HELLO GORGEOUS: Mel Odom is having a New York moment, but it took 40 years of work to get there.
On Friday, his solo show “Gorgeous” will bow at the Daniel Cooney gallery. The artist will sit down with the novelist Edmund White on Saturday afternoon to discuss his career. Over the years Odom has done his share of covers, such as White’s “Forgetting Elena,” among others. Guests at this weekend’s talk will learn of his many pursuits — the most recent of which was a fashion collaboration with the London-based Qasimi men’s wear label.
The multidisciplnary talent Odom has three books to his own name. In 1991, he created his own doll “Gene Marshall,” based on a fictitious film actor from the Forties. More than one million dolls have been sold since it debuted at the 1995 Toy Fair, Odom said. Born in Richmond, and raised in the tiny tobacco town of Ahoskie, N.C., Odom earned his bachelor of fine arts degree in fashion illustration from Virginia Commonwealth University. After fine-tuning his artistry in London, he returned to his hometown before relocating to New York in 1975. Playboy, Time, The New York Times Magazine and Rolling Stone are among the magazines
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