“I like coming up with ways to get attention,” says Cory Allen, standing in his gallery’s showroom.
BY KRISTIN STIGAARD
NNB Student Reporter
ST. PETERSBURG – Shortly after Cory Allen opened what he calls the “world’s first public relations gallery” at 2121 Second Ave. S last year, he announced plans for a provocative exhibit:
Nude photos of actress Jennifer Lawrence, actress-model Kate Upton and others that had been hacked from the Internet.
The exhibit, titled “No Delete,” was to be the latest edition of the “Fear Google” campaign by one of Allen’s clients, Los Angeles artist XVALA (Jeff Hamilton). The campaign “has helped strengthen the ongoing debate over privacy in the digital era,” Allen said in a news release.
The plans prompted a firestorm of protest against the artist and gallery and a pointed question from Lennie Bennett, art critic of the Tampa Bay Times.
“Is all this just a publicity grab?” she wrote.
Allen denied it, but five days after he announced the exhibit, he changed it. The celebrity nudes were out, replaced with photos of the artist himself.
“I like coming up with ways to get attention,” Allen, 39, said recently. “I don’t do things for shock value, as much as a lot of people think. I don’t really try to spin the controversy aspect of it, but that’s usually what happens when we get creative. But there has to be a strong message behind it or I won’t be involved.”
Allen, who is from Oklahoma, opened his Cory Allen Contemporary Art gallery in the city’s Warehouse Arts District on the northern edge of Midtown after visiting St. Petersburg and seeing its thriving arts community.
When artist XVALA’s plans to exhibit hacked nude photos of celebrities was scrapped, he created an alternative – photos of himself, like this one without pants.
Allen said his work in public relations since the early 2000s and his love of art led him to integrate the two.
“I love writing press releases and take joy from being creative behind the pen,” said Allen. His idol is P.T. Barnum, whom he calls “the father of public relations.”
For Allen, CACA is first and foremost a public relations agency that strives to help budding artists in the community.
The front part of his gallery hosts alternating shows and events, primarily featuring fine art from both local and visiting artists as well as music and film events and educational workshops.
The back part of the gallery hosts the work of artists who have received media attention for their pieces. It is designed to mirror the Internet, with iPads hung on the wall so gallery visitors can look up on Goggle what is being said about the pieces they are viewing.
Allen said public relations professionals should be certified, just like doctors and lawyers.
Allen uses his Midtown gallery to publicize the work of his public relations clients.
“Today communications and somebody representing your image is just as important as going to the hospital because you can completely destroy a career or business if you don’t do it properly,” he said.
Notable displays in Allen’s showroom include a nude statue of Bill Cosby’s famous TV character, Dr. Cliff Huxtable, looking aged and out of shape. Covering Huxtable’s genitalia is the sad face of Cosby’s Saturday morning cartoon character, Fat Albert.
Titled “Fat Albert Cries for Dr. Huxtable,” it is young artist Rodman Edwards’ commentary on allegations that the once-beloved comedian and actor drugged and sexually assaulted a number of women during his career.
Another provocative display in the showroom is a “treason monument” featuring a bust of U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark. It was sculpted by artist Daniel Edwards as a protest to the “apathy of the American people” toward a letter to Iranian leaders signed by Cotton and 46 other Senate Republicans.
The letter warns that Congress might overturn or modify whatever agreement the Obama administration and several allies reach with Iran to try to rein in growth of Iran’s nuclear program.
Federal law forbids any U.S. citizen acting without authority from affecting disputes with a foreign government, Allen said in a news release. Under that law, he wrote, “these senators committed treason.”