Andy Valmorbida is the lifelong art entrepreneur responsible for the new Richard Hambleton Experience. Almost as avant-garde as the late artist’s own work, the Richard Hambleton Experience brings Hambleton’s art to life by dynamically displaying digital recreations of his work on walls, ceilings, floors, and various surfaces. With a recent feature in the New York Times, the Hambleton Exhibit is turning heads for its ingenuity; the exhibit is also bringing some much-needed attention to Hambleton’s work as the artist has not received as much fame as his peers. Known in his own right for democratizing access to art as a pioneer of the pop-up art show concept, it should come as no surprise that Andy Valmorbida is the man behind the innovative new exhibit bringing awareness to Hambleton’s ground-breaking art.
Valmorbida recently acquired the copyright to Richard Hambleton’s art collection as the president and founder of Untitled-1 Holdings with the specific plan in mind. While people in the art industry understand Hambleton’s contribution to modern and contemporary street art as well as art in general, the average art consumer may not be privy to this information. Having inspired the most famous active street artists, like Banksy for example, Hambleton was a peer of and friend to the founding members of the street art movement -- Basquiat, Haring, and Warhol.
While Basquiat, Haring, and Warhol are typically thought of as the main artists in the street art movement, many people consider Hambleton as the American pop expressionist godfather of street art.
Hambleton’s initial breakthrough into the art scene was his infamous, anxiety-producing, ‘Image Mass Murder’ series, a public art project taking place between 1976 and 1979 that used the urban canvas to shock the public. Hambleton secretly placed art installations consisting of faux chalk-body outlines and blood-splattered ‘crime scenes’ in over 15 cities. Understandably, the project evoked a visceral reaction in people who were not aware of the art project.
After his shocking initial foray into the street art scene, Hambleton secured his place as an artist to watch. In the early 1980s, Hambleton followed up his ‘Image Mass Murder’ series with what would come to be some of his most famous work, the ‘Shadowman’ series. For this project, Hambleton creatively placed over 600 dark and ominous, shadowy, figures throughout the streets of New York City, London, Paris, and Rome. By painting the powerful blackened ‘Shadowman’ in these cities, Hambleton meant to simultaneously turn unassuming corners and alleyways into avant-garde artistic canvases as well as force average citizens to unexpectedly confront the fragility of being and temporarily disable the emotional stability of their lives. Hambleton would achieve fame and legendary status for these public art installations that were equal parts innovative as they were haunting.
In the spirit of Hambleton’s visionary work as well as in the spirit of Valmorbida’s strong history spearheading original and stimulating art shows, Valmorbida’s Hambleton Experience truly does justice to the essence of the late artist’s body of work and philosophy. While the experience itself is not meant to shock the public in the same way that Hambleton’s work initially did, the new installation gives the artist’s work the visibility and new life it deserves by incorporating new technology. With the recent success of the similarly large-scale van Gogh Exhibit, we expect Valmorbida’s Hambleton Experience to receive strong reviews, pubic acclaim, and increase the attention on the artist’s work.