Moncler's Citizens of The City of Genius Dream of Utopia for Fashion Week in Shanghai

 
 

10 designer neighborhoods, 10 unique experiences, 10 extraordinary collections, 1 source of inspiration: The City of Genius.

The live show is the ultimate expression of creativity thriving amidst dissolving boundaries, enabling different worlds and cultural backgrounds to inspire one another in a genuine act of co-creation. Fueled by Shanghai’s vibrant spirit and magic energy, it is a place where local and international creative talent unite, guided by the childhood genius that lives within all of us.

The City of Genius embraced Shanghai’s inspiring culture of innovation and heritage, driving deep connections with local visionaries and international talent from diverse spheres of influence and cultural perspectives, at the apex of global culture, in a worldwide exchange of creativity. 

The spirit of co-creation brought together traditional and modern methods of creativity, connecting Chinese and global culture spanning art, film, music and entertainment. The show featured an installation by iconic artist Xu Bing, and his creative reimagination of language was woven throughout event communications, the show venue, the livestream, and the accompanying campaign. To touch language is to get in tune with the very beating heart of culture. The art installation astounds with its spectacular beauty. Bing’s work was shot by photographer and filmmaker Wing Shya, who created The City of Genius manifesto film starring Moncler global brand ambassador, Leah Dou.

The unforgettable show finale featured a one-of-a-kind live showcase by creative performance director Henry Lau, surrounded by dancers, musicians, and a dazzling sound and light display designed exclusively for the event. Henry Lau presented a rousing performance of his greatest hits. The performance was opened by Chen Lijun, an outstanding Yue opera actress, blending traditional Chinese opera with contemporary pop in a groundbreaking rendition of Chinese-style music. The stunning performances marked a dazzling end to the event.

 
 

The stellar designer lineup saw Edward Enninful, Hiroshi Fujiwara, Donald Glover, Lulu Li, Mercedes-Benz by Nigo, Palm Angels, A$AP Rocky, Willow Smith – as well as special appearances from Rick Owens and Jil Sander – bring their unique concepts for The City of Genius to life. The landscape of designer worlds saw each co-creator realize their imagined aesthetic utopia: a distinct neighborhood to fully represent the soul and inspiration of their Genius collections.

Judith Godwins’ First European Solo Exhibition Expressions of Life @ Pippy Houldsworth Gallery

Pippy Houldsworth Gallery presents American painter Judith Godwin's first European solo exhibition, Expressions of Life. The exhibition comprises an overview of the artist's work from the early 1950s - the period in which she was associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement - to the end of the century. The opening exhibition truly illustrates the artist’s lasting influence over the landscape of American art, despite the challenges she faced as a result of both her sex and sexuality.

Long underappreciated, Godwin’s contribution to the New York avant-garde has undergone recent revision following her inclusion in landmark exhibitions at the Denver Art Museum, Whitechapel Gallery and Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles, that offered a reappraisal of women abstractionists of the 20thcentury. Her thesis was – and remained – one of liberation from the conventions of a movement anchored in a language of masculinity and heteronormativity. Starkly aware of the limitations imposed on her by the milieu in which she practiced, Godwin sought to redefine such ‘masculine’ values by way of gestural abstractions that brought a loose geometry into dialogue with nature, dance and Zen philosophy. Her innovative reorientation of the language of modernism remains a radical statement today.

 

Godwin’s interactions with the New York art world began early in her career. As a student at the Mary Baldwin College in her native Virginia, she sought the acquaintance of the modern dancer and choreographer Martha Graham. Godwin’s invitation to Graham to perform at her college laid the foundations for a lifelong friendship between the two, and Graham’s trailblazing path in a world dominated by men became a touchstone for Godwin. The diaphanous washes of colour, colliding forms and sensuous arcs which characterise Godwin’s works from the early 1950s are indebted to Graham, whose performances she frequented on arrival in New York, often watching from the wings.

 

By 1953 Godwin had settled in New York and was continuing her artistic education under Hans Hofmann, whose influence can be seen in her dynamic approach to composition and colour. Provincetown Summer, 1953, exemplifies Godwin’s facility for translating depth and volume into two dimensions. Introduced to Zen Buddhism by Abstract Expressionist painter Kenzo Okada, such philosophies began to play a larger role in her painting, encapsulated by calligraphic brushwork, redolent too of Franz Kline, another close friend of Godwin’s. As the 1950s continued, the artist’s work took on larger proportions and a darker palette, all the while maintaining an organicism and proclivity for light and space in her evocation of the spiritual in nature. Her vigorous abstractions caught the attention of influential art dealer Betty Parsons, who included Godwin as the youngest artist in the inaugural exhibition at Section Eleven Gallery in 1958 alongside artists including Agnes Martin, and went on to present solo exhibitions of her work in 1959 and 1960.

