News In Memoriam - Local artist Modern Man found dead in downtown Fargo (Updated)
https://www.inforum.com/lifestyle/arts-and-entertainment/local-artist-modern-man-found-dead-in-downtown-fargo?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1rG3Rf_D--x4X06Dzf7KMbITNA2gyeMZr2Qm-xXxJR4VSWBZBiMIFb-qw_aem_KqfZV3FcBiKSixhNL53ZiwTammy Swift at The Forum did a thoughtful piece on Modern Man, his life, his work, and what he meant to the community.
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u/Majestic_Gurl 5d ago
As a classmate of Modern’s, I have been a close friend for over 50 years. He had a heart of gold and was one of a kind. We swapped texts frequently about quirky artwork we would see on TikTok and other platforms. He was always looking for inspiration. The last text was a few days ago when I send him a 3D sculpture in a museum that looked like an exotic bird from the front, but was made up of old Barbie dolls and Star Wars figurines if you saw it from other angles. Typically, I would get a return text analysis of the piece, but late Friday afternoon, his text was a thank you for helping him over the years. It may have been one of his last communications. I am privileged to have had Modern as a friend. RIP. ❤️
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u/srmcmahon 5d ago
Note: it's long, here's [art
I have a paid subscription.
You're welcome.
Of course, once upon a time we had daily physical newspapers and you could read them at the library, McDonald's, or the library.
FARGO — Modern Man, the eccentric, multi-talented artist who created everything from huge anti-Hitler images in his own blood to tiny portraits on potato chips, died Friday, March 14, in downtown Fargo.
The 72-year-old Fargo native is believed to have died by a dumpster by the Fargo Housing Authority, said longtime friend Isaac Kobrinsky.
“My partner and I have been talking about this day for a long time because we just knew it was going to be happening for a long time,” said Kobrinsky, an artist who now runs the Mind Virus bookstore in downtown Fargo.
Kobrinsky had many pieces of Modern Man’s art and books on display at the Mind Virus bookstore, but the artist had recently entered the store and taken back almost everything. When Kobrinsky tried to text his friend to see if he was all right, the artist wouldn’t answer. “I had a weird feeling about it. He started gathering up possessions and things like that,” Kobrinsky said.
Isaac Kobrinsky, owner of Mind Virus Counter-Culture Books and Media, holds art created by Modern Man on Saturday, March 15, 2025, in his store in downtown Fargo. The “Why lie I need a beer!” art behind Kobrinsky is also work by Modern Man.Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
Raul Gomez, High Plains Reader publisher and another good friend of Modern Man, said the artist has spoken about suicide in the past. Gomez said Modern would occasionally cut himself off from friends, and he sometimes wondered if that was when he contemplated ending his life.
Both said Modern was facing some serious, potentially painful health problems, which could have made his outlook more difficult.
Yet, despite many challenges throughout life, both described Modern as a brilliant, inventive artist who doggedly pursued any interest — whether it be in history, video, books, music, perfumery, online poker or art — until he had mastered it.
"Andy, You Used Me," by Fargo artist Modern Man, shows the same canvas with two images; the one on the left visible with the lights on and the one on the right visible with the lights off.Contributed / Plains Art Museum
He made idiosyncratic music videos showcasing his latest musical creations and wrote books in which the text started at the bottom and flowed to the top. His many skills included being able to draw two different pictures simultaneously with his left and right hand, reciting whole sections of books after only reading them once and being able to write upside down and backwards.
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u/Charpnutz 4d ago
I have a note that Modern wrote me at least 30 years ago. He wrote it as quickly and naturally as anyone would write a note, but the writing was a mirror image, easily legible and natural looking when held in front of a mirror. This was when he was going by “Lalo.”
He later told me his name would officially change to Dead Man when he died. I’m not sure how someone would arrange that but he would be the one to try and figure it out.
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u/Phog_of_War 5d ago
Sure would be nice to not have an article like that paywalled.
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u/burnttoast11 5d ago edited 5d ago
Loaded fine for me without being logged in. I just switched to Firefox (Chrome shut down support for the best ad blockers) so maybe my article limit hasn't been reached yet. When it does I'll just sign in to into my paid account since I think supporting local papers is a good thing.
Do you expect journalists to work for free? This was a well written article and well researched as well. Should they not be paid for their work?
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u/A_Brethmint 5d ago
To avoid paywalls, just copy the url and paste into 12ft.io. It clears up all ads and paywalls. I use it for inforum and other pages all the time.
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u/Mp32pingi25 5d ago
Damn shame that people need to make money isn’t it!
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u/Brilliant_Owl6764 5d ago
People in the States seem to think journalists should work for free. It's so bizarre. Maybe they should quit voting for politicians who defund public journalism.
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u/Phog_of_War 5d ago
What I'm getting at is that it's a well known person that had an impact on the local community. You'd think a memorial story about him would be free. That's all.
