Frontal Loeb

"When people talk about a downtown crowd at an uptown opening," said gallerist Mary Boone, "what they really mean is a crowd full of other artists."

Artists or not, a decidedly downtown crowd turned up the collars of their denim jackets Thursday night in New York and headed over to Boone's Fifth Avenue gallery for the opening of Damian Loeb's new show of paintings.

As if in defiance of his vaunted position in the new group of figurative painters, Loeb chooses not to run with the art crowd.

"I didn't go to art school," he said. "And my paintings often start out as collages made from images from fashion. I have a lot of friends who are fashion photographers, and they're the reference point-not artists."

One of Loeb's other points of reference is Moby, the electronic music guru, who dropped by to cheer on his friend.

"Moby and I grew up together," explained Loeb. "We packed up our U-Haul and moved into the city together.

"People who do things that I can't do are the people I like to surround myself with-musicians, filmmakers."

Loeb's show consists of five new paintings, each of which-packed with a heavy load of cultural signifyers-captures a different moment in the life of the same young woman.

"I was interested in a subject that people would be able to relate to, so you have the young, fashion-conscious downtown girl."

In Loeb's painting "Stop," most of the girl's body is cropped out of the canvas; all that's visible is her white sling-backs and a swatch of her Burberry plaid skirt. Alexander McQueen stayed at my apartment a few months at ago said Loeb, "and accidentally left his Burberry scarf. I liked the pattern. As for the shoes they're either Manolo Blahniks or Prada. I can't tell."

But the fashionable crowd admiring the painting probably could-they're neither.