"Hart on the Roof" – 10.75x17.75 on Sheetrock – Kenney Mencher – 1980s NYC Avant-Garde Portrait
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This is a handmade work of art NOT a print
Shipping takes 3-4 Weeks
I painted this in the early 1980s, probably around 1983 or '84. It’s a portrait of Hart, someone I was really close with back then. We shared a bed, a room, and a rent-controlled apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. For a while, we were inseparable—matching buzz cuts, same clubs, same camera setups. It was the kind of intense, layered relationship that only works (and then stops working) when you’re young and everything feels like it’s happening at once.
Hart had an SLR camera, which was a big deal at the time—single-lens reflex cameras weren’t cheap. We got some tungsten slide film and went up to the roof. He wore this vintage black tuxedo with tails and posed while I took a series of photos that I turned into paintings. This one’s the last I have from that group.
The style is influenced by what was happening in the 1980s downtown scene—new wave, avant-garde, gritty-but-staged, personal-but-aesthetic. I was going for that feeling—intimate, dramatic, and a little weird in a good way.
At the time, I was working construction, renovating buildings around the neighborhood. That’s why this is painted on a piece of sheetrock (basically a drywall panel made of plaster sandwiched between two layers of thick paper). I didn’t know then that it wasn’t archival—just that it was free and flat. But I’ve taken care of it for over 35 years, and it’s held up really well.
This painting is 10.75 x 17 inches, unframed, and signed. It's one of those pieces that holds a lot of personal history for me. I’m finally letting some of these older works go—not because they mean less, but because they’ve meant a lot for a long time. And maybe now it’s time for someone else to live with them.
Details:
Title: "Hart on the Roof"
Artist: Kenney Mencher
Year: 1983–1984 (approx.)
Medium: Oil on sheetrock (drywall panel)
Size: 10.75 × 17.25 inches
Frame: Unframed
Condition: Vintage surface in good condition; carefully stored for 35+ years
Technique: Painted from reference photos taken on tungsten slide film
Style: 1980s new wave / avant-garde portraiture
Shipping: Securely packed and shipped flat with insurance and tracking
FREE SHIPPING
This is a handmade work of art NOT a print
Shipping takes 3-4 Weeks
I painted this in the early 1980s, probably around 1983 or '84. It’s a portrait of Hart, someone I was really close with back then. We shared a bed, a room, and a rent-controlled apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. For a while, we were inseparable—matching buzz cuts, same clubs, same camera setups. It was the kind of intense, layered relationship that only works (and then stops working) when you’re young and everything feels like it’s happening at once.
Hart had an SLR camera, which was a big deal at the time—single-lens reflex cameras weren’t cheap. We got some tungsten slide film and went up to the roof. He wore this vintage black tuxedo with tails and posed while I took a series of photos that I turned into paintings. This one’s the last I have from that group.
The style is influenced by what was happening in the 1980s downtown scene—new wave, avant-garde, gritty-but-staged, personal-but-aesthetic. I was going for that feeling—intimate, dramatic, and a little weird in a good way.
At the time, I was working construction, renovating buildings around the neighborhood. That’s why this is painted on a piece of sheetrock (basically a drywall panel made of plaster sandwiched between two layers of thick paper). I didn’t know then that it wasn’t archival—just that it was free and flat. But I’ve taken care of it for over 35 years, and it’s held up really well.
This painting is 10.75 x 17 inches, unframed, and signed. It's one of those pieces that holds a lot of personal history for me. I’m finally letting some of these older works go—not because they mean less, but because they’ve meant a lot for a long time. And maybe now it’s time for someone else to live with them.
Details:
Title: "Hart on the Roof"
Artist: Kenney Mencher
Year: 1983–1984 (approx.)
Medium: Oil on sheetrock (drywall panel)
Size: 10.75 × 17.25 inches
Frame: Unframed
Condition: Vintage surface in good condition; carefully stored for 35+ years
Technique: Painted from reference photos taken on tungsten slide film
Style: 1980s new wave / avant-garde portraiture
Shipping: Securely packed and shipped flat with insurance and tracking
FREE SHIPPING
This is a handmade work of art NOT a print
Shipping takes 3-4 Weeks
I painted this in the early 1980s, probably around 1983 or '84. It’s a portrait of Hart, someone I was really close with back then. We shared a bed, a room, and a rent-controlled apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. For a while, we were inseparable—matching buzz cuts, same clubs, same camera setups. It was the kind of intense, layered relationship that only works (and then stops working) when you’re young and everything feels like it’s happening at once.
Hart had an SLR camera, which was a big deal at the time—single-lens reflex cameras weren’t cheap. We got some tungsten slide film and went up to the roof. He wore this vintage black tuxedo with tails and posed while I took a series of photos that I turned into paintings. This one’s the last I have from that group.
The style is influenced by what was happening in the 1980s downtown scene—new wave, avant-garde, gritty-but-staged, personal-but-aesthetic. I was going for that feeling—intimate, dramatic, and a little weird in a good way.
At the time, I was working construction, renovating buildings around the neighborhood. That’s why this is painted on a piece of sheetrock (basically a drywall panel made of plaster sandwiched between two layers of thick paper). I didn’t know then that it wasn’t archival—just that it was free and flat. But I’ve taken care of it for over 35 years, and it’s held up really well.
This painting is 10.75 x 17 inches, unframed, and signed. It's one of those pieces that holds a lot of personal history for me. I’m finally letting some of these older works go—not because they mean less, but because they’ve meant a lot for a long time. And maybe now it’s time for someone else to live with them.
Details:
Title: "Hart on the Roof"
Artist: Kenney Mencher
Year: 1983–1984 (approx.)
Medium: Oil on sheetrock (drywall panel)
Size: 10.75 × 17.25 inches
Frame: Unframed
Condition: Vintage surface in good condition; carefully stored for 35+ years
Technique: Painted from reference photos taken on tungsten slide film
Style: 1980s new wave / avant-garde portraiture
Shipping: Securely packed and shipped flat with insurance and tracking
