Filthy Gorgeous Explores A Half Decade of Wild Nights In Camden Town, London

Self taught photographer Robert Lang grew up in Durban, South Africa, but moved to Camden Town, London, in 2001. With his day job, er, night job, as a fashion photographer and correspondent, he started to spend a lot of wild nights out on the town where he began to photograph some of the locals. Never intending for the series to become public, what would become Filthy Gorgeous was a photographic diary of sorts to laugh at the next day – perhaps as a cure to alleviate the impending hang over. Lang says he calls the series Filthy Gorgeous "because all of us ran wild living, working and partying in Camden and we had no inhibitions." He also says, "These women represented everything about our period at that time in London and were smart, fashionable and witty." Bruised, bloody and bloody bruised, the characters in these photographs – many of them friends of the photographer – have moved on from their party life, which makes these images all the more indicative of a rare and special moment in time. 

Takuroh Toyama "Float" Photography Exhibition At Kata Gallery's Ebisu Liquid Room in Tokyo

Takuroh Toyama is a photographer based in Tokyo and my good friend. He actually has a lot to do with how I started taking photographs and continue doing it now. I had never encountered photography that moved me before, but the first time I saw his photos it felt like they were somehow different from anything I'd seen up to that point, and I still can clearly remember how excited they made me. It doesn't matter if the subject is fashion or a band, his pictures have a consistency and are full of his own thoughts and viewpoint. That isn't a negative thing, it's in every way positive, and there is a chaotic blend of a longing gaze that isn't offensive, and a warmth overflowing with humanity. He introduced me to the work of amazing photographers like Ryan McGinley and Peter Sutherland. He always walks around with his camera and is always taking pictures. He never does anything stupid like going to hip parties and only taking pictures of cool people. He knows those kinds of pictures aren't any good (they just get consumed), and he is well aware the "cool" generally talked about is a persona. I really feel like I learned a lot from that attitude of his and his work which is full of it. His exhibition ended just the other day. I helped out and just because I was free I went there many days, and there were always only good people there. The mood was always good, and even though it's too bad that it ended, you can see his photos online too, so definitely take a look. text and photographs by Yuki Kikuchi. Translation by Bowen Cassey

Leading The Hip-Hop Renaissance: Read Our Conversation With Viper Magazine Publisher Lily Mercer Who Is Keeping Her Finger On The Pulse of The New Hip-Hop Golden Age →

AL: Do you remember the moment you fell in love with hip-hop?

Lily Mercer : Yeah. There were two songs. One was “Wishing on a Star” by Jay-Z. Weirdly, that’s the Jay-Z [track] that no one thinks of. My mum had grown up playing Motown, so there was a soul connection. It was hearing a song that was accessible but also quite deep. To me, those songs were quite profound at eight years old. After, when [rap] became an obsession, was when Eminem came out. That was a gateway drug. He’s a white rapper with middle class parents. I was a middle class kid, so it was the kind of hip-hop that was acceptable.

Click here to read the interview. 

For This Week's Friday Playlist, We Look At Some Of The Best Experimental Electronic Noise Records of 2015 →

"There are no excuses. If you don’t like what you’re reading about in Spin and Pitchfork, then you need to search engine that shit, harder." Click here to listen to the playlist and read our review of the best electronic-experimental noise records of 2015. 

Stoned Immaculate: Read Our Interview With Azalea Lee, A Minimalist Crystal Healer Who Makes Metaphysical Fine Jewelry →

Speaking to Azalea Lee is like talking to that wise aunt who has all those otherworldly insights that she wraps in easily accessible metaphors so that you don’t have to work too hard to arrive at the answers. Whether you actually have that aunt, or you always wished you had that aunt, when you walk into her crystal shop, you immediately feel that sense of comfort and familiarity. Her space is in an old building in the fashion district of Downtown Los Angeles. There’s a weird old elevator that you take to the 9th floor, walk down a short dark hallway, ring the bell and the door opens to a bright, white room with a sweeping landscape of the city and a friendly woman who asks you to take off your shoes. Entering Place 8 Healing is like walking through the pearly gates in a dream where you know you’re not dead, and this isn’t eternity, but somehow you feel lighter and more at ease. There’s a cubby station next to the door with a cushion that you can sit on where we eventually held the interview. She explains that we spend so much time wearing shoes and clothes that we lose our grounding; that removing that barrier between our feet and the ground is an essential part of rooting ourselves with the Earth. Click here to read more. 

A Peek at A23 Volume One "The Mysticism Of The Female" Published By Kristin Prim

A23 articulates a vision of contemporary art through a prism of acute individualism. Published biannually in limited edition hardcover volumes by Kristin Prim, A23 invites ten prolific fine artists to contribute original work to each edition, providing a platform to directly engage the viewer with their personal ethos and spirit. Entitled after the divination of the Aces, Twos, and Threes of the Minor Arcana, A23 seeks to espouse the collective truths of each artist, showcasing their personal ideologies, experiences, and dogmas in an archival visual manner. Click here to purchase Volume One, with contributions by Theo Adams, Luciano Castelli, Mary Beth Edelson and more. 

Read Autre's Top 10 Picks For The Best Gallery Exhibitions Of 2015 →

Click here to read Adam Lehrer's top 10 picks for the best art exhibitions of 2015.

Autre Exclusively Premieres The Short Film "Small Tits Big Dreams" By Tea Hacic and Milan Based Art Duo No Text Azienda

SMALL TITS BIG DREAMS is a story about impostor syndrome. It’s about finding yourself in a new country, situation, job or curse you can’t find your way out of. You don’t know who you need to be so you violently push yourself to the limits in order to find out. It’s about dating an illiterate drug dealer only so he’ll invite you to parties and then hating all of your clothes so much that you take them off once you get there. It’s about having a goal and doing whatever you must to reach it, even if “whatever you must” means stealing your best friend’s wallet. It’s about Milan, a city that was sleeping until noon, spending all its money on shoes and falling into k-holes by midnight. But the city is changing … ! Click here to read more about Small Tits Big Dreams

Watch The Music Video For Beach Baby's Track Limousine

Beach Baby, a musical foursome from London with the surprisingly un-London name of Beach Baby, have released their music video for the recent single Limousine.  Directed by Lily Rose Thomas, she mentions that "...the aim was to mirror the warped and surreal lyrical subject matter so with the band, we arrived at the idea of two young boys preparing for a Mexican stand off, with a love interest standing by." 

Soul Over Ego: Meet The Millennial Beatmaker and Street Artist Who Is Leading The New Feminist Electronic Music Revolution in Los Angeles →

Callie Ryan, also known as Phat_Thighz, is an LA-based producer/beatmaker, intern for Dublab, and cofounder of a music and art collective known as Phull Gut Productions. This past year, she graduated from UC Santa Cruz, where discovered her deep love for sound synthesis––both analog and digital––while studying visual art and electronic music. Growing up in LA, Callie developed an abiding connection with the music emerging from the Los Angeles beat scene. According to the 22-year-old music producer, her desire to buy her first SP404 and immerse herself in the world of beat making was catalyzed by artists such as Teebs, Dibiase, Flying Lotus, SAMIYAM, Odd Nosdom, and Ras G. Click here to read more....

Erik Parker "Undertow" @ Paul Kasmin Gallery in New York

Employing his own wildly inventive architecture and signature neon palate, Erik Parker creates bold, graphic compositions that riff on the traditional genres of portraiture and still-life.  His visionary paintings draw their inspiration from diverse elements of American subculture—psychedelia, underground comic books, the Chicago Imagists, hip hop and heavy metal— as well as Picasso,  Francis Bacon and Roy Lichtenstein. Erik Parker "Undertow" will be on view until January 16, 2016 at Paul Kasmin Gallery. photographs by Scout MacEachron

A Vinyl Bromance: Read Our Conversation with Elijah Wood and Zach Cowie of The DJ Duo Wooden Wisdom

photograph by Kenneth Bachor

At first nobody noticed when Elijah Wood and Zach Cowie began playing music. In those moments the duo had everything they wanted; anonymity, influence and unmediated feeling. Wooden Wisdom, the Wood Cowie DJ duo, was playing the Art Basel party Illuminate the Night at the unfinished Brickell City Center in Miami. Then people did notice; women in ball gowns, 20-somethings in dresses a mother wouldn’t approve of, Miami types, men in whatever men wear to these things. The DJ booth was surrounded. The crowd gathered it does on a major subway line during rush hour: relentlessly, unpleasantly and pathetically. Click here to read more. 

Source: http://www.pasunautre.com/interviewsmain/2...

LAND Presents Brian Bress 'A Toyota's A Toyota' @ The Desmond In Los Angeles

LAND presents a site-specific exhibition of newly commissioned works by Los Angeles-based artist Brian Bress at The Desmond (formerly Desmond’s Department Store), an Art Deco landmark on Miracle Mile. The exhibition, A Toyota’s a Toyota, includes a large-scale video projection, entitled NOON NOON, and a six-channel HD monitor “window display” installation, entitled The Desmond Six. Both works feature painted panels – bucolic mountain landscapes in NOON NOON and a white and grey grid mimicking the architectural windows on the building’s façade above in The Desmond Six – which are cut through from behind to reveal candy-colored striped cartoonish figures, both bulbous and cylindrical, tightly positioned within the picture plane. NOON NOON mirrors itself on opposing walls, while the cutting of each of the letters of “NOON” are slowly revealed, again mimicking itself as each letter is cut.  'A Toyota's A Toyota' will be on view until January 6, 2016 at the Desmond, 5514 Wilshire Boulevard Los Angeles, CA