Self-taught artist, Charlie Hanavich, grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. He attended the University of Alabama where he studied business and followed the path of many Southern men?go to college, graduate and get into business. With an eye for art, Charlie also minored in art history. After graduation, Charlie was ready to find a job on Wall Street, so he moved to Manhattan to intern with a finance company. On the right track for a successful business career, he still found himself at MoMA everyday. He fell in love with Picasso?s Girl Before a Mirror and knew he had a passion for painting. Stirred, he moved back to Atlanta, purchased a large white canvas and copied it. Hanavich continued to work in finance while painting at night and on the weekends for his family and friends. This eventually led to his move to Miami in September of 2012 where within two months he was showing his work at Spectrum, one of the satellite fairs during Miami Art Basel.
Hanavich?s most recent work is featured in the windows at Stanley Korshak beautifully curated with fashion of the season. In an interview with Patron, Hanavich chatted about the musings behind his latest series titled The CH Grid Series, ?I was thinking about who has inspired me most. Artist Chuck Close inspired the grid-painting technique. Picasso is the other large influencer in my work.? Ten paintings, comprised of hundreds of squares in every hue measuring 1.25 inches, are mounted inside the exterior windows of Stanley Korshak viewable from both Maple Avenue and Cedar Springs.
A portrait of his artistic idol, Chuck Close is one of the paintings featured in the display. Charlie says, ?I had to pay homage to Chuck. The next artist I will paint will probably be Picasso.? Hanavich keeps a journal with a list of subjects he would like to paint. Both Close and Picasso have been on this list for almost eight years. Others in the windows include Anna Wintour. ?She had been on the list for a long time. I will thumb through that journal and see something and then pick up the brush and start painting. Same with Patty Hanson, I didn?t know her as a person or individual. I knew she was Keith Richards?s wife. I turned on a Vogue documentary and during a scene got the paint out and started painting Patty.?
Even though he minored in art history in college, Charlie has no formal arts training. ?I don?t draw. I doodle a lot. I sketch a lot. When I say sketch, there are no figures, no faces. I do abstract stuff?shapes and wavy lines. So when he begins a new painting Hanavich says, ?There is zero drawing. It is strictly the paint from the brush to the canvas.? Painting one square at a time, the larger works take roughly 65-70 hours to paint. This grid technique keeps him organized. While working on his Kate Moss portrait he stepped back and said it was not right. He decided to trust his technique and direction. The Kate Moss portrait is now one of the pieces featured within the series at the Crescent. Other pieces in the series are of Jimi Hendrix, Willie Nelson and Princess Diana. Willie Nelson was inspired by his visit to Texas.
Bret McKinney, Stanley Korshak?s visual director, said he wanted to do something different with the windows for high arts season. ?We change the windows out every 4-6 weeks. They are like 900-square-feet each and that?s just the floor space. The wall space is over 1,000. There is so much you could do. I wanted this to look like a gallery, but of course I needed to add mannequins and bring fashion in. I wanted it to be art-inspired but I wanted the fashion to complement the paintings and also stand-alone.? The new windows debuted in October last year during the Crescent?s renovations tempting those driving by to stop at the venerable Uptown luxury store. ?Charlie?s pieces have a lot of different colors. You have to look close to see the different colors. The fabric, the color, the content and the shape sort of continued the color of the painting as well.?
I saw Charlie last summer in Ga. as we gathered to celebrate his Grandmother’s 90th birthday.
Was so excited for him as he shared his passion for painting with me.
Charlie’s abstract paintings are the perfect compliment to Couture fashion.
The windows at Stanley Korshak are fabulous!
?I consider myself fortunate to have known Charlie for years, and am thrilled for his success as an artist. I have his first commissioned work! “Cardinals.” Fans of Charlie’s work should see the red’s jump off the canvas…but you can’t because it’s in my private collection! Keep painting my friend!