 

During the 1960s, as Pop Art and Minimalism began their ascent, Godwin distanced herself from the New York art world, retreating instead to Connecticut where she worked restoring 18th-century homes and trained in masonry, carpentry and landscape design. Her return to New York in 1974 saw a change in her paintings, which demonstrated a robust communion with the outdoors and a physicality that invoked the power of nature. With its assertive cardamom red palette and esoteric iconography, Elegy to a Slain Deer, 1975, captures Godwin’s investigation of the relationship between the physical and metaphysical. As in her paintings of the 1950s, her keen appreciation of the corporeal form is palpable in the material presence of her body on the canvas, in body-length arcs of the brush that express her movements with agency. The liberation of the body and its inherent sensuality continued to play a central role in Godwin’s works of the 1980s and 1990s, as articulated by the flesh-inflected palette of The Nest, 1994. Godwin died in 2021 at the age of 91, just as her work began to reach new audiences worldwide. Her lasting legacy is in the transformative nature of her practice, which successfully recalibrated the masculine language of gestural abstraction, shifting representations of womanhood and sexual identity on the canvas.

Expressions of Life is on view through March 9 @ Pippy Houldsworth Gallery 6 Heddon St, London W1B 4BT, UK

UNESCO & Prada Group Announce The Third Edition of Their Sea Beyond Program

Today is International Day of Education, and in celebration, UNESCO and Prada Group have announced the third edition of their SEA BEYOND educational program dedicated to the dissemination of ocean literacy and ocean preservation, as well as a new partnership with Bibliothèques Sans Frontières (Libraries without Borders). This year, 34,385 students from 184 secondary schools across 56 countries will benefit from the SEA BEYOND’s training, which will focus on the interrelation between the ocean and climate, and the associated environmental challenges. It will offer ocean literacy training sessions for students and teachers and include live lessons with UNESCO ocean and climate experts. The program will run from January through June 2024 and will end with an international contest, as per the previous editions. 

All participating schools will their own awareness campaigns, which will encourage their peers to develop more conscious behaviors that help to promote ocean preservation using text, graphics or interactive content. The jury evaluating the campaigns will be composed of new and pre-established SEA BEYOND “friends,” the so-called SEA BEYONDers, people who have placed a love for the ocean at the center of their personal and professional lives.  

Park Nights Return @ Serpentine Galleries In London, Featuring Live Music, Performance, Dance, and Poetry

Serpentine was thrilled to announce it’s returned of Park Nights this August. Its experimental, interdisciplinary, live programme sited within the annual architectural commission, the 22nd Serpentine Pavilion designed by Lina Ghotmeh.

Bringing together multi-disciplinary artists, and featuring rave music, performance installations, poetry and dance, the exciting live programme invites audiences to engage, reflect, and connect. Park Nights runs from August to October, featuring The Living and the Dead Ensemble; Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro; Bambii and Christelle Oyiri.

Catch it’s final evening on October 8th, where Christelle Oyiri/CRYSTALLMESS will present a live iteration of her upcoming record with invited collaborators and musical guests.

The events will run through early October at Serpentine Galleries, Kensington Gardens, London.

Watch CELINE 15 "DYSFUNCTIONAL BAUHAUS" Men's SS23

CELINE 15
Palais De Tokyo
Paris, France
June 26th, 2022
DYSFUNCTIONAL BAUHAUS

Artworks by David Weiss, Alyss Estay, and Renata Petersen


Original soundtrack for Celine
“Design” Performed, written, and Arranged by Gustaf and produced by Chris Coady
Commissioned and co-produced by Hedi Slimane

Casting, Styling, and Set Design by Hedi Slimane

Hair Stylist
Esther Langham

Hair Colorist
Alex Brownsell

Makeup
Aaron De Mey

Malcolm Gladwell in Conversation with Flea @ The Palace Theater In Los Angeles

For the first-ever live version of the popular KCRW podcast, Malcolm Gladwell and Flea discuss his new memoir, Acid for the Children, to be released on November 5, 2019, by Grand Central Publishing. Malcolm and Flea will journey through the rock star’s childhood love of jazz, punk, and funk, what it was like working with Rick Rubin on the classic Red Hot Chilli Peppers albums of the ’90s and ’00s, how he became the signature rock bassist, and other riveting topics. Malcolm Gladwell will be in Conversation with Flea on Wednesday, November 13 at the Palace Theatre 630 S. Broadway Los Angeles. For more information and to purchase tickets please visit: kcrw.com/brokenrecordlive

Verbal Burlesque With Michael Imperioli, Lydia Lunch, Jerry Stahl & Other Guests @ The Standard Los Angeles

Autre hosted another night of Verbal Burlesque at the Standard Hotel, a literary evening of music and spoken word with Michael Imperioli, Lydia Lunch, Jerry Stahl, Gregg Foreman and Sylvia Black. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

Highlights From The Printed Matter LA Art Book Fair @ MoCA Geffen

Initiated in 2013, Printed Matter’s LA Art Book Fair (LAABF) is the companion fair to the NY Art Book Fair. Free and open to the public, the two fairs are among the leading international gatherings for the distribution of artists’ books, celebrating the full breadth of the art publishing community.

Held at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in downtown Los Angeles over three days, the 2019 LA Art Book Fair hosted 390 exhibitors from 31 countries, including a broad range of artists and collectives, small presses, institutions, galleries, antiquarian booksellers, and distributors. The event draws more than 35,000 individuals including book lovers, collectors, artists, and art world professionals each year. With a commitment to diversity and representation, the fair serves as a meeting place for an extended community of publishers and book enthusiasts, as well as a site for dialogue and exchange around all facets of arts publishing. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper