When finance honcho Justin Brownhill and his wife, Renee, wanted a family portrait, they commissioned artist Ashley Longshore to paint it.
But instead of sitting for hours so the New Orleans-based Longshore could perfect their likeness, they handed her a list of things that defined them — such as a black American Express card, an Asscher-cut diamond, a Birkin bag and an Aston Martin sports car.
“It becomes a family portrait when you put things in it that represent every member of the family,” says Renee Brownhill, 44. The result is a 4-by-6, unapologetic ode to the Brownhills’ Champagne-soaked lifestyle, prominently displayed in the couple’s Flatiron loft. “It’s a real conversation piece,” adds Brownhill.
Longshore, 39, has become the go-to artist for the financial elite — creating cheeky portraits and pop art that unabashedly celebrate American consumerism. Recent works in her “Greed, Money and Status” series have included a commissioned remake of “American Gothic,” with a couple holding a pitchfork full of money; a portrait of Gordon Gekko with framed currency; and a chair stuffed with more than $500,000 in shredded cash.
“Ashley makes fun of material things in a good way,” says 43-year-old Justin Brownhill, managing director of SenaHill Partners. “And that’s all part of the allure of her work. She pokes fun at Wall Street high society and has fun with it to a degree where I think families like us enjoy poking fun at ourselves.”
The couple own 15 works by the artist — whom Justin calls a “modern Andrea Warhol” — and were instrumental in introducing her to their deep-pocketed Wall Street pals after they hosted a New York show for her in their Manhattan loft in 2012. (Commissioned works by Longshore start at $30,000.)
Garrett Clayton, the CEO of AmCap, a Houston-based mortgage bank, recently added a Longshore to his robust art collection. In April, he commissioned her to paint an homage to Alec Baldwin’s hard-charging character in “Glengarry Glen Ross,” whose catchphrase was “Always be closing.”
With a shock of unruly dark hair, oversize bedazzled sunglasses and chunky jewelry, Longshore is as striking as her art.
Last year, the self-taught artist made her first million dollars and, this June, was named one of the top businesswomen of the South by Forbes. Despite being raised in Montgomery, Ala., to “be a trophy wife,” Longshore drops more F-bombs than a truck driver with Tourette’s.
“When I walk in these houses, and they say, ‘We’re going to take down a Damien Hirst and hang up an Ashley Longshore,’ I get the biggest f--king smile on my face,” says Longshore. “Guess what? That doesn’t happen when you are selling to broke people.”
She says her fascination with consumerism and luxury is uniquely American.
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“The most awesome part of being an American is that you can be an entrepreneur, and make as much money as you want, whether you are a man, a woman or an immigrant. In order to do this, you have to be a little greedy. I have collectors who are trading a hundred million dollars a day. When they get home, they want to laugh and have fun.”
Longshore — who has a loyal Hollywood clientele, including Salma Hayek, Penélope Cruz and Blake Lively, and a long-standing collaboration with retailer Anthropologie — spends a week out of every month in New York City, meeting clients and brokering deals. She is strongly anti-gallery because she doesn’t want to give someone else 50 percent of her sales.
“Keep your money. Be greedy. That whole starving-artist thing was pre-Internet. That’s when people had to go through a gallery to see what art was out there,” she says.
High-profile financial analyst Nicole Miller Regan and her stockbroker husband, John, own tens of thousands of dollars worth of Longshore’s work, including a “family portrait” featuring a black AmEx bearing the numbers of their birthdays; an homage to the Chanel suit entitled “Major Poontang”; and two of the aforementioned chairs stuffed with shredded currency.
She says Longshore’s art lets you “celebrate your victories.”
“I think you should have a money chair,” continues Miller Regan. “I like money.”
“New American Gothic,” $30,000
The couple featured in this painting, a spin on Grant Wood’s “American Gothic,” commissioned this work while they were preparing to move from New York to Chicago. (They asked not to be named to protect their privacy.)
The wife wanted to surprise her financier husband, so she went to Ashley’s studio in New Orleans to brainstorm over some bubbly.
“I wanted something that was a spoof on our ‘East Coast-goes-Midwest’ lifestyle,” she says. The result is based on actual photos provided to the artist — including the couple’s Michigan horse farm, which they are currently renovating. The couple plan to display their masterpiece in the farmhouse’s main entertaining space.
“The Collins Family Portrait,” $30,000
Manhattan-based couple Valerie Toscano and Michael Collins met while working at JPMorgan.
“A traditional portrait isn’t really representative of our style or family,” says Toscano. The objects are a mix of the couple’s favorite things — pizza, tennis, a Cartier bracelet.
“Always Be Closing,” $30,000
Houston-based mortgage pooh-bah Garrett Clayton and his wife, Katie, had seen some of Longshore’s work years ago and began following her on Instagram before commissioning this paean to Alec Baldwin’s character in “Glengarry Glen Ross,” which is emblazoned with brass balls.
“In my mind, the motivation for the piece is simple ... it tells me to get off my ass, grow a pair and go make some money,” says Clayton, whose art collection includes works by Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein, Frederick Hart and Pablo Picasso.
“Uncle Sam Chair,” $6,500 each
High-profile analyst Nicole Miller Regan (right, with her stockbroker husband, John) lives in New Orleans, but travels to New York frequently for work. Among the Ashley Longshore art the couple collects, is this chair (left), which is stuffed with more than $500,000 in shredded currency from the US Mint.
“The Brownhill Family Portrait,” $30,000
“I think it’s a nice way of making a statement about your family without having the stuffy oil painting,” says Renee Brownhill, who commissioned this work with her husband, Justin, who works in finance.
The painting depicts a black AmEx, an Aston Martin and a Birkin bag, but Brownhill insists it’s “not all materialistic things.” The jelly beans sitting in a Tiffany bowl are a reference to their daughter Mariah, whose nickname is Little Bean. The bottle of Veuve Clicquot invokes the Manhattan-based couple’s Newport wedding.
Masterpiece makeover
For those who want to go the traditional portrait route, there’s Nobilified — a site that allows you to upload a photo of yourself and have it painted onto a reproduced masterpiece.
“My father was a diplomat and we traveled a lot,” says Chris Cormier-Jensen, Nobilified’s 23-year-old Vancouver-based owner. “We were in museums constantly, and I always thought it would be cool to have one of those paintings of myself.”
His business took flight in December when the wife of Connor Barwin, a linebacker for the Philadelphia Eagles, ordered one. Barwin then surprised his teammates — including head coach Chip Kelly — with their very own portraits.
Last week, Bruno Mars’ tour manager sent the superstar a painting featuring the singer and his girlfriend Jessica Caban worked into a 1786 portrait by Joseph Wright of Derby.
A hand-painted oil on canvas starts at $140 and tops out at $420, plus a $25 shipping fee.
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