Front Room Gallery is proud to present a solo exhibition of photographs by Paul Raphaelson, entitled “Sweet Ruin”. Featuring photographs taken at the site of Brooklyn’s Domino Sugar Refinery, Raphaelson’s images chronicle the final state of the once bustling industrial complex before its dismantling and demolition.

Sweet Ruin Bin Distributor © Paul Raphaelson Photography

Sweet Ruin Package House Lockers © Paul Raphaelson Photography

Sweet Ruin Boiler Pipes © Paul Raphaelson Photography

About the exhibition

In 2013, Paul Raphaelson received permission from the developers of the Domino site to explore every square foot of the refinery just weeks before its gutting and demolition. Raphaelson is the last photographer given access to the factory.

At its peak Domino was the biggest industry in Brooklyn and was responsible for 90 percent of the sugar production in the US. Domino sugar factory was its own ecosystem. For more than a hundred years workers toiled, ate bathed and drank beer (from a bar in the basement) at the enormous compound.

By the 1980s Domino had lost its monopolistic grip on the market, and struggled against decades of increasing competition from similar cane refineries, the beet sugar industry, from both non-sugar sweeteners and from corn syrup. The Department of Labor reports that over the same period, manufacturing jobs in Brooklyn fell over 60%. The Domino refinery, which had once employed 4,500 laborers working around the clock, in 1919, was down to a skeleton crew of 220 workers by the time it closed in 2004.

A hardcover book has been published and is available on Amazon: Brooklyn’s Sweet Ruin: Relics and Stories of the Domino Sugar Refinery 1st Edition.

Paul Raphaelson: Sweet Ruin

December 8, 2017 – January 14, 2018

Front Room Gallery New York, NY

Framing Specifications

METRO GALLERY FRAME

Profile: 101
Type: Floating Gallery Frame
Wood & Finish: maple frame with pickled white finish
Purchasing Option: joined frame with matching splines
Custom Wood Spacer: 1/2″ wood frame spacer
Strainer: 3/4″ wood strainer with crossbar
Custom Frame Acrylic: regular acrylic cut to size

Hallmark has a remarkable legacy of collaboration with some of the world’s most renowned artists and designers. Perhaps none of these is more beloved than the American illustrator Norman Rockwell, whom Hallmark founder J.C. Hall commissioned to produce 32 paintings for the company’s greeting cards between 1948 to 1957, at the height of his career.

The most influential and prolific illustrator of the 20th century, Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) produced art for more than 150 companies throughout his lifetime, including magazine covers for The Saturday Evening Post and annual calendars for the Boy Scouts of America. However, among his most enduring images are his Christmas paintings for Hallmark Cards. Reproduced often and in many contexts, they helped define the spirit and traditions of the holiday season for many Americans. The heartwarming and humorous images have also come to exemplify Rockwell’s unique brand of pictorial storytelling.

Norman Rockwell , Filling The Stockings, 1955 watercolor, ink and pencil on paper, 13 1/4 x 11 1/2 inches Hallmark Art Collection, Kansas City, Missouri / © Hallmark Cards, Inc.

Norman Rockwell, Boy With Head In Wreath, 1957 oil on hardboard, 8 1/2 x 5 3/4 inches Hallmark Art Collection, Kansas City, Missouri / © Hallmark Cards, Inc.

Norman Rockwell, Santa’s Surprise, 1949 watercolor and ink on paper board, 12 3/4 x 10 7/8 inches Hallmark Art Collection, Kansas City, Missouri  / © Hallmark Cards, Inc.

Norman Rockwell, A Christmas Prayer, 1949 watercolor and ink on paper, 12 x 10 1/2 inches Hallmark Art Collection, Kansas City, Missouri/ © Hallmark Cards, Inc.

About the exhibition

Hallmark founder J.C. Hall commissioned Rockwell to paint 32 Christmas designs, beginning with images for the 1948 Hallmark Gallery Artists Collection. Over the ensuing decade, Rockwell interpreted the yuletide theme in a variety of guises, ranging from the characters of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol to the exploits of the modern American family. Reproduced in many contexts over the years, these heartwarming and humorous images have come to epitomize Rockwell’s masterful brand of narrative art.

Norman Rockwell’s Christmas is the most comprehensive exhibition ever assembled of Rockwell’s original art for Hallmark Cards. All works are from the Hallmark Art Collection with historic photographs and ephemera courtesy of the Hallmark Archives in Kansas City, Missouri and Norman Rockwell Museum Collection, Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

 

The exhibit is on display through January 27, 2018 at the Hallmark Art Collection Gallery in Hallmark Visitor’s Center, located in Kansas City’s Crown Center district. Admission is free.

 

Norman Rockwell’s Christmas: Original Artwork for Hallmark
October 7, 2017 – January 27, 2018
Hallmark Art Collection Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri

Framing Specifications

METRO GALLERY FRAME

Profile: 117CB (Modified to 1 3/8″ face and 1″ depth)
Type: Wide Gallery Frame
Wood & Finish: walnut frame with walnut finish
Purchasing Option: joined wood frame with matching splines
Strainer: 1/2″ wood strainer
Acrylic: custom cut UV acrylic