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“Impressions: Works by Alvin Clayton” will open on Monday, Jan. 26, with the opening reception on Sunday, Feb. 1 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
The show, curated by Clayton’s friend and business partner Theresa Kump Leghorn, is a retrospective documenting the development of Clayton’s style and the influences of other artists like impressionist master Henri Matisse and photographer James Van Der Zee.
Clayton is a painter, model and restaurateur, but he came to the U.S. from Trinidad as an athlete. Recruited by Mount St. Mary's University in Maryland, Clayton attended on a full academic and athletic scholarship, but his plans to play professionally folded along with the North American Soccer League.
At the suggestion of a friend in the business, Clayton visited the Wilhelmina modeling agency in New York, and his clean-cut good looks landed him jobs for major fashion magazines like GQ, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Esquire, Glamour and Self. His work took him all over the world, and it was while living in Paris that he taught himself to paint.
His biggest influence was Henri Matisse, whose paintings he studied intently – and whose bright color palette reminded him of home. Clayton continued to accept modeling and acting jobs, but his paintings soon began landing cameos of their own. He was commissioned to create works for films including “Why Do Fools Fall in Love” and “Run for the Dream: The Gail Deavers Story” among others.
Today, Clayton’s paintings cover the walls of his New Rochelle restaurant, Alvin & Friends, and are in the collections of actors Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Robert De Niro and CCH Pounder as well as television meteorologist Janice Huff and Kenneth Chenault, American Express chief executive officer.
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