Marcin Dudek Performance at opening of new HLP space, 2015
Harlan Levey Projects is not only one of the most exciting galleries in new art hot spot Brussels, but the gallery may also have one of the greatest and most exciting rosters and platforms in the world. On the eve of Art Brussels 2016, we have a chat with Harlan about his stint as a professional soccer player, contemporary art and more. Read the full interview here.
John Kayser made photographs and films in California in the 1960s and 70s. His house and the streets of Los Angeles were stage for the private rituals that defined his obsession with female beauty. The women he captured on film performed at the heart of a photographic practice that remained out of sight while he was alive. John Kayser "Women" will be on view until March 5, 2015 at Farago Gallery, 224 West 8th Street, Los Angeles, CA.
In her first installment of a series of interviews with creative individuals across the globe – called V Presents – Virginie Picot talks art, ads, experimentation, and the mash of East & West with Graham Fink. Click here to read the full interview.
New York-based brand Rochambeau, designed by duo Josh Cooper and Laurence Chandler, makes no bones about being rooted heavily in hip-hop culture. Their FW 2016 presentation felt like a short if totally dope hip-hop party, using the catalyst of dueling DJs blaring ‘90s hip-hop favorites, from Gangstarr to Illmatic to Reasonable Doubt. The bass was shaking the room. The collection was inspired by the 1992 Tupac-starring film Juice, and as a result oversized sportswear figures in as the primary motif of the collection. The looks were very clean, with navy blue nylon track pants and matching nylon turtleneck as perhaps my favorite. Some were a bit safe, such as a black bomber over a black hoodie (something we all see on the street enough to not need to be reminded of it on the runway). But then Rochambeau would redeem itself with something totally unique, such as the slightly loose oversized patterned track pants, or that same pattern shown as a button down shirt under a loosely tailored varsity jacket with nice looking oversized khakis. Rochambeau has established its brand DNA and sticks to it here, perhaps paving way for more grandiose statements to come. Text and photographs by Adam Lehrer
For this week's Friday playlist, we pour over the revolutionary music of rebels and trouble-makers throughout the ages - featuring Patti Smith, Kanye West, Rage Against the Machine, and more. Fight on, brother, and listen to the playlist here...
Mellissa Broder has been at the cutting edge of the poetry world for a decade publishing titles such as Meat Heart and When You Mean One Thing and Say Your Mother. Melissa Broder always struggled with anxiety. In the fall of 2012, she went through a harrowing cycle of panic attacks and dread that wouldn't abate for months. So she began @sosadtoday, an anonymous Twitter feed that allowed her to express her darkest feelings, and which quickly gained a dedicated following. In her new book, So Sad Today, Broder delves deeper into the existential themes she explores on Twitter, grappling with sex, death, love low self-esteem, addiction, and the drama of waiting for the universe to text you back. Here she is "ballsy and beautiful, aggressively colloquial and achingly poetic" in her book trailer that's goth as fuck. Melissa Broder is the author of four collections of poems, including the forthcoming Last Sext (Tin House, 2016). Her poems have appeared in POETRY, Guernica, and The Iowa Review, among other journals. She lives in Venice, California. Click here to preorder So Sad Today.
Gypsy Sport’s FW 2016 presentation shunned a runway for an aesthetic so much more powerful. Designer Rio Uribe opted for a podium of his typically streetcasted models. Once telling Dazed that he streetcasts because he wanted the label to “span all five boroughs of NYC and the different races, genders, and cultures,” the models, while all professional soccer player ripped, were of a mixed bag of racial backgrounds. Can high fashion actually be inclusive? Doesn’t that sort of go against the whole idea of luxury? Uribe doesn’t care one fucking bit. Sick clothes for culturally ignored cultures. FW 2016 menswear felt like a new high in the brand’s aesthetic. Many of the looks exhibited the brand’s pension for gender fluidity: beautifully patterned smocks, blue dresses with smartly placed zippers, and jumpers elongated up at the sleeves and cropped at the waist. But, there were also pieces a more conventional dresser would feel nothing less than confident wearing, such as the excellent denim-esque fabric sweatshirt in baby blue, wildly oversized but fitted just right. Gypsy Sport usually does a good show, but a presentation felt right here somehow. It seemed to elevate the brand beyond the early beginnings of a passive concept and into a new stage of active manufacturing of desirable products. Text and photographs by Adam Lehrer
The Real Thing, a group show at Flowers Gallery in New York, showcases the work of four female photographers who experiment with the concepts of gender, sexuality and identity. Most artists take center stage in their own work exploring their relationship with others or the construction of their own identity like Juno Calypso. The artist created a fictional persona called Joyce who she documents while performing private rituals of seduction. The elaborately staged images and outfits of the character are a commentary on the exhausting construction of femininity. Pixy Liao documents shifting power dynamics between partners in her series Experimental Relationships by constructing a fictional narrative for her partner and herself. The woman is seen embracing the partner, shielding and protecting his often-naked body, reversing ideas of fragility and helplessness often associated with femininity. Natasha Caruana also questions relationships in her series Married Man. The anonymous photographs capture different men that the artist contacted through a dating site for married people. The documentary style of the series assists in creating a sense of loneliness and alienation instead of judgment. The artist Melanie Willhide takes a different approach to the idea of photography by creating artificial artifacts that are reminiscent of tokens passed between lovers. By using digital technology to alter the images and make them seem older the work becomes a meditation on obsolete acts of romance. The Real Thing will be on view until February 27th, 2016 at Flowers Gallery in New York. text and photographs by Adriana Pauly
Click here to read our review of this collection. photographs by Adam Lehrer
Go see Cole Sternberg's exhibition, the Nature of Breathing Salt, at MAMA Gallery until March 7, 2016. photograph by Oliver Maxwell Kupper
Read Adam Lehrer's review of the best of the best from day one of New York Fashion Week Mens here.
