FREE! Objects of Life: Rocker Patti Smith Subject of Photo Show & Documentary

DOG STAR knows Patti Smith and likes her music.  We saw her perform once at Bowery Ballroom and when she played the guitar and started singing, immediately we were struck, "Aw, I get it, now."  She is charismatic and mesmerizing to watch live in person.


Now, a photo show at Robert Miller Gallery complements a recent documentary about her life.  What's most interesting about the show, especially if you have never heard of Patti Smith, is the way her life and art and work as an artist fuse together.  There are no boundaries - Patti's life is her art in a way that few people allow themselves the freedom to experience life.


DOG STAR's dentist is an amateur rock guitar player who is quite good and plays in small clubs around the city.  He is a great dentist but he doesn't write songs about being a dentist and his life is probably not going to be that interesting to photograph for weeks at a time.


So, that's the difference:  Somebody thinks Patti is interesting enough to photograph all the time and to ask her to talk about what she think and feels about the world and the music she makes and plays.


Here is the trailer for the documentary on PBS


We grabbed the following from the Daily News:

How many people get to glimpse the private space of New York rock poet legend Patti Smith? Everyone now. The Robert Miller Gallery in West Chelsea presents “Objects of Life,” an exhibit by photographer and filmmaker Steven Sebring and Smith, focusing on images and objects central to Smith’s life.


Celebrating the recent release of the documentary “Patti Smith: Dream of Life,” which took Sebring and Smith 11 years to complete, the gallery show combines moving images with static images while exploring collaboration, inspiration and relationships, such as an entire room devoted to Smith’s friendship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.


The film, which won for  Excellence in Cinematography for a Documentary at Sundance in 2008, aired on PBS on Dec. 30, Smith’s birthday.

A chair and television from Smith’s bedroom, where the film was shot, is part of the show. 

“It was just me and her and a camera and microphone in her bedroom,” says Sebring, who met Smith in Detroit while photographing her for Spin magazine. “This exhibition is an extension of the film. It’s like it’s come alive.”

Very New York in image and ambience, this show displays the work of two people who love life and can’t help but make art in all forms that expresses exactly how they feel about it.

The exhibit runs through Feb. 6 at 524 W. 26th St.

Here for Robert Miller Gallery 


Here for PBS site on "Patti Smith: Dream of Life" 


Robert Miller Gallery is EASY TO REACH:
Take the subway to 23rd Street, then walk or take the crosstown bus west to 10th Avenue.  Walk north three blocks to 26th Street.  Walk west (take a left) to 524 West 26th Street, Open Tuesday through Saturday 10-6pm