorites" is the first collection of works by Armando Alleyne. He painted and pasted interpretations of jazz musicians, Afro-Latin singers and boxers, as well as family members and acquaintances. Alongside his relentless practice of painting portraits of black icons, Alleyne allows elements of his lived experience to take shape in his work. Series such as Shelter Blues illustrate his first-hand experience of homelessness. Another series, Maria's Song, summons a pantheon of religious symbols to pay homage to the sister he lost to AIDS. We also find erotic paintings that the artist has created from magazine advertisements and models he has staged. Neither renouncing the sensual nor the political, Alleyne's paintings as a whole tell of how we are determined by our city, and how we can look to it for the tools to heal. The works are presented alongside a series of snapshots and personal anecdotes that evoke the works sold and the people who are no longer with us.