The Closer: Inside the private space of rock legend Patti Smith

New York Daily News

Rock legend Patti Smith with photographer Steven Sebring

How many people get to glimpse the private space of New York rock poet legend Patti Smith? Everyone now. The Robert Miller Gallery in West Chelsea presents “Objects of Life,” an exhibit by photographer and filmmaker Steven Sebring and Smith, focusing on images and objects central to Smith’s life. Celebrating the recent release of the documentary “Patti Smith: Dream of Life,” which took Sebring and Smith 11 years to complete, the gallery show combines moving images with static images while exploring collaboration, inspiration and relationships, such as an entire room devoted to Smith’s friendship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. The film, which won for Excellence in Cinematography for a Documentary at Sundance in 2008, aired on PBS on Dec. 30, Smith’s birthday. The DVD is available at Amazon.com.

A chair and television from Smith’s bedroom, where the film was shot, is part of the show.

“It was just me and her and a camera and microphone in her bedroom,” says Sebring, who met Smith in Detroit while photographing her for Spin magazine. “This exhibition is an extension of the film. It’s like it’s come alive.”

Very New York in image and ambience, this show displays the work of two people who love life and can’t help but make art in all forms that expresses exactly how they feel about it.

The exhibit runs through Feb. 6 at 524 W. 26th St. Zac Posen, Michael Stipe, Albert Maysles, Jessica Lange, and Sam Shepard, whose small black and white portrait taken by Smith hangs in the show, were in attendance.

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