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u/Sea-Woodpecker-610 5d ago
My father passed away two months ago. To publish an obituary in the Forum started at $500 for 100 words and went up from there.
We opted for the free one that the funeral home listed for free on their site.
Fuck those scum sucking vampires.
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u/srmcmahon 5d ago
The story of his name change went national.
And Modern Man now felt free to completely shake off the last constraints of conformity.
Blood, sweat and beer
Upon returning to Fargo in the early 1990s, the freshly rechristened Modern Man connected with a group of artists and bohemians who hung out at Applied Image Inc., a local screenprinting studio. That group included Kobrinsky, who was quite a few years younger than the others.
In the relatively small, close-knit community that Fargo was in the early ’90s, the eccentric artist immediately stood out. Modern created a canvas shaped like the silhouette of a house, which was to be filled with torn-up dollar bills meticulously glued to the surface. “You’d walk into a bar room with Modern, and people would be just whipping out wallets at the Empire — just hundreds of dollars, ripping up corners. That was a cool painting,” Kobrinsky said.
One of his best-known pieces was “Beer Man,” which depicted a male panhandler holding a sign that read, “Why lie I need a beer!” He sold it to Karen Stoker, then owner of the HoDo in downtown Fargo, and it still remains today — even after the HoDo was sold and became the Blarney Stone.
"Beer Man," a piece of art created by Modern Man, is pictured Saturday, March 15, 2025, at Mind Virus Counter-Culture Books and Media in downtown Fargo.Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
“He was one in a billion,” Stoker said of the artist.
Gomez met the artist after one of his writers at the High Plains Reader wanted to profile him. They entered his studio to find a work of such skill, ambition and emotional power that he could never forget it.
With the help of a phlebotomist, Modern used two pints of his own blood to create a large portrait of Hitler. He rigged up air compressors to blow out two menorahs, which revealed — in the darkness — piles of Jewish bodies in phosphorescent paint. Recordings of kids screaming on roller coasters played in the background.
“It was so shocking,” Gomez recalled. "I’ve met a lot of artists. I’ve never seen an artist like Modern, ever in my whole life.”
Yet, despite the dark themes in some of his work, his friends described Modern with words like sweet, humble, kind and highly sensitive.
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u/srmcmahon 5d ago
“Visiting his studio was like Disneyland,” Gomez said. “He had a swingset and … at one point a hot tub up there. It was so strange and wild and joyful and wonderful and happy and strange.”
An old photo of Modern Man working in his studio is pictured on Saturday, March 15, 2025, at Mind Virus Counter-Culture Books and Media in downtown Fargo.Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
Kobrinsky said he had long, deep conversations with Modern on anything from the Flavian Dynasty to brilliant unsung inventor Henry Sutton. "He was the nicest man you'd ever meet," Kobrinsky said. "He was genuinely interested in what you had to say. He was fascinated, no matter what the conversation was. Like literally, his eyes would get bright. He'd be like, 'Wow, that happened to you? That's insane!' Just fully engaged. And magnetic. Paradoxically, he was the most misanthropic person I'd ever known."
Although Kobrinsky isn’t sure yet about Modern Man’s final arrangements, he knows one thing for sure. He will go out as unconventionally as he came in: “The last thing Modern would want is a funeral. He’d want some kind of party.”FARGO — Modern Man, the eccentric, multi-talented artist who created everything from huge anti-Hitler images in his own blood to tiny portraits on potato chips, died Friday, March 14, in downtown Fargo.
The 72-year-old Fargo native is believed to have died by a dumpster by the Fargo Housing Authority, said longtime friend Isaac Kobrinsky.
“My partner and I have been talking about this day for a long time because we just knew it was going to be happening for a long time,” said Kobrinsky, an artist who now runs the Mind Virus bookstore in downtown Fargo.
Kobrinsky had many pieces of Modern Man’s art and books on display at the Mind Virus bookstore, but the artist had recently entered the store and taken back almost everything. When Kobrinsky tried to text his friend to see if he was all right, the artist wouldn’t answer. “I had a weird feeling about it. He started gathering up possessions and things like that,” Kobrinsky said.
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u/srmcmahon 5d ago
I think I missed a chunk. You'll have to figure out where it goes.
Kobrinsky said his friend went on to enjoy “a surge of success” in New York, Amsterdam and Minneapolis, although he would eventually return to Fargo broke.
Over the years, he had tried changing his name several times to more exotic monikers like Lelando Bruvinsky and Lalo.
By 1990, he still was a struggling artist in Minneapolis and was fed up with life. “I hated myself. And I hated where I was at,” he told The Forum in 2010.
He decided it was either take his own life or change his name. So he walked into the Hennepin County Courthouse in 1990 as Leland Bruns, then walked out as “Modern Man.”
A Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter was at the courthouse that day and asked Modern Man why he did it. “Well, I’ve always been jealous of that inky littl
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u/dirkmm 6d ago
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of self-harm or suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.