Ethan James Green's Sleeping Beauties

Ethan James Green first forayed behind the lens in the mid-2010s, launching an esteemed career shooting major campaigns and editorials the world over. With clients including Vanity Fair, WSJ., Alexander McQueen, Dazed Magazine, Louis Vuitton, Max Mara, and multiple publications under the Vogue umbrella—including, most recently, the American Vogue cover starring Margot Robbie as Barbie—his lens is in great demand. Melding his experience in portraiture with his eye for fine art, Green is now harnessing his creative acumen in the role of gallerist. After getting his start photographing friends and acquaintances encountered in queer circles (one of his muses is transgender model and CERO06 cover subject Hari Nef), he continues his explorations of identity and sexuality through the New York Life Gallery, which he founded last year and where he curates the work of other artists.

Located on the fifth floor of a brick walkup in the heart of Chinatown, the New York Life Gallery has been positioned by Green as a space to feature previously unseen and underappreciated works. After launching last fall with a show of rarely-seen photographs by the late Baltimore artist Steven Cuffie, the space now hosts a new assemblage of last century's fine art—all selected by Green himself over the course of a year. Open through July 14, Sleeping Beauties exclusively features human subjects in an eclectic assortment of portraits.

The artworks presented in Sleeping Beauties span generations and continents, opening pathways for historical exploration among viewers. For Green himself, the curation process was facilitated through the scouring of auction sites, identifying pieces which resonated with him personally. "It started by paintings I was drawn to visually," Green remarks from his office within the Life Gallery. "Then after acquiring a handful, I started to realize there was a connection, whether it was through a lineage or people were from the same movements." As he encountered one piece, another lead would emerge; this process of organic discovery resulted in a collection of works—many untitled or undated, some without a known creator—boasting a mélange of characteristics, styles, materials, and subjects. "I got really addicted to the treasure hunt, connecting the dots," he adds.

In one corner hangs a 1931 oil on canvas by the New York art critic Alexander Brook; on the opposing wall is a mosaic of multi-colored stones embedded meticulously within a thick slab of concrete constructed by the German-American stained glass artist Elsa Schmid in 1930, her signature etched onto the rear of the concrete block. Both capture a white adult male in profile, but each evokes a different gravitas due to the contrasting effects of their material composition. The jaw-tracing paint strokes of Brook's brush sweep from upturned chin to ear to construct a Talking Man with tempestuous effect; Schmid's, alternatively, meticulously lays stones with scattered directionality in a fractal manner, composing a younger man with a more passive, keener gaze.

The subjects of Sleeping Beauties run across the spectrum of humanity. Among the final pieces along the gallery's walls is an untitled piece by the Haitian painter Joseph Wilfrid Daleus, framing a young Haitian woman, her hand on her shoulder and head turned outward. On the corner of her eye lies a single mound of unspread paint, a tear immortalized running down her face. On either side of her are two other women: one, an American painted by the British artist Michael Bastow splayed nude amongst varied colored sheets; the other, a Tahitian woman by the Russian Serge Grès with an almost troubled gaze, her pigtails resting upon her shoulders with a sash of fabric sweeping across her neck. "It's a mix. There's artists that are being shown for the first time—that we know of—but then there's artists that have been recently forgotten," Green explains. "Names that people have recently forgotten, but names that are key to what we know of as American art today."

To Green, the process of putting together the exhibition reminded him of the cultural development he has witnessed in his own industry over the course of his successful career so far. Akin to his work in photographing queer communities and people of color, he discovered twentieth-century artists with an eye for "people who had not been celebrated before." "I thought it was really exciting to learn about," he muses. "That almost reflects what has happened in fashion the past ten years."

Sleeping Beauties is on view through July 14 at the New York Life Gallery. For more information, please visit NewYorkLifeGallery.com.