Harvey Weinstein Hosts Emma Roberts, Erika Christensen at Beverly Hills Charity Art Exhibition

Gallery

Oscar-winning producer Harvey Weinstein hosted the Gallery for the People Summer preview at Mr. C Beverly Hills, Ignazio Cipriani’s new signature hotel, on Thursday night.

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The art event benefitted the Art of Elysium’s Fine Art Program. The summer collection -- also viewable online at Gallery for the People -- was displayed around the pool area at the Mr. C Yacht Club and featured over 20 paintings and drawings. The collection was filled with creative and inspired works that reflect the interlocked worlds of both cinema and art, and created by up-and-coming LA based artists.

“Creative expression and experimentation are the core DNA for every film-maker, actor and artist,” says gallery founder and film producer Eva Maria Daniels. “The work in our summer collection embodies those characteristics and presents them in a tangible format designed to engage collectors of both art and film.”

The online art gallery regularly debuts new artists, but the organization also holds private events and pop-up boutiques where guests get to see the works before they go up for sale on the website the next day.

Actresses Emma Roberts, Dakota Johnson, Erika Christensen, Gossip Girl director Joe Lazarove, were all checking out works from Davyd Whaley. Domingo Zapata, Jordi Mollá, Sage Vaughn, Vanessa Prager, inspired by Hollywood culture, from images of Marilyn Monroe to examinations of finding fame in Hollywood.

Weinstein posed for photos in front of one of the night's stand-out artists -- Antonio “Nino” Del Prete, an Italian artist, actor and producer based in LA, who showed his Art Doesn't Pay modern day satirical re-imaginings of famous classical paintings. In 2011, he had a show at the Chateau Marmont, which was attended by Johnny Depp, a big fan of his work.

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Del Prete's work called ‘Holywood’ is inspired by an original tiny painting that hangs in a church in Austria. But instead of Madonna holding the dead body of Christ, his version depicts the far more modern fate of those who come to Hollywood to become stars.

"At the end of the road, they are left holding a Oscar, being pursued by the paparazzi, with an empty wine bottle beside them," explains Del Prete. Instead of the cruxifiction scene in the background, a helicopter circles the iconic (but purposely misspelled) Holywood sign.

His 'Madonna of the Oil' is a reimagining of a Carravagio painting, that is currently hanging in a church in Rome. But rather than asking for a miracle from the baby Jesus, his peasants pray to a Madonna holding a barrel of oil for the price of fuel to go down.

His modern statement on obese children is an adaptation of a painting from the Renaissance of a fat child holding an apple. "They were called “monsters” in that time because they were obese," Del Prete explains. By contrast, his children don't hold apples but Wendy’s and McDonald’s fast food. Same statement, different eras.

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"My father was an art history professor so I grew up familiar with Renaissance painters," says Del Prete, who grew up in France and has been in the US for 13 years. “I like to take the classical works and add a touch of contemporary social commentary."

To see more of Del Prete's work, click here.