Skylar Fein

When my partner and I came back to New Orleans, I struggled along with everyone else to clean up and rebuild my life. As a sort of therapy, I began collecting the spectacular painted and weathered wood that sat lying everywhere. In my back yard, amidst leaning stacks of dimensional lumber, I started putting the boards together, experimenting with pure composition. While I was doing it, I noticed that I temporarily stopped worrying.

Skylar Fein has resurrected the signage of a lost New Orleans, and the works- hand-painted, electrified, assembled in the traditional sign painter’s way- occupy a realm of historical hijinx mixed with unabashed sentimentality…

Before the wrecking ball did its work, someone saved the Adonis signs, featuring leather-clad men, nude male silhouettes and coded homoerotic symbols. They were rediscovered during the post-Katrina cleanup . . . according to Fein, anyway…