FASHIONABLE FURNISHINGS : Planas Wears Art on His Sleeves

Jon Planas is a painter. His works on canvas are owned by Ivana Trump and Cher. His other patrons, from the ranks of the bold-faced names in the gossip columns--Allan Carr, Robin Williams, Sandra Bernhard, Bob Geldof and Deborah Harry--wear their Planas originals on their backs.

That’s because Planas paints jackets--tuxedo jackets, bombers, whatever style his clients favor.

(Madonna chose a bolero style with embroidered lapels and painted with roses spilling from an Art Deco vase on the back.)

Planas launched his career on the rocks in Waikiki. Surfers saw his painted stones and brought their surfboards to him. The jackets were the result of a public humiliation.

Once, when he was attending a formal affair, he was mistaken for a waiter. He immediately painted his white dinner jacket--and began taking orders for apparel instead of drinks. Carr wanted one so desperately that he had his own jacket flown to Hawaii from Los Angeles by private jet so Planas could embellish it.

Planas uses acrylics and oil-based metallics, and embeds mirrors on the lapels and sleeves to create the pop images of Marilyn Monroe, peace signs and symbols of New Age mysticism, such as his signature sphinx.

The Peruvian Planas is a hot number, one of those artists-as-celebrity that are a hybrid of the Manhattan art scene. He is a shameless self-promoter in the style of Andy Warhol, traveling the art circuit with gallery shows in Manhattan, Scottsdale and Los Angeles.

He has been included in the newest Absolut Vodka advertising campaign, “Artists of the ‘90s,” also including Andre Mirapolsky in Los Angeles.

Planas recently moved his studio from Manhattan to Scottsdale. “Living in the desert has slowed me down to a deeper level,” he says. It’s also added furnishings to his list of painted pieces.

His jackets ($400 to $2,000), chairs, cabinets and altarpieces ($800 to $8,000), which he calls “his quest for instinctual conceptualism,” are available in Los Angeles through art dealer Edward H. Davis.

On Saturday, Planas can be seen at the nightclub Arena with his performance art group.

Naturally, Planas, never one to miss an opportunity, will have his jackets and a new line of T-shirts with